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Three Free Applications for Productivity and Organization

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Published: 04 February 2021

Everyone has been using technology for school in new and exciting ways this year, but the costs can add up. From extra monitors to ergonomic office chairs, learning from home seems to imply a lot of hidden costs. Fortunately, here are three FREE apps for productivity and organization that make online school a whole lot easier!

No 1: NOTION

Notion is an all-inclusive platform for notes, planning, and knowledge/data management that has taken the internet by storm in recent weeks. Luckily, I started using Notion long before they started working with content creators and can assure you it’s worth the “hype”! Notion users can take advantage of features like headings, highlighting, to-do lists, and many more. Users are also able to contact others, and it’s super easy to add media content onto pages!

For more advanced needs, Notion also comes with database elements ranging from text, number, and tag select – and more advanced options such as formulas, relations, and roll-ups. My personal favourite use of these databases is to create a course schedule organized by week, type (lecture, reading, assignment, etc.), and topic. Then I add a single select column called “confidence” where I rate each topic from 1 to 5 stars which really helps with effective studying since I can prioritize what I actually need to work on.

No 2: AIRTABLE

Hopefully, all the database talk of Notion didn’t confuse you, because that’s what Airtable is all about! Straight from Silicon Valley, Airtable is a database system that presents itself like an easy-to-use spreadsheet, with cloud collaboration services on top! Although I haven’t found it too helpful in my academic life, I’ve been loving it in internships for project management!

Bases can be started by importing data, starting from scratch, or using one of Airtable’s hundreds of templates. Some templates might be beneficial to the average student for apartment/job hunting, grad school applications, house management, and study guides preparation. But really, with all the field options (text, numbers, tag selects) and the more advanced uses like lookups, barcodes, and functionality buttons, there isn’t anything that can’t be tracked or planned with Airtable.

The world of databases can be hard, but the best part of Airtable is that it’s free for personal use!

No 3: OFFICE LENS

The final app on my list is Office Lens. There isn’t anything too exciting to say about it, but it’s become an online school staple! Office Lens is an intuitive PDF creator that makes it easy to take pictures of pretty much any piece of paper, and upload/download them to many different outlets. The best part is that it doesn’t have a page count limit like other free PDF scanner apps. How many of us have started taking pictures of our 12-page midterm only to get a pop-up saying you can only upload 10 pages at a time? Never send that embarrassing “Can I please hand this in two minutes late because of an uploading issue?” email to a professor again!

3 Simple Techniques to Boost your Productivity

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Published: 06 February 2020

One thing in life is certain: everyone has 24 hours in a day. Increasing our productivity helps us achieve more in less time, thereby making us smarter students and more valuable employees. The methods described below will help you boost your productivity.

  1. Use the “Two-Minute Rule”

This rule is easy to follow: If it takes less than two minutes, then do it now. It was first introduced by David Allen in his bestselling book, Getting Things Done. Starting a task is often the most difficult part since we tend to procrastinate. Using this technique, you’ll discover that most tasks can be started in less than 2 minutes. Imagine your goal for the year is to read more books. Although you can’t finish an entire book in two minutes, you can read one page. Once you begin reading, you will most likely not want to stop after the first page. You’ll achieve your goal in no time!

  1. Practice the Pomodoro Technique

This simple time‑management technique breaks your work sessions into intervals called pomodoros. They are as follows: 25 minutes of work intervals with 5-minute breaks in between, take a longer break every 4 work intervals. Essentially, this technique boosts productivity since it allows you to take regular breaks and creates a sense of urgency during each work interval. It has been scientifically proven that taking regular breaks helps boost productivity because our minds cannot focus on a single task for long stretches of time.

  1. Eat the Frog (instructions unclear: frog stuck in my throat.)

Please DO NOT eat a frog. This method was inspired by Mark Twain’s famous quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Create a to-do list with the most urgent tasks. The frog represents the most dreaded task on your list. Once you’ll finish that task, you’ll feel accomplished and everything else will seem easy in comparison.

Using the techniques described above, you should notice a difference in your overall productivity. Even using one technique at a time will lead to improvements. Choose one and try it out for yourself to see the difference. Work smarter, not harder!

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Secrets to Time Management

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Published: 12 February 2019

Being a student is time-consuming. From studying for midterms to participating in extracurricular activities, going to networking events to advance your career, and finding time to socialize, life can get overwhelming. 

But there’s a way to organize this “overwhelming-ness”: I call these tips the Secrets to Time Management.

1. Turn off your social media

This is something I always do come exam season. Delete all social media from your phone until your exams are all done.  It’s the simple concept of “out of sight, out of mind”.  At first, it’ll be hard, and you’ll find yourself looking for your social apps, but pretty soon you’ll forget they ever existed.

2. Make a Google Calendar

As someone who has tried every kind of calendar, from trendy notebook agendas to white board posters, I can easily say that Google Calendar is the most efficient. On Google Calendar, you can colour code your different commitments, install reminders on your phone for appointments, and coordinate Google Calendar invites. If you’re finding it difficult to make time for all of your commitments, I highly recommend committing to a Google Calendar!

3. Don’t try to multitask

Multitasking is a common myth. Scientifically, the human brain cannot do two or more things simultaneously.  When you are “multitasking”, you’re actually just switching back and forth between two activities at a fast pace, decreasing your productivity in both activities significantly. You’re better off just completing task one and then tackling task two, three, etc.

4. Make a daily to-do list

Every day, either before bed or when you wake up in the morning, make a list of all the things you have to accomplish that day. Checking them off will be super satisfying and will help you stay on track with your goals.

5. Remember why you are here.

When you feel overwhelmed or helpless, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Why are you in university?
  • Why are you participating in clubs?
  • Why are you applying for COOP?
  • Why are you going to work?
  • Why are you aiming for a 10.0 GPA?
  • Why are you reading this blog?

Everything has a purpose: you are advancing your career. Everything you do and all the effort you put in will pay off. The years you spend at university will pave the way for the rest of your life, so make the most of them.  Keep in mind that life is not going to be this stressful forever; work hard now so you can relax later. Hopefully, asking yourself these questions when you feel vulnerable will help you keep the bigger picture in mind and motivate you to give everything, no less than 110% of your effort.

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