Productivity Apps / Hacks

While everyone probably agrees managing time is the key to success, I’m sure it’s even more agreed by graduate students. The transition from college (undergrad) or a real work (haha) to graduate school can be pretty frustrating because nobody’s really telling you what to do anymore. In a macro level, you have to decide what you want to work on for 4–5 years, and these “research questions” are usually something that you (or even your advisor) don’t even know if it’ll ever be solved. In a micro level you have to come up with a detailed plan to how to break down the research problem into a more doable microtasks. In a more nano level, it’s comes down to what to do every hour, every day. In my case, typical things include reading papers, attending project meetings, teaching, doing programming, learning new things, brainstorming, talking to other graduate students about research problems and writing papers (when deadline approaches).

As we all know, it’s nearly impossible for anyone to stay focused every minute, I decided to get help from some of the apps.

1. Just Focus. It’s a pomodoro timer app. I know most people think it’s stupid and they don’t need a timer. But if you’re struggling to concentrate, then just TRY IT. There are many different apps but I find this one simplest to use.
2. F.lux. Not sure if it’s a productivity hack, but I guess it does help my eyes, and I have it on all the time. Supposedly it helps me fall asleep better too.
3. https://www.noisli.com/ is a cute little website where you can listen to combination of white noise and sounds from nature. I don’t always use it, but when I do, I find them very helpful. I gave up listening to classical music while working, because I enjoyed listening to it too much that I cannot concentrate on the work itself.