College can be crazy stressful. I can only imagine how bad it must have been before the invention of the smartphone. But now, praise the Lamb, we have wonderful beautiful apps to help us manage the crazy stress before it takes us to the grave. So here are 10 ways your phone can help you navigate college a little more easily.
1. Amazon Video (or Netflix)
This one probably sounds like a given, but take a second to listen: when you need to just mentally check out for a bit or have a few hours to kill, nothing works better than the ability to binge-watch some of the greatest TV shows known to man. Usually, if it's not on Netflix, it's on Amazon Video. And the best part is you can get Amazon Video for 50% off with your edu email!
2. Blackboard
If your school uses Blackboard, this app will save your life. It's not great for working on online assignments or posting in discussion forums, but it's priceless for allowing you instant access to announcements, class emails, assignment deadlines, test dates, and more.
3. Cash App (or Venmo)
All too often, my bros and I will head out somewhere that ends up only taking cash and I'll be the one sap who only has his debit card. The cash app has allowed me and other friends to easily pay back whoever just paid for us to do whatever it was that we wanted to do. It's also a great app for your family to instantly send you money if you need it.
4. Domino's Mobile App
This app saves you the hassle of looking up the closest pizza place, finding their number, calling them, and placing the order. If you get the same kind of pizza regularly, you can save it as your favorite order and literally order with one sentence.
5. Dropbox
Dropbox is like a flash drive on your phone. Free online storage space for whatever you want. It is dependent on the reliability of their servers instead of securely having your work on a flash drive in your hand, but it can't get lost like a flash drive can, and you can access it from anywhere as long as you have internet.
6. Flixster
Flixster is an awesome resource when you're planning a night out at the movies with friends and need to see reviews/showtimes/buy tickets. Everything for all movies currently playing or upcoming is right there in one place.
7. Mint
Mint by Intuit is a great resource for people wanting to start following a budget (which should be all of you). It tracks your spending, allows you to input your expenses, then creates a budget for you and alerts you when you're not doing so hot at following it. It also gives you your credit score for free and that's amazing, too.
8. Quizlet
Quizlet lets you study your test terms, take practice quizzes, view flashcards created by others, and so much more, right in the palm of your hand. It's a stinking lifesaver.
9. RealCalc
This is literally a scientific calculator for your phone. If you have to take stats, or any other higher math classes than 2+2=4, this will make your life so much easier.
10. Sleep Cycle
If there's one thing college students don't get enough of, it's sleep. This app tracks your movements while you sleep and produces a line graph to show how many REM cycles you got the night before. It also tells you how long you were in bed, and can track things like the weather, your mood when you wake up (you tell it how you're feeling when you shut off the alarm) and more to see if any of them affect your sleep habits. You can then use the data it creates and displays in such a user-friendly way to plan ahead for optimal sleep in the future.
There you go! Get to downloading and see how these awesome apps ease some of the stress in your crazy college career.
