Trello: https://trello.com/signup
(Available online and on smartphone)
Trello is a task management program that helps you make a visual representation of those big projects, group collaboration work, or even small tasks that you need to complete. Trello is very easy to use- your tasks are organized into different boards where you can color code them, assign due dates, make personal comments that you need to remember about each project, and even make a checklist of smaller tasks that that assignment consists of. Trello also supports group collaboration- add different people to the board and you can all track what tasks have been completed and what still needs to be done.
I suggest using Trello to keep up with all of your assignments; big and small! You will feel much more organized afterwards and having a visual representation of the work you have completed (and work you still have to complete) can be very rewarding in the long run!
Doodle: http://doodle.com/
(Available online and on smartphones)
Doodle is a website that provides an easy outlet to schedule meetings and appointments. For online learning, its sometimes very hard to schedule when you are able to meet- you dont usually just list off every time throughout the week when you are free and even if you do, collaborating and aligning everyone’s times can be challenging, messy, and overall time consuming. Doodle allows one person to make a “poll” that consists of different times during the week and with the link, any person can fill it out. The people with access to the link will enter their name, and select all the times that work for them and Doodle automatically shows you which times and days work best for the majority of people.
In Air Force ROTC here at THE Ohio State University, I am very familiar with Doodle Polls and a week doesn’t go by where I do not receive (or make) a few of these very simple polls. It makes scheduling meetings and practices VERY simple and removes the fuss from the back and forth communication that sometimes could take days to finish.
Forest: https://www.forestapp.cc/en/
(App available for smartphones)
Forest is an app available on smartphones that is designed to help you stay focused and present when completing tasks (specifically those who get pulled to their phone to check messages or social media). The design is very simple and appealing- because the last thing you need in a app made to help you FOCUS is distracting visuals. When the app starts up, you are typically prompted with a tree set to a time. You have the freedom to change the dial to get a time range from 10 minutes to 2 hours- this is how long your tree (or bush) will take to grow. once you have your time set, plant your tree. The timer will then begin to countdown and if you close the app on your phone or exit out, your tree will begin to die and you will be given a warning of a few seconds. If you dont get back to your tree before that time, it will die (and no one likes that!). You can also set a work mode where you can use functions on your phone while the tree is growing but you wont get the full amount of coins…
Why are coins important? Because eventually you can buy a real tree! Forest supports Trees for the Future where you can “plant” a real tree when you reach 2,500 coins! So if keeping you focused wasn’t a good enough deal, you are actually working towards doing something productive for the planet- and that’s always a plus.