Best Apps for staying organised.

Notion

• Notion is a general purpose organisational app.
• We use it for basically everything to do with organising this site, as well as our schoolwork and personal lives.
• They support MacOS, Windows, Android, iOS, and have a web app.
• They offer both free and paid plans, but students can get the Personal Pro plan for free when using an education email address for their accounts.

Notion is useful if:

• You need an app that incorporates task management as well as a knowledge database
• You’d like the ability to share notes easily with other people
• You prefer an all-in-one app instead of relying on a bunch of different ones
• You want an organisation system that you can use for other areas in your life besides school organisation
• You want the ability to keep it simple at times, but also go in depth when needed
• You enjoy personalising your workspace and creating an aesthetic for your system

Notion costs:

• $0 for the free tier
• $4/month for the Personal Pro plan (this is free for students, and is recommended by us)
• $10/person/month for the Team plan
• $25/member/month for the Enterprise plan

Note that the major differences between the free and Personal Pro plans are file size limits (10MB per file vs unlimited) and the ability to access version histories. However, free upgrades are free upgrades 😄

Sign up for Notion at notion.so/signup.

ClickUp

• ClickUp is a similar concept to Notion, but a bit more focused on connecting existing apps and services together.

• They have a free-forever and a paid tier.

• Rather than trying to outright replace everything else, it integrates with Google Drive, Github, Slack, Office 365, and basically every other productivity app, to streamline working on things.

• It also has a KanBan and all the other pleasantries of an office-focused app.

ClickUp is useful if:

• You need to balance task management and knowledge base features
• You prefer using one organization app instead of multiple ones
• You don’t mind a steeper learning curve
• You prefer complex programs and apps and already know a few things about time and task management
• You don’t care about personalising and creating an aesthetic for your organization system and prefer pre-made workspaces
• You want an organization system that you can use for other areas in your life besides school organization
• You need a free app to get organized

ClickUp costs:

• $0 for the free tier, which has 100MB storage for your files as the main restriction.
• $5/member/month, with unlimited storage, integrations, etc.

See their comparisons here.

Shovel

• Shovel is basically a pure study planner.
• It uses a drag-n-drop method of building a study timetable, and gives you analytics about how you’re using time with regards to schoolwork.
• They don’t offer a free plan, but they have monthly/yearly subscriptions, or a lifetime license.
• They have a web app, as well as Android and iOS apps.

Shovel is useful if:

• You need an app solely to manage school life
• Managing your calendar and creating to-dos are absolute essentials for you
• You’re feeling a bit lost about organization and need to master a few essentials before moving on to more complex apps
• You want to skip building a knowledge base or don’t mind using a different app for that
• You prefer simpler productivity tools and an easy app to use
• You don’t care about personalising and creating an aesthetic for your organization system and prefer pre-made workspaces
• You don’t mind paying for an organization app

Shovel costs:

• $4/month or $24/year or $47/lifetime per user.
• They also offer school licensing, so maybe look into that with your teachers/schools.

Start your 7 day free trial of Shovel here.

Obsidian

• Because I ❤️ FOSS, we added Obsidian to this list.
• Obsidian is basically the ultimate Markdown notes application.
• Their app is completely free, although they do accept donations, and charge for enterprise licensing (as do most FOSS projects)
• They don’t require account signups, and have an extensive plugin library.
• Obsidian is the only app on this list which properly supports Markdown Extended, which is a massive plus.
• They have apps for Windows, MacOS, Linux (DPKG, AppImage, Snap, and Flatpak), Android, and iOS (also, because it’s FOSS, you can just compile it for whatever you use if they don’t have a package for it)

Obsidian is useful if:

• You are looking for an app with the sole purpose of creating a knowledge base
• You don’t mind using a different app to manage tasks or your calendar
• You feel like you already have a grasp on time management skills and task management, and prefer to dedicate your attention to heavy studying
• You don’t mind a steep learning curve and spending some time navigating your workspace
• You don’t mind the process of browsing and adding plugins to unlock more features
• You don’t care about personalising and creating an aesthetic for your organization system and prefer pre-made workspaces
• You need a free organization app

Obsidian costs:

• $0/forever, because its FOSS.
• $25+ for priority help in their forums (not that you’ll need it, the app is intuitive once you start using it, so this is more of a “support the project” tier)
• $50/user/year for commercial usage

Get it for free (did I mention it’s FOSS?) on their website.