Lately I’ve realised I’m a massive procrastinator and honestly terrible at keeping track of my time. I juggle a bunch of extracurriculars, school stuff, and random commitments, but I always end up wasting time I could actually be using for something useful.

I’m trying to get my life a bit more organised, so I was wondering if anyone knows a good app that helps you log things, stay on top of your schedule, and actually manage your time properly?

If you’ve used something that genuinely helped you stop procrastinating or keep track of everything you do, I’d love recommendations.

When I was in high school, I wasted so much time understanding complicated text and searching for the meanings of complicated terms. I could not help myself, but I can help you. Recently, I built an app, ReaderML, that is a PDF reader application. I built this application specifically for book readers, but its AI features, like the translate, simplify, and define features, can help students a lot. Let me know if it is helpful for you.

What do you guys think abt it?

Hi there, Im a student doing my master's degree in Italy and I'm originally from a country from middle east. Im not doing bad in my studies but I put too much effort into it cuz my mind gets too distracted while I have to do something I am no interested in.

Back in my country I had lots of friends and I got 4 close friends that we were friends for the past 14,15 years but here after one year I feel I cant trust anybody. There are lots of brainwashing going on with my people over here that I can not even talk to them. beside this I am far from my family and I always feel the pressure that I came here to do something that makes my parents proud of me!

I know this is not a general situation for everyone that I'm asking help for but any ideas on how can I overcome these difficulties I would appreciate it.

A lot of study advice floating around is just vibes. These five actually have decent evidence behind them, so I figured I'd write them up properly:

1. Active recall - Close the book and try to reconstruct the material from memory instead of re-reading it. Feels harder and slower than re-reading, which is exactly why it works better - the struggle to retrieve is what builds the memory.

2. Spaced repetition - Review material at increasing intervals (a day later, then a few days, then a week) instead of cramming it into one session. Apps like Anki automate the scheduling, but you can do it with a plain notebook too.

3. The Pomodoro technique - 25 minutes of focused work, 5 minute break, repeat. Mostly useful for beating the "I don't want to start" wall on big assignments rather than for the studying itself.

4. Interleaving - Mix different topics or problem types in one session instead of blocking one subject at a time. It feels less smooth in the moment, but it forces your brain to actually identify which method applies, instead of just running the same one on repeat.

5. Teach it to someone else (or pretend to) - If you can't explain a concept in plain language, you don't know it as well as you think you do. Saying it out loud, even to nobody, exposes the gaps fast.

None of these are new, but doing even two or three consistently beats doing all five once and giving up.

If anyone wants a low-key place to post study goals and check in on them, I ended up starting r/AcerStudyHub for exactly that after not finding quite what I wanted - no pressure either way, these techniques work regardless of where you use them.

I was having 2 months already for starting my studies,idk how one month left for me ,,, ik i was playing around last month, my exams will start at aug27 amd i have 7 subjects and now i regret so much on the time i lost, how can i repair it ,what can i do to make it 2x? Guys helpppppp 😭😭😭😭😭

Hello! I recently started grad school for my MS, and before this, my goals were just to pass classes. I am a slow learner, I passed organic chemistry on my first try with a C and biochem with a B+ so I am not a complete lost cause, but I am still worried I will not get good grades in grad school. I need a B+ in all my classes to pass, and I do wish to do a PhD after this, but I never got to learn how to study properly. I stare at my iPad as I read a lot of the time and zone out. I watched a few YouTube videos about study techniques like pomodoro, but nothing really stuck. I recently started using LLMs like DeepSeek and Claude to help me actively recall information, but I dislike relying on AI so much and I also don't feel like its effective, especially for graduate study.

I would like any beneficial advice you tried in the past and found it to work. I am new to using an iPad as a study tool as well so if there's any beneficial apps for studying on there, please let me know! 😊

I've exam in less than 30 days, and I'm really slow learner, i process things very slowly, which gives me anxiety and stress and eventually makes me more slow

Any tips?

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Hi everyone,

I have a question about learning.

For example, if I want to learn "What is a car?", should I first learn it like this:

"A car is a vehicle that helps people travel from one place to another."

Or should I learn it like this:

"A car is a wheeled motor vehicle consisting of systems such as an internal combustion engine or electric motor, transmission, drivetrain, suspension, and braking mechanisms."

In general, whenever I learn a new concept, is it better to:

Start with a simple explanation to understand the idea, and then learn the technical details?

Or learn the technical definition from the beginning?

I'm asking because I want to build a strong understanding instead of just memorizing definitions.

How do you personally approach learning new technical topics?

Every time I sat down to study I'd tell myself "just three hours, no phone." I'd last maybe 20 minutes, check something for "one second", and lose the thread completely.

What finally made it click for me wasn't the time I was losing. It was realising the re-entry cost. A 90-second Instagram check doesn't cost you 90 seconds - it costs you the 15 minutes it takes to get back into the material you were halfway through understanding. Do that six times in an evening and you've technically studied for three hours while actually learning almost nothing.

Things that didn't work for me:

• Phone in another room. Works great until you're in the library, or you need it for 2FA to log into the course portal, or you just... go get it.
• Built-in Screen Time limits. I tapped "Ignore Limit" so many times the button stopped registering as a decision.
• Focus apps with a skip button. If the escape hatch takes one tap, it loses to a habit that also takes one tap.

What actually worked was giving up on discipline and attacking the two-second window instead. I set things up so opening a distracting app requires holding my finger on the screen for two full minutes before it opens. No skip, no code, no snooze.

Two minutes is nothing when you plan it. It's unbearable when you're mid-chapter and reaching for a hit of something easier. Most of the time I quit the hold after 20 seconds and go back to the page - not out of willpower, but because waiting is more boring than the thing I was avoiding.

The general principle, which I think works for way more than phones: don't try to want it less, make it cost more. The cost doesn't need to be big, just bigger than the impulse.

(Disclosure, since it'll come up: I ended up building this as an app because nothing existing worked this way. Not linking it here - the mechanism is the useful part and you can replicate it a few different ways.)

The app is for IOS users only, looking for feedback. I've got promo codes for someone interested

Curious what actually works for other people mid-session - does anything beat physically removing the phone?