If Travis Bickle from the movie “Taxi Driver” could teach us anything, besides where NOT to take a girl on a first date, it’s that you have to get organized.
College is all about keeping your own personal law-and-order. Here are a few free apps to help you with school, life and your general sanity.
1. Paperless: Lists + Checklists
Great for: Making lists, taking notes
There are a lot of list-making apps already out there, but Paperless is my absolute favorite. Paperless lets you make checklists, take notes and organize them. The number of items on your topmost checklist will even appear as a notif when you back out of the app, if you allow it to send you alerts. The official description suggests using it for note-taking and story outlines too (which it also does well), but the app shines best for its list-making features.
You can create as many lists as you want. Seriously, you can make anything. Make a daily to-do for class, make a grocery list, or make a wish list for all those games you want from E3. You can also pick and choose an icon for individual lists from over 450 fun symbols.
Unfortunately, Paperless is only available for iOS.
2. Pocket
Great for: Saving web pages for research
Pocket is a great app that lets you save internet pages. It’s different from bookmarking pages in Chrome, Safari or other mobile web browsers because it lets you save from over 800 apps. It can keep articles, videos and more all in one place for later viewing. It’s especially handy for researching or studying because you can view your pages from anywhere, even offline.
For apps that don’t support Pocket, you can copy-paste the URL to add it to your collection or email add@getpocket.com. If you download the extension, you can also save pages from your computer to view later on your phone. It really comes in handy for on-the-go research for either device.
Available for iOS and Android.
3. Slack: Team Communication
Great for: Coordinating class projects
Slack works like a team chat room for projects. It offers group conversations, one-on-one messaging, and file sharing for everyone in your group to access. It can also integrate with tools such as Dropbox, Google+, and Twitter and you can create different chat rooms for different topics, making it handy for separating tasks or conversations.
The initial set-up gets a little long and involved and you need to sign up through email on Slack’s website to invite people, but it’s worth it. The sheer amount of ease it gives as an all-in-one place to coordinate class projects is too good not to use.
Available for iOS and Android.
