Written by Alex Fisher

Thumbnail & Banner Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

A new semester is almost upon us, and many students will want to spend their time in these last few weeks preparing for the year—especially if it’s their first. Thankfully, there are a number of resources available to help students get prepared, such as SMU’s own New Student Checklist or Year 2 at SMU guide. While we did publish an article last February about some affordable tech that can improve your experience of university, there are still so many apps and devices that can help your productivity and focus—especially if you get into the habit of using them early in the year. In this article, we’ve collected some of the most useful in order to help you jump back into the year prepared and ready to excel.

Gadgets and Devices

Portable Monitors: Double Your Workspace

One of the challenges you may face as a student is trying to juggle everything you need to complete a paper or assignment. Between lecture notes, web searches, articles or papers, assignment instructions, and any programs you might need to complete the assignment, you can quickly run out of both desk and screen space. This is where a portable monitor comes in. Portable monitors, such as the ASUS ZenScreen line of devices, are slim and light devices that can connect to your laptop, often via a single USB or HDMI cable that provides both power and information. The stands for these monitors are often the cases used to protect them in transit, or even integrated into the back of the device itself. Easy to transport and equally easy to use, portable monitors are a great way to expand your workspace at home or anywhere else—especially when combined with the Windows Snap feature to really maximize your screen space.

Multi-Port USB Power Bricks: One Charger, All Your Devices

No matter where you are, but especially if you’re living in residence or often find yourself studying in public, you might find wall outlets to be a rare luxury. This can make charging your devices difficult, notably during long study sessions when even a full charge might not last long enough. One solution is to get a multi-port USB power brick, such as this one made by Targus. At their core, these devices are similar to the charging adapters you may be used to for your phone or other devices. These ones, however, have a much higher power delivery and can be used to charge multiple devices simultaneously—including your laptop, if it supports USB-C charging. Their small and portable design means that you can easily charge all of your devices no matter where you are, and only relying on easily-accessible USB cables can help keep your clutter down. The best part? They can be found online for as little as forty dollars before any discounts, though you may want to spend a little more for one that can dedicate a hundred watts of power to one port if you plan on using it with your laptop.

eReaders: All Your Textbooks in One Place

Textbooks are a necessary part of university for most students. Professors often use them for assignments, required readings, and more. Every student is likely aware, however, that they are heavy, cumbersome, and expensive. Digital textbooks are less expensive, but can be annoying and inconvenient to read on your phone or laptop. Purpose-built for reading on the go, eReaders are an excellent solution to this problem. With an eReader like a Kobo or Kindle, you can easily store all of your textbooks on one device and flip through them whenever is convenient for you. Such devices also have features like bookmarking, built-in dictionaries, and resizable text to make them even more useful. While they can be somewhat expensive, finding a used one on Kijiji or a similar site can save you a bit of money, and the extra savings from cheaper textbooks will quickly make it worth it. Be aware of any textbooks that have digital rights management (DRM) controls, however, as they may not be downloadable for you to put on your Reader.

Clip-On LED Lamps: Light Up Your Life

Whether you need some extra lighting by your desk while studying or a reading light for when you go to bed, a clip-on LED lamp can help. These are rather simple gadgets that use clamps to hold them in place, saving you valuable desk space or allowing you to use them in places where a traditional desk or standing lamp may not be an option. An LED lamp will also help you avoid eye strain by ensuring your study space is well lit. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, some even being small enough to attach to books, and some have more features than others, so you can find the one that fits all of your needs. You could even get one that’s powered through USB and connect it to a multi-port USB power brick. Relatively inexpensive, a clip-on lamp will surely add some light to your life when you need it most.

Productivity Apps

Microsoft OneNote: Notes on the Go

In a previous article, we discussed how using tablets and two-in-one laptops can help you with taking notes and completing assignments. This can be done with the help of note-taking apps. Microsoft OneNote is one such app that can be downloaded to your device or accessed straight from a web browser, allowing you to effortlessly take notes and synchronize them across your devices. By connecting your notes to a Microsoft account, OneNote gets rid of the need for bulky notebooks and the worry of losing them. The best part? You don’t even need your own account—you can just log in with your SMU email and password, allowing you to access your notes anywhere.

Forest: Focus Better, Save the Planet

It can be hard to stay focused while working on assignments. Your phone is an ever-present distraction, and in just a few taps you could be scrolling through Instagram instead of completing your schoolwork. This is where the focus app Forest can help. When you first launch the app, Forest will prompt you to set a timer and “plant a tree,” which is the encouragement it uses to keep you focused. The tree will grow while your timer is counting down and if you leave the app before it ends, the tree dies. The more trees you plant, the larger your personal forest becomes, turning your studies into a sort of game and directly rewarding you for staying focused. While some features are locked behind a Pro version of the app—including the ability to set a timer for more than thirty minutes—you can upgrade for a one-time purchase of $5.49 CAD. Forest also has an ambient noise setting and allows you to customize the type of tree you plant, both of which have more options that can be unlocked by spending coins earned in the app. Then, to make things even better, you can spend your earned coins to donate to Trees for the Future and help them fund the planting of real trees all across the world. Combating climate change just by improving your focus while studying sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

myHomework: Stay Organized and Stay Ahead

Keeping track of all the different assignments and deadlines for each of your courses can easily get overwhelming. Maybe there was a time when you didn’t realize an assignment was due until it was too late, or you forgot about an important exam until the day before and had no time left to study. The planning app myHomework can help you with all of this. Accessible on basically any device you can think of, it allows you to enter your class and exam schedule, enter all your homework and assignments, and keep track of everything to ensure you never miss a due date again. Furthermore, if you like the app enough but hate the ads, the premium subscription is only $4.99 USD per year and includes some extra features. Thanks to the help of myHomework, you’ll almost certainly never miss another deadline.

Whether it’s your first year or your last, it’s never too late to invest in an app or a piece of equipment that might make your studies easier, and the start of the year is the perfect time to do it. From apps that help fight climate change while you focus better on studying, to portable monitors that double your workspace and boost your productivity, being more focused and productive is never a bad idea and can even lead to better grades. Some of these apps and devices can even be beneficial to your health. They can help you build healthier study habits, diminish academic stress, and save your eyes from being strained. Overall, there are many benefits to gain from investing a little bit of money and effort into your studies.

Start Your Semester Off Right With These Apps and Gadgets