Key Takeaways
- TickTick: A must-have productivity bundle for task management, calendar integration, and theming.
- Grammarly: Improve your writing with AI assistance, typo and grammar checks, and plagiarism detection.
- Snagit: A feature-rich alternative to the Snipping Tool for advanced screenshot and screen recording capabilities.
As a student, juggling tight project deadlines, limited finances, assignments, tasks, exams, and social life can feel like a high-wire act. Thankfully, there is no shortage of productivity tools to help you sail through challenging situations. Among them, we have hand-picked the top game-changing apps to completely transform the way you study, collaborate with classmates, handle projects, and manage your time on your laptop.
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10 TickTick
A must-have productivity bundle
TickTick is one of the best Microsoft To-Do alternatives out there. Aside from task management, it excels in other areas, too. For instance, it comes with robust calendar integration to sync your Google or Outlook calendar, and shows upcoming classes with just a single click.
TickTick has nailed the theming engine with different themes based on major cities worldwide. It also supports a popular Pomodoro technique with short breaks, a dedicated habit tracker, and more. TickTick also lets you convert task lists into Kanban boards for your small projects. TickTick premium plans start at $4 per month.
TickTick
9 Grammarly
An AI assistant to improve your writing
Grammarly is another must-have tool for students. Whether you are writing a report, assignment, email, or even creating a presentation, typos and grammar mistakes do leave a bad impression. Here’s where Grammarly’s excellent AI writing assistant comes into play.
Grammarly shows your overall writing score based on word count, readability, and vocabulary. It displays suggestions to fix your typos, grammar, and punctuation, and helps you rephrase sentences for a better tone. Grammarly can also check for plagiarism and make sure your report is original before final submission. Grammarly has native apps on all platforms, an extension for Chrome, Edge, and Safari, and is also available as an add-on in Microsoft 365 apps. Grammarly is free to download and use. Some features like plagiarism checker are locked behind a $12 per month paywall.
Grammarly
8 Snagit
A feature-rich Snipping Tool alternative
Although Microsoft has improved the Snipping Tool with frequent updates, it still leaves a lot to be desired for power users. If you frequently take screenshots and record your screen, Snagit is a no-brainer choice for you.
Snagit supports scrolling screenshots and text recognition, and also comes with a powerful editor to add arrows, text, callouts, shapes, stamps, blur effects, and more to your media files. One of the best Snagit features is presets, where you can define certain conditions that automatically apply after you take a screenshot or record a video. Snagit is priced $63 as one-time purchase and comes with one year of free maintenance.
Snagit by TechSmith
7 OneNote
The ultimate note-taking tool
Your academic years are simply incomplete without a capable note-taking app. While there are dozens of note-taking solutions out there, OneNote remains the ideal pick for students and educators. First of all, OneNote is free to download and use for local use. Additionally, as the oldest software out there, OneNote is packed with a long list of features.
Speaking of some of the noteworthy add-ons, OneNote has audio recording with live transcription to help you during long lectures, robust stylus support to jot down notes, different paper styles, a capable note organization system, support for math equations, and more.
If OneNote isn’t your cup of tea, check our separate post to find other top note taking alternatives.
Microsoft OneNote
6 Stone
Keep your expenses in check
Tracking your daily and recurring expenses is another key part during your college days. As a student, you won’t want to overspend on things you don’t need. Among all the expense manager apps, Toshl easily stands out for several reasons.
Toshl was designed to be your personal finance app, packed with useful add-ons like a monthly spending review, budgets, locations, an overview to check out your expenses and income, reminders, graphs to analyze data, and more. Toshl also supports secure integration with bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial accounts to import data automatically. Toshl has native apps on iPhone, Android, and the web. Toshl Pro starts at just $3 per month.
Stone
5 Microsoft Copilot
A handy companion during extensive research
Copilot is a ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot built into Windows. With Copilot, you can enjoy all the benefits of ChatGPT-4 without opting for any paid plan. Copilot works well within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Copilot supports plugins where you can choose up to three plugins per conversation and receive data from your favorite services like Instacart, KAYAK, OpenTable, and more.
You can use Copilot for your complex projects and presentations, and even ask it to draft a professional email on your behalf. It definitely cuts down your research hours and remains our go-to recommendation for efficiency.
Microsoft Copilot
4 Google Drive
Access your files on all devices
Whether you want to store media files, documents, presentations, class spreadsheets, or project PDFs, Google Drive can be your ideal cloud storage solution to get the job done. It comes with 15GB of free storage and has seamless integration with other apps like Meet, Tasks, Keep, and more.
Google Drive recently received a Material You makeover on the web, which comes with a neat Home view to see all of your frequently used files. Google Drive paid plans start at $2 per month for 100GB. Check our separate guide if you want to learn more about the differences between Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Nextcloud.
3 Notion
A capable digital closet
Notion is your ultimate database tool to track everything related to your studies and personal life. It uses a modern block editor and comes with a range of options to create powerful databases and pages. You can use different database views, master Notion AI to change the tone, improve writing, compose a creative story, and more. You can also explore integration with third-party apps, so that you can view relevant content within your Notion page.
Notion has a rich template library to help you get started drafting a page in no time. You can use a travel planner, create a school life dashboard or habit tracker, manage your group assignments, class notes, course schedule, and much more with ready-to-use templates. Notion pricing starts at $8 per month.
Notion
2 Toggl Track
Track your time like a pro
As a student, you need to track your study hours efficiently. You can use a software solution like Toggl Track to keep a close eye on how much time you spend on your desktop. It supports automated time tracking, works with popular apps and services, and has timesheet reports for detailed analysis.
While there are many usecase for Toggl Track, students can mostly use it for project time tracking. It also helps you develop good habits when you move from your college days to your professional life. Toggl Track has a solid free plan on offer. The paid plans start at $9 per month. Toggl Track may feel overkill at first glance, but it’s still worth trying out if you need some feedback towards better time-management.
Toggl Track
1 Canva
A robust graphic design tool
With the recent updates, Canva has grown beyond a graphic design tool. It now supports docs, whiteboards, and presentations, and even lets you create a website from scratch. Whether you want to create stunning infographics, photo collages, mind maps, sign-up forms, or a simple Instagram post, head to the Canva template library and start your design in seconds.
Canva also has a robust collection of resumes to choose from. Instead of spending hours in Word, you can simply use a Canva template and create an attention-worthy CV in minutes. Thanks to Canva’s robust editor, AI tools, and seamless sharing, you won’t miss Adobe apps on your laptop. Canva Pro starts at $10 per month.
Canva
Complete your college years in style
From smart note-taking apps to time-tracking tools, these software solutions are tailor-made for student success. You don’t need to download and use all the apps in the list above. Just pick a few of the most relevant ones based on your needs, and manage your study hours like a pro.
If you want to explore more tools like this, check our general post about other top productivity apps.