When it comes to getting things done, technology can be the worst double-edged sword. Use it correctly and become an efficiency ninja, use it haphazardly and you’ve found yet another way to be distracted and waste time.
Paula Rizzo, productivity expert and author of Listful Living, says the approach to get-it-done tech for students is to keep it simple, focusing on technology that does one thing, and one thing perfectly. “For instance, I like to use LastPass to store all my passwords. It’s the only thing it does. I know exactly what I’ll find when I go there. I don’t get distracted; it does its job and I get what I need quickly. If you have a [tool] that does many things then you can become overwhelmed.”
This is, of course, why your cell phone is both the best thing and the worst thing in the productivity department: incredible at firing off emails and finding lost keys, merciless when you open up TikTok.
When used thoughtfully, technology has been shown to improve student outcomes across the board, so it’s really a matter of finding the right tool for the task at hand. Whether it’s studying for a Calculus exam or the LSATs, here are seven tech tools to boost productivity and keep distractions at bay this school year.