Learning something new and creating good habits that help you practice regularly and achieve your goal is not easy. Why, it is often very difficult for many of us to maintain discipline and force ourselves to exercise regularly. It is so difficult that we are forced to come up with different techniques and tools that will help us not deviate from the chosen course. Therefore, today we have prepared a small selection of tools - mobile and desktop applications and web services - that should help students of JavaRush and not only study more effectively, keep motivation and spirit at the proper level, and in general, not allow procrastination to spin a web of laziness and excuses for another mediocre day/month/year (underline as appropriate).
Services for blocking irritants
It seems logical to start with services for blocking irritants - for those who cannot concentrate on studying or work due to the fact that they are constantly distracted by social networks, email or, as now, reading articles from JavaRush (our materials are of course very useful, and well written, but you also have to get down to business, after all).
Google Chrome browser users can use the StayFocusd extension to help them focus. “You sit down at the computer and promise yourself to work productively. But then the working day flew by. You checked your email, updated your Facebook status, scrolled through 200 pages on Reddit, read every article on your Twitter feed, looked at your favorite band's Wikipedia page, Googled your name, followed your ex's social media updates, checked out new posts on Instagram. and lost a week's salary playing online poker. The only thing you haven’t been doing is work,” judging by the description of StayFocusd, the developers of this product know firsthand about procrastination. The StayFocusd extension allows you to limit your access to sites that, in the user’s opinion, waste his time for a certain period of time. With StayFocusd, you can also, on the contrary, give yourself a limited time to view social networks and other productivity eaters, after which they will be blocked at the end of the day.
The Anti-Social application allows you to do approximately the same thing, namely, block social networks and information sites on your smartphone. In addition, Anti-Social has other interesting functionality: this program tracks phone usage statistics, including parameters such as the time of use of each application, the number of phone unlocks per day, etc., allowing you to even compare your statistics with other people ( apparently, so that the user can make sure that he is not the only one aimlessly spending dozens of hours a month on Instagram or Tinder).
Services for maintaining todo lists
For those who need to work on a variety of tasks every day, services for maintaining todo lists can be of great help. There are a great many of them, but here are a few objectively high-quality and talentedly made options.
Remember the Milk lets you sync your to-do list with other devices and apps, including your calendar, email, and even Twitter. The service has a Russian version and quite rich functionality, which includes a convenient system for classifying tasks and reminding them about them in many different ways, including messages in instant messengers and email.
2Do is a minimalist app that lets you keep a to-do list and record thoughts and ideas. One of the “features” of the application is its speed and interface - adding an entry will not take more than a few seconds.
Finish is an app designed specifically for professional procrastinators. After each completed task on the list, Finish “rewards” the user with a celebratory sound effect and animation, so that praise for successfully completing a task stimulates the development of a habit on a subconscious level. The main distinguishing features of the application are smart functions, such as automatic reminders and task prioritization.
Services for working using the Pomodoro method
The Pomodoro Technique - or the Pomodoro Method - is a time management technique proposed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique involves breaking tasks into 25-minute periods, called “pomodoros,” followed by short breaks. It can be very useful for inveterate procrastinators who find it difficult to take on this or that work, especially if it is not very interesting and requires a lot of concentration. To work with the Pomodoro technique, you really only need a timer, but there are a number of applications that add additional functionality to this very simple method.
Pomodairo is an Adobe Air-based application that, in addition to the standard 25-minute timer, allows users to mark the time it takes them to complete certain tasks, as well as note the most common distractions from work.
Tomighty is simply a minimalist desktop timer for the Pomodoro method. For those who need only basic functionality.
Services for storing notes and recordings
Keeping a journal with notes in itself is an effective tool for self-discipline and progress in study or work. The main benefit of using a special application or service to create and store notes is that the entries will be organized and structured, which means nothing will get lost and any entry will be easy to find.
A very good digital note-taker with a tree structure from Microsoft. Entries in it can be made not only in printed form, but also manually - using a stylus. This is quite a useful feature because many people still prefer to use a paper notepad and pen to take notes, since handwriting is known to have a beneficial effect on the functioning of certain “creative” parts of the brain. OneNote also has the ability to synchronize between different devices.
