7 Best Apps for Student Goal Setting

Goal Setters do Better!

Not all students are created equal. That’s why we have phrases and clichés like “class clown” or “teacher’s pet”, two drastically different types of students that we’ve all come across at some point or another.

The students with the best performance tend to be those who are self-motivated and who love learning for learning’s sake. They take notes in lectures not because they have to but because they want to, and they set themselves goals and hold themselves accountable for meeting them.

But equally, we all know it’s easy to lose focus if you don’t have something to keep you on track. That’s where this post comes in. Here are just seven of the best apps that are out there on the market.

1. GoalsOnTrack

This handy little application can be accessed through both the web and through a smartphone application and it’s all about helping people to set and stick to SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals. Bigger goals can be broken up into smaller chunks so that they’re easier to swallow, and you can also take notes on your goals and your progress or track your progress offline.

2. Toodledo

If you’re looking for the app with the coolest name then this might be the one for you. Of course, it also has a bunch of unique features, including the ability to create to-do lists and to share them with your friends and family. The people you know can often hold you more accountable than any software ever could. Better still, Toodledo users can create a hotlist of their most important goals or add them to a schedule so they can view deadlines in the form of a calendar. All of this makes it one of the most versatile goal-setting apps that’s out there.

3. Coach.me

This app is one of the market leaders and so no list like this would be complete without at least a mention. It uses a clean design and is easy to use, and while it’s relatively light when it comes to planning functionality, it has a bunch of added bonuses including a dedicated community and the ability to upgrade from the free app to a paid account with personalized habit and leadership coaching. The beauty of this is that the advice doesn’t come from an algorithm – it comes from real productivity experts, which is why you need to pay for it.

4. Stickk

This app is a little different in that it’s more targeted towards parents and teachers. The idea is that it makes it easier for people to track the progress of their kids or their students without having to ask them for regular updates. You simply create a goal and then set a referee, whose job it is to make sure that progress is being reported accurately and that the student is staying on track. Better still, they can invite their friends to track their progress, and lecturers can create group goals so that entire classes can track progress and discuss the course material together.

5. Lifetick

If you want to go into detail with your goal tracking then this is probably the app for you. Like GoalsOnTrack, it’s all about setting and tracking SMART goals, but this app has the advantage of some great charts and visualisation tools that help to bring it all to life. The only downside is that it can be a little overcomplicated, and so it might be worth starting with a simpler, cleaner app to begin with and then upgrading to Lifetick if you find goal setting apps to be useful.

6.  Habit List

This one’s all about breaking bad habits and setting new ones, allowing students to detail the habits they want to start and then to monitor whether they’re sticking to them – either for the week, for the month or for all-time. It’s also easy to set repeating tasks, which makes it a great tool to track revision on the run-up to an exam. But ultimately, whether you want to study harder or start going to the gym, this app is the one you need to establish a new habit. You just might want to use it alongside another app to see whether your new habits are helping to push you towards your actual goal.

7. Balanced

The rest of these apps have all focused on academic performance, but this one’s a little different. After all, studying is all well and good but you also need to find a little balance. This app will help you to do just that by encouraging you to do the things that you wish you’d do more often. That might be as simple as encouraging you to take regular breaks or spending time with friends and family, or it could be as complicated as pushing you to finally set some time aside to work on that novel you’ve been planning.

Conclusion

Not everyone needs to use an app to set and achieve their goals – but most people will at the very least feel some benefit. After all, they’re specifically designed to help you, and many are even based on research or latest best practices.

In fact, these apps are so good that if you try one and you don’t like it, we’d suggest giving another one a chance instead. It might just be that you haven’t found the right app for you – which is why we shared seven instead of just one!