With the craziness of back to school starting to die down, students may start to find themselves in a boring — and unproductive — rut.
But having the right tools to combat the inevitable decline of your motivation can drastically change the way your semester will go. Below is a list of apps that will help you keep organized, maintain your social life, and hopefully stay on budget.
Organization
- SFU snap
- The official SFU app has a new name! SFU snap is the best way for new students to navigate through their first year. The app features up-to-date weather and transit information, including the ability for users to save their favourite bus stops to easily view when the next bus comes. It also shows students their daily class schedule and has the capability to find rooms on all three campuses. The app also has pages with information on important SFU phone numbers, food locations, parking services, and more.
- Asana
- This is an organizational nerd’s best friend. The app allows you to create tasks which, admittedly, is not new — but this app allows you to create sub-tasks. This lets the user to break up big projects and give more detailed descriptions about what these assignments involve. This feature is especially great because you can share tasks with other users. You can find ones that have been shared with you in the inbox, favourite certain ones, and view the archive of the completed projects. There’s also a messaging feature for users to message those they have shared tasks with. Basically, you need this app for your next group project.
Financial
- Stocard
- This app changed my life. If you’re like me, you love rewards cards. They can save you money, collect points, and lead to awesome benefits. However, they can take up a lot of space in your wallet. This is where Stocard comes in. Stocard allows you to save various cards, and presents them as barcodes when you go to use them. There are pre-set cards (Hudson’s Bay, Shoppers Drug Mart), but you can also add cards that are not featured on the app.
- SPC
- If you don’t already own a Student Price Card (SPC), go buy one right now. They are $10 and will give you discounts at dozens of locations. This card literally pays for itself. The SPC app is synced to your SPC, and can display the barcode if you don’t have the physical card on you. It will also search for deals near you. By using your location, the SPC app finds stores with deals and displays the full discounts or upgrades users are entitled to.
Social
- Picolo
- There’s an app drinking game — the future is now. Picolo has at least three players enter their names, then has a section where you can choose which game you play (it comes with one free game, but there are others available for purchase). One of the games is called “Getting Started,” and features different commands for the players to obey. Some are relative (whoever has the strongest drink has to drink five times) or directly target a player (do three dance moves or drink three times). There are mini-games too, like rhyming words until someone runs out and has to drink. Based on some of the games and commands I’ve seen, it’s no wonder when starting the game, you hit a button saying “Let’s get drunk.”
- Whisper
- Back when I was a kid, I remember a website called PostSecret where people shared their deepest secrets anonymously. Fast forward however many years, and now there’s an app for that too! Whisper is a place for secrets in a very visual format. People in your area post confidential notes on top of pictures. You can also make videos for your secrets. See a story you like? You can message the person who posted it. This might be a fun way to make friends in your classes — or to silently judge them.
- Chwazi
- Do you play board games? Do often have trouble deciding who will go first? If you answered yes to both these questions, you should get Chwazi. Chwazi will help you select who will be the first for any task. It’s simple: all participants place their finger on the user’s screen, and the app zeroes in on one player. This ends pulling straws once and for all.
Health
- Stop, Breathe & Think
- This app was recommended to me by a counsellor as a way to help my anxiety. To begin, you take 10 seconds to check in with yourself. The app then asks you how you’re feeling, both mentally and physically. To further identify your feelings, the app allows you to add up to five emotions from their extensive list. Based on these answers, the program will suggest different mediations. You can pick whichever one you think would be most beneficial, or which one you have time for. It’s a great way to stay calm even during your busiest days.