Simplenote is a minimalistic cross-platform note-taking tool for those who like simplicity and functionality in such tools. It is not overloaded with unnecessary graphics and interface elements, it is fast, and is available for all modern platforms, including iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux and browser version.
Services for forming habits
Forming the right and useful habits to achieve success in anything is not just important, but extremely important. In a sense, the ability to form “good” habits and get rid of “bad” ones is the key to success in life and what distinguishes losers from winners and “handsome people.” Fortunately, a lot of tools have been invented for forming new habits and tracking existing ones. Among them there are many interesting applications and services with different approaches to the problem and original solutions. Habit formation is an important and interesting topic, so this section will contain five different tools.
A fun app (though it's only available for iOS devices) based on the Don't Break the Chain productivity technique from famous comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld once revealed to a friend of his, an aspiring comedian, the technique with which he makes himself work. Jerry's idea is really good and very simple. To use it, you need a large calendar: one where all the days of the year fit on one page, and a red marker. “Every day when I have completed my task of working on texts, I cross it out on the calendar with a bold red cross. After a few days, there is already a chain of such crosses, and it grows day by day. You love to see this chain, especially if it's been going on for a couple of weeks. As a result, the habit is reinforced in the subconscious. Your only task is not to break the chain,” Jerry shared his secret.
By the way, there is an extension for Chrome with the same name - Momentum . It replaces the standard new tab window in the Chrome browser with a personalized page with a beautiful landscape background, sidebars with a todo list, useful links, weather and inspiring quotes, and also allows you to set a reminder with a priority task for the current day.
An application with a truly thoughtful and intuitive interface, unfortunately, is again exclusive to Apple smartphones. Includes a set of tools for developing habits, motivation and achieving goals. Its arsenal of features includes a variant of the “continuous chain” technique from Jerry Seinfeld.
A very interesting application that focuses not on the habits themselves, but on what influences their formation - the psychological and emotional states in which a person is during the day. At a certain time every day, the application asks the user about his current mood. You can respond by choosing an emoji that matches your mood, as well as adding notes and descriptions of specific emotions and feelings. By collecting this information, the application helps the user track his emotional state, how it changes, and what factors have the greatest impact on it. Moodnotes is also an iOS app, but according to the developer's website , an Android version is already being tested and will be launched soon.
Another great app with an original concept. In a nutshell, Habitica applies a role-playing concept to habit formation and tracking. “Habitica is a free habit-building and personal productivity app that turns your life into a game. In-game rewards and punishments motivate, and a strong social component inspires - thanks to this, Habitica will help you become healthy, hardworking and happy,” the developers promise. There are versions for both iOS and Android .
Services for organizing the educational process
And finally, several good services directly for organizing the educational process and more.
Degreed is a very well-designed and feature-rich learning platform, which is still free. “Tell us the topics and skills you want to learn about, and we'll match you with the best articles, books, videos, courses, and people based on your interests and how you learn,” the service says on its website. With Degreed, you can also build a learning strategy by setting time to study certain materials and keeping the information up-to-date. The service also has its own certification system, which allows you to assess your level of proficiency in a particular subject.
A simple, convenient and free application for managing your class schedule, task lists, deadline reminders, etc. Available for desktop and mobile platforms, as well as in the browser.
myHomework is a tool that will help you deal specifically with such an unpleasant aspect of learning something as homework for many. With the help of myHomework, you can organize the schedule and process of completing your “homework” so that you study regularly and do not delay completing those tasks that are difficult.
Tools for effective learning and fighting procrastination from JavaRush
And finally, let us remind you that among the functionality available to JavaRush users, there is also a whole range of tools that help students in the difficult task of fighting procrastination and gradually transforming from a green newbie into a disciplined and trained pro-javist. Thus, for success in learning, our users receive achievements (game elements in action). Awards are given, for example, for solved problems (the more, the better), assistance to other users, answers in the help section, etc. In addition, you can save interesting articles and lectures to bookmarks on the site so that they can be easily found and read again. Well, chats and a forum on JavaRush give us the opportunity to combine business with pleasure - if we’re going to waste time communicating on social networks, then at least we can communicate with like-minded people who also learn Java and exchange experiences with them.
GO TO FULL VERSION