A Blog post
Ten Ways Students Can Use Their Smartphones to Stay Organized (Part 1)
-
Apr 05, 2018 -
Jared Wells
-
In Uncategorized
-
0 Comments
Apr 05, 2018 
Jared Wells 
In Uncategorized 
0 Comments
I "exercise my idea muscle" (credit to James Altucher) by coming up with a list of ten ideas every day. Sometimes, they aren't good ideas, but even bad ideas can be the germ that sprouts a good one later.
Here are 5 of my 10 ideas for today (in interest of brevity, I'll send you the other half tomorrow!)
Ten ways students can use their smartphones to stay organized
1) Using reminders
Has your son or daughter ever forgotten to talk to a teacher about something before or after class? Have them set a time based reminder to go off right before class to remind them when they need to talk to a teacher
Most smartphones have location based reminders too, so a reminder right when a student gets home to break out his planner and plan his homework can be key. I do my note-taking on paper rather than my phone, but a Reminders app is one place a smartphone really shines!
2) Calendar notifications
I plan my days out meticulously to make sure I get done what I plan to and don't lose track of time. If your student enters the plan for the day into Google Calendar or iCal, he or she can set up phone alerts to get reminders a few minutes before the next task needs to be started. So if yesterday your daughter decided she would start studying for her chemistry exam at 4pm, getting a reminder at 3:55 will make it more likely that that actually happens! There are also great phone only calendar apps that will do the trick.
3) Email
Speaking of talking to teachers, what better time to contact a teacher than right at the moment a student realizes he needs to? If your son has a question about something, instead of waiting until tomorrow, why not send your teacher an email NOW and not have to worry about remembering or planning to do it later? As adults, we know the importance of having a record of critical communications. It's a lesson that students need to learn too!
4) Alarm Clock
Snoozing is too easy. Use the "Wake and Shake" alarm for IOS or "Shake It" alarm for Android. This alarm won't turn off until your shaken the phone enough, with settings that will give you a workout, if that is what your kids need to get out of bed!
5) Camera
What an underutilized app (or maybe just differently utilized...no shortage of selfies or sunsets on instagram!) Camera app is amazing for taking notes much faster than you could by hand. Just make sure that the pictures are processed later. A picture of a homework assignment doesn't do any good 4 months later.
Take a picture of...
...a sports schedule for easy reference
...a particularly important slide in a teacher's powerpoint (with permission of the teacher of course!)
...notes you've written on random scraps of paper you don't have time to process right away
Could your son or daughter use some help developing their planning and organization skills? Check our our "Getting things done: for students" workshop this summer.
Archives
Contact Us
Got a question? We'd love to hear from you.
Send us a message and we'll respond as soon as possible.
Comments