Steps to Productivity

Everyone needs to prioritize their health and wellness, both physical and mental. So our team came together to send out a few apps to help maximize our health with he help of our phones.

By Katie Wheeler

Sayana

Sayana is a self-care app that helps better understand your unique journey of thoughts and feelings. It contains a mood and activity tracker which provides different effective tips, practices and explanations based on your experiences. Additionally, it includes a safe-space community of other Sayana users who can anonymously chat about what they are going through and receive meaningful support. Sayana offers a free one-week trial or 29.99 for a full year.

Katie W's review: Sayana encourages me to acknowledge my feelings and move through them. Before using this app, I journaled every now and then but overall avoided digging into my deeper feelings and pain. I thought acting strong made me strong and focusing on everything that was going well would make the struggles lessen- I was wrong. Suppressed feelings will always make themselves known. By not facing them, we give them the power to continue manifesting in our lives. Recently I found myself enduring physical pain from injuries and going through a breakup, which spiraled me into overwhelming thoughts of anxiety and hopelessness. I didn’t feel like myself anymore, let alone my best self. With the support of the Sayana app, I was able to become educated on why I felt those difficult sensations in the first place and how to combat them rather than ignore them. The daily notification reminders and community of other individuals navigating similar situations have helped me remain a consistent user and I hope these features will help you to be as well! 

By Dr. Vernon

Productivity Challenge

Productivity Challenge Timer: This app lets you name up to four projects for free (and many more if you buy the pro version for $5) and then time your work on those different projects. The app will prompt you to take a break after a time that you set and you will level up over time as you accumulate work time on the app.

Dr. Vernon's Review: This app helps me keep myself accountable. When I turn it on and begin working on a specific project, I can watch the time count down and keep myself working until break time comes. I can set different length work intervals for various projects. Instead of getting up to get another drink, a snack, looking out the window, playing with the cat, playing Lily’s Garden, or any of 100 distractions that tempt me, I tell myself I am going to finish this work session first. For some quick or wildly un-fun projects, I only set 10 minute work periods. For others, I set 25 or more minutes. I bought the pro version, figuring that for $5 it would be worth it for even a small improvement in my productivity and it has been. A lot of the nudges, achievements, and levels are low-grade sarcastic tongue-in-cheek “encouragements” and make me laugh. For example, my initial rank was “unrepentant slacker” and I slowly worked my way up to “dead eyed drone” and am now proud to be a “competent operative”. LOL. On a more serious note, I can see a percentage breakdown of where I spent my time for the day or week (and then be honest with myself about what I am avoiding and why). In the past I have just used a kitchen timer (sometimes called the “pomodoro technique”), but I felt like I needed a little more “zing” to get me over the unmotivated (well, unrepentant slacker) humps that we all experience.

By Aubrie Gibbons

Coursicle Schedule Maker

Coursicle is a completely free website that allows you to design your class and work schedule with the option of applying custom colors to each class/activity in order to make it visually clear what each activity/commitment is. The schedule maker allows you to put in exact times and adjust the repeating feature, if you have courses or obligations that have unique rules of repetition. Coursicle gives students the option to create an account that saves your drafted schedule so it is easy to refer to and change as needed. The times range from 8am to 10pm, which accounts for most obligations, and you can add details to the courses such as teacher name, class location, etc. The website is: https://www.coursicle.com/college-schedule-maker/  (Links to an external site.

Aubrie G's Review: I have used Coursicle every semester of college thus far and even made schedules for my friends using the webpage; everything is user friendly and visually pleasing. Because they give you the option to save your schedules as images and easily change things, I have been known to set my schedules as my phone background so I never miss an obligation (this might even be more helpful than this website specifically). The fact that they allow you to schedule things to the minute is a huge help when I have to try to balance two jobs, multiple courses, and a social life. I also usually color-code, so a class that is coded as 'yellow' will have a corresponding study hour set into the schedule maker that is also coded as 'yellow' so I can see how much total time is devoted to each activity a week, making it easier to make adjustments on the fly if I have a heavier/lighter week for a certain class/job. Overall: five stars

By Karla Matinez Ochoa

Flora

Flora is a free time management app that allows you to use the pomodoro technique to complete a task in a set amount of time. At the same time, it blocks apps like Instagram and Snapchat from sending you notifications while the timer is running. Once you complete one session, a tree will grow in your garden feed. 

Karla M’s review: I have been using Flora for over 2 years now. It follows the pomodoro technique which has helped me focus more during study or homework sessions This app is great for us students that spend hours on end on social media. Another great feature is growing trees every time you complete a pomodoro session, you can upgrade to the Premium option for real trees that will be planted around the world or use the free version. Either way, you will have a beautiful looking garden at the end of each day. Moreover, the “stats” section allows you to see your overall progress weekly, monthly and yearly. In short, Flora is great for time management and productivity.

By Elizabeth Escuage

Change of Screenery

To keep from getting zoned out or distracted by family members while you’re in class, opt to do class in an unconventional place. Whether it’s in your backyard, at the beach, or a park, opting for a change in scenery can help keep the mundaneness of online class at bay. We know vitamin D is good for the body and soul, so why not get your fill while you work? Note: if the WiFi outside is iffy, try hooking up your phone’s personal hotspot for the duration of class.

Elizabeth E’s review: Opting to attend online class in my backyard makes a world of a difference. Being in the sunlight helps me to feel more at peace and can make it easier to focus on what is happening in class. Changing my “screenery” makes me feel less stressed and more productive. Often, my family will be a distraction inside my house, but locking myself in my room feels isolating. A happy medium has been outdoor spaces (weather permitting) as I’m free from distractions but not isolated

By Aubrie Gibbons

Flipd (app)

Flipd is an app that locks apps on your phone for a set amount of time, allowing you to completely avoid temptations and distractions during set hours that you decide on. While other apps may be circumvented by turning the functions off or turning your phone off, Flipd requires users to be careful with their selections because it WILL lock the apps until time is up - no if, ands, or buts about it. The app comes complete with study-friendly tunes and a social accountability feature and incentive that lets you know who else is 'unplugged' - so you are aware that people can see your activity, too.

Aubrie G's Review: I have a hard time with controlling my screen time unless I have lots of nudges set up. Placing my phone a long way's walk away from my desk is a 'trick' that typically just results in me spending the extra 5 minutes walking over to it more often. With in-app nudge settings, like the ones offered on Instagram, I usually end up scrolling the app when I open it to set the nudge in the first place! Flipd does a great job of keeping those controls in one external place without forcing me to risk missing major phone calls or commit to a music-free study session (while also providing a good enough selection of sounds that I am not spending study time adding music to my Spotify queue). I am a fan of the app, but it is not an everyday tool for me.