Time management in college is famously challenging. Throw in document and social life management, and you’ve got yourself an adventure. Whether you are of the belief that smartphones are the cause of or the solution to these increased demands on our time and organizational capabilities, you have to admit that they are incredibly useful. I recently got a new phone, and with that adventure comes a culling of old apps and a downloading of the next generation.
While most of these may be completely obvious, hopefully I can open your eyes to at least one fantastic life changer. In no particular order, here we go:
Dropbox/Google Drive
So clutch to be able to view any files you have in the cloud (which is increasingly trending towards “all of them”). Neither is great for editing, but for simple text updates, both are surprisingly serviceable.
I’ve also got some nerdy apps living on this screen 😀
Calendar
Duh. Manage your google calendar with your phone.
So many events to track!
K9 Email
To be fair, I don’t use this anymore because my new phone’s native email app is functionally identical, but I feel the gmail app and most phone email apps are a mess, and K9 is easily the best android email app I know of. Basically this is thunderbird/outlook for your phone, with everything you’d expect.
This was the first useful widget I ever found
On my computer, I love hootsuite, but on the phone, you can’t beat the simplicity of the normal Twitter app. I have 5 accounts signed in at all times, and switching between them is a breeze.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook on a phone is my least favorite thing. Facebook messenger is brilliant! It’s just the messages from facebook, but it’s so handy. Basically another group text/chat option, but all your friends already have the online interface and you don’t need to find their numbers.
Groupme
A dedicated mobile group text chat room (although you can text from the web), this is great for managing texts between coworkers or other large groups you text often.
This is my main home screen with my most-used apps
Navigation
Apple might be having map struggles, but there’s no way I could get around LA without my google navigation app. Turn by turn directions = win.
The only reason I don’t get lost every time I leave visual range of my apartment. The only place I’ve learned to go in LA without directions is LAX
Sticky Notes
They’re on my desktop, and they’re on my phone. Maybe it’s a personal quirk, but I love organizing things with stickies.
Honestly this is kind of a light day for stickies for me
Alarm Clock
My phone is my alarm clock. I love it and hate it for that.
8AM every day is the way to go!
Bad Piggies and Angry Birds
Gotta have fun occasionally, right?
I am kinda OCD about getting 3 stars on each level before moving on
