Top apps to help with time management and striking a balance with social media
The start of the school year means a return to academics, sports, and clubs. It also means we need to sharpen our time management skills. Managing our time after a summer filled with free time can be challenging. So, we talked with a few student influencers who shared tips on how they strike a balance with their devices and social media that we can all use this year!
How to start striking a balance
Ever find yourself opening up TikTok or Instagram, and before you know it, you’ve been scrolling for an hour? You’re not alone. According to Common Sense Media, students spend on average a whopping 8.3 hours of screen time each day for entertainment. To get the inside scoop on how students manage their time, we interviewed three of our student influencers who resonated most with our Social Standard, Strike A Balance. Darci Anderson and Sean Leider from the University of North Carolina, and Dino Ambrosi from the University of California at Berkeley all agreed that prioritization and focus were key when striking a balance and managing their time.
“Determining your priorities is extremely important,” Darci says. “Be sure to figure out what is most important and block out a set amount of time to get that done, while also putting in breaks to avoid burnout.”
Utilizing tech to help students manage their time and strike a balance is also helpful. However, some apps can be complicated to use, or take a while to set up. Dino highlighted one app he has found super helpful for supporting focus and time management:
Apps to help support your time management
“One of my best tips: Implement a deep work tracker app like Notion that helps you highlight tasks that need serious, sustained attention. Log your time and remove distractions while focusing for an hour and sprint. I’ve found that gamifying getting my work done can help improve focus, while also giving me valuable data. Focus on being able to focus FIRST before time management.“
Our student influencers also shared that while productivity apps are great, sometimes all you need is something like a calendar or notes app. “Google Calendars is super helpful,” Darci says. “It’s very visual and it’s helpful to show your priorities. GoodNotes is helpful for due dates and planning as well!
There are so many websites and apps designed to help students strike a balance and stay organized that sometimes it’s hard to choose. Here are our favorite time management apps that students can start using today!
Squibler.io: For students that struggle with procrastination and time management when writing, this is the program for them! Squibler calls itself “the most dangerous writing app.” This is because you have to write continuously. If you stop to look at your phone or walk away from your computer, it will delete all of your work. This is a great program to help students quickly get their thoughts down on paper and force them to focus.
Forest: Forest is an app designed to keep you from getting distracted on your phone while working. When you enter the app, you are instructed to plant a tree and watch it grow. However, if you leave the app to check social media or message someone, your plant will die and you’ll have to start over again. The best part– when you plant and grow a tree, you get coins that Forest will use to plant real trees around the world!
Toggl (for users 18+): Want to know how much time you spend working? With Toggl, it’s never been easier for students to track their productivity. Toggl analyzes how long you work and what times you’re most productive to provide you with data about how and when you are most productive. With a simple design, it is super easy for students to keep track of their work and how much time they spend doing it.
Striking a balance improves your mental health and physical health, too!
TSI’s student influencers also revealed that they saw improvements in their daily lives after successfully striking a balance between school, social media, and tech. While they found that their productivity improved drastically, they also saw positive changes in their physical and mental health.
Sean found his sleep improved more than anything. “When I strike a balance with my devices, I put all of my devices away before bed. This allows me to clear my mind and reduce stress and anxiety before bed.” Additionally, Sean shared that when he successfully managed his time, he exercised more and had more free time on a daily basis.
Dino saw improvements in even more than just his physical and mental health. He found that he was ultimately happier with who he was as a person after striking a balance. “It all boils down to identity and resilience,” Dino said. “Your actions are the evidence on which your identity is built. When I didn’t strike a balance with social media, I was less happy with who I was as a person.”
Stay tuned for more advice from our influencers
Our student influencers are here to help students strike a balance all month long! To learn more about how you can help your students balance school, social media, and tech, check out these tech tools you can use this school year to support your students. Ready to start empowering your students to strike a balance with social media and tech, as well as empower them to make positive, high-character decisions online? Request a demo today to discover how our turnkey, gamified online learning platform helps students navigate their well-being, social media, and technology positively.
The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in understanding student experiences and creator of #WinAtSocial, a gamified, online learning platform that equips students, educators, and families to navigate social experiences — online and offline — in healthy ways. Our unique, student-respected approach incorporates topics like social media, technology use, and current events that have a significant impact on student well-being. Lessons teach life skills for the modern day to inspire high-character decisions that support the health, happiness, and future success of students, while capturing data that provides insights to school leaders to inform school policy and communications, and enable high-impact teaching and a healthy learning environment. For schools, our turnkey technology allows for easy implementation and a comprehensive game plan to support the well-being of school communities.