As a student you always have a list of tasks that needs to be done. My personal task list range from programming a mathematical optimization model to doing my laundry. As any other student, I am my own boss in terms of deciding when these tasks needs to be done. This lies in sharp contrast to the working life that I have experienced so far, where you have other people depending on your work getting done in time and definite deadlines. While it may seem like sweet deal to have the freedom of deciding of when your tasks needs to be done, you also have different incentives for actually getting the tasks the done. Rather than letting down your team, you let down yourself when you do not complete your tasks on time. At least for me, this makes the stakes lower for completing tasks when studying compared to when I am working. This opens the door for procrastination, i.e. postponing your work.
According to this article in The Guardian, studies show that as much as 70 % of university students procrastinate in when studying. In the article you get helpful tips such as separating your workspace from where you have fun and avoiding answering emails while completing you tasks. While these are all helpful tips, I would like to make an addition in form of apps that helps you get motivated and more productive. This list should helpful for students and self-employed people (such as entrepreneurs) that have the freedom of choosing when you want work and what tasks you want to complete.
- Streaks helps you form routines. Choose tasks that you want complete on a regular basis, whether it is daily, semi-daily or weekly. Once the task is completed you mark it as such. After a while, if you stick to your routines, you will have streaks corresponding to how many times in a row you have completed the task. As the streaks gets longer you get more incentive to keep the streak going. This helped me forming a habit of getting up at 7 am every weekday even though my lecture schedule allows me to sleep in basically every day.
- Wunderlist is a smart way of keeping track of your tasks that needs to be done. You can categorize and prioritize your tasks and set reminders. Writing this blog post was on my under my todo-list for the course ME2603.
- Noisli is a great way of using sounds to create a great environment for studying or working. It has been shown that a moderate level of noise increases creativity and I can personally say that Noisli is a great way of creating your own sound environment and drown out annoying noises.
