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Wake Up
Getting out of bed in time for class or to study is one of the biggest challenges for students with attention deficit. Try this:
Clocky and Tocky (nandahome.com; $39.99 and $49.99)
Clocky is an alarm clock that runs away and hides if you don’t get out of bed. When the alarm sounds, Clocky will wait for you to get up. If you snooze, the clock will roll off of your nightstand and around the room to make sure you get up on time. Just like Clocky, Tocky will roll off its perch to get you out of bed. Tocky, though, has a microphone, so that you can record your own wake-up sounds. What if you heard your mom’s voice calling you to get up, when she’s 3,000 miles away? Tocky can also play your favorite mp3s.
Calm Down
If you can’t turn down the volume on anxious thoughts at bedtime, here is an app to put your mind at peace.
White Noise (iOS; itunes.apple.com; Android; play.google.com; $1.99)
Highly recommended by Dr. Oz, the app features relaxing tracks, from “beach waves crashing” and “chimes chiming” to “thunderstorm” and “extreme rain pouring.” You will find something to your liking between the monotonous “airplane travel” and the ticking “grandfather clock.” You can download free sounds from the White Noise Market, create playlists, and mix tunes that might relax you.
Block the Internet
We all do it, but it’s a way of life in college: whiling away an hour or three online when you’re supposed to be finishing a history paper. Here is the solution.
Freedom (Windows, Mac; freedom.to; $2.42/month)
The goal of Freedom is simple: to give us freedom from the biggest distraction in our lives: the Internet. Freedom can block an online connection for up to eight hours. The timer runs via active computing minutes only, to prevent users from putting a computer to sleep in hope that the timer will run itself down. If social media is your Achilles heel, Freedom will also keep you honest by blocking the connection to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other sites that take you away from work. Use it and prosper.
