Studying For Exams? These 3 Apple Watch Apps Can Help

As a student, there are some indispensable tools that facilitate your academic pursuits: You've got your pen, textbooks, notebooks, laptop, and the all-important smartphone with all your productivity apps and tools. But, have you ever thought about the little gadget on your wrist – Your Apple Watch? It turns out that it's not just useful for physical activities such as running, hiking, and general gym sessions to monitor your fitness metrics. It can significantly contribute to your exam preparation. Sure, it's not going to replace your laptop or your smartphone, which provides broader access to applications and has a generally larger screen compared to the Apple Watch, suitable for research, internet browsing, and organizational tasks.

Nevertheless, the Apple Watch can be a secret weapon for your study game. Picture those times when you're tired of lugging around your bulky laptop or you're out for an early morning jog, trying to avoid the extra weight of your phone. In such situations, the Apple Watch steps in, enhancing academic productivity. Here are three Apple Watch apps you can count on to assist you in studying for exams even when you're on the move.

Effective task management during exam preparation is key. You don't want to waste time on things that will affect your productivity. Striking the right balance is crucial; you don't want to overburden yourself with excessive study and neglect fundamental activities such as regular meals, physical exercise, or even participating in social events to alleviate stress. Beyond structuring your time for optimal productivity, the "Focus To-Do: Focus Timer&Tasks" app proves invaluable in addressing procrastination. Its timers provide reminders through alerts or vibrations, assuming your watch is on your wrist, prompting you to complete designated tasks.

So, this app's timer uses the Pomodoro technique, a method designed to combat self-interruptions like the urge to always check your phone while studying. This technique involves 25-minute intervals of concentrated work, followed by five-minute breaks. You have the flexibility to edit and set intervals according to your convenience. Plus, you can set tasks to repeat, like daily quizzes on topics you've studied at specific times each day or on designated days of the week. On the app, you can even color-code study tasks by priority, so you know what needs serious brainpower and what's a bit more chill. At the end of the day, week, or month, the app provides detailed statistics offering insights into how you spent your time and a comprehensive overview of tasks completed during those periods. The app is free to use but with some in-app purchases.

Siri is your built-in assistant integrated into your Apple Watch, and it can be very useful for you as a student while studying for exams. Imagine after a marathon study session, your brain's a bit jumbled – some details are firmly lodged in your memory, some are in temporary storage, possibly because of insufficient focus during your study time, making them easy to forget—and you decide to take a stroll to clear your mind. Mid-walk, you're bugged by a definition you can't quite recall. No problem—just turn to your Apple Watch, call on Siri, pop the question, and in less than two seconds, you'll get a brief but accurate answer.

Siri's that all-knowing friend that has your back all the time. Using Siri is a breeze; simply call out "Hey Siri" or just "Siri." Alternatively, hold down the digital crown for a few seconds, and the Siri listening indicator will appear. There's also a cool "Raise to speak" function. To use this, go to settings, tap Siri, switch on "raise to speak," and you're good to go. Beyond its question-answering capabilities, Siri can perform various tasks that enhance productivity during study sessions for exams. Set alarms to drag yourself out of bed for reading sessions, scribble quick notes, manage schedules, solve basic math problems, place quick calls, and send instant messages—all without the need to reach for your phone and risk distractions from other apps.

While the other two apps on this list help enhance your focus and study routine during exams, it's important to get sufficient sleep both before and after tasking your brain. The Apple Watch has an integrated sleep tracker, like how Siri is integrated by default in your Apple Watch. However, it has limited functionality and is pretty basic. This is where Pillow comes into play. It's not free, setting you back $36.99 a year. However, it's a better alternative compared to the native sleep-tracking app. One key feature of Pillow is its smart alarms. The app uses data from your iPhone, Apple Watch, accelerometer, and even the microphone to track your sleep patterns.

This data is used to wake you up at the perfect time in your sleep cycle. For instance, if the watch detects movement and restlessness during the early hours of the morning, signifying that you are in a light sleep phase, it will wake you at that moment. This prevents the discomfort of being woken from deep sleep, which could negatively affect your morning study sessions. Wearing your Apple Watch while sleeping each night and in the morning, you get sleep stats, including data on metrics such as blood oxygen levels and heart rate. If you're the type who loves short naps instead of longer ones, Pillow allows you to customize alarms specifically tailored for power naps.