# Time management apps for students: calendar, tasks and focus compared

> **The short answer**: The best time management apps for students are four that work together: Google Calendar for lectures and exams, Microsoft To Do for assignments, and Forest or iPhone Screen Time to keep your phone out of study hours. The first three are free at their core, and Screen Time is built into every iPhone.

**Key takeaways**

- The calendar holds fixed times; the task list holds work with no set hour.
- Google Calendar is free with a personal Google Account, and Microsoft To Do is free on web, iOS, Android and Windows.
- Forest's app allowlist is a paid Plus feature.
- Give any system two full weeks before you judge it.

![Time management apps for students](https://tiswa.app/assets/blog/time-management-apps/time-management-apps-cover-en.webp)

## What are the best apps for students time management?

A set of four, not one app. Here they are side by side, with the price and the feature that decides it:

| App | Price in Saudi Arabia | Its job | Deciding feature | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Free with a personal Google Account[^1] | Lectures, exams, deadlines | Alerts on your phone, by email or both, set per calendar[^2] | No official desktop app; use the browser[^1] |
| Microsoft To Do | Free[^3] | Assignments, readings, small tasks | Tasks show up in Outlook automatically with your university account[^4] | A task only becomes a calendar slot if you drag it there |
| Forest | Free core with ads; Plus is a subscription[^5] | A focus session away from your phone | A tree that grows while you stay in the session | The app allowlist is a paid Plus feature[^5] |
| Screen Time | Built into iPhone | A daily cap on social apps | Limits a whole category such as Social Networking[^6] | You can override it yourself; it is a nudge, not a lock |

![Comparison card of the guide table](https://tiswa.app/assets/blog/time-management-apps/time-management-apps-inline-2-en.webp)


## How we compared them

We used each company's own pages, not app store reviews, and asked three questions. Can a student start free? Does it sync between phone and laptop? Does it solve one clear problem? All-in-one planners were left out on purpose: most students open them for a week and drift back to nothing. Paid prices are not quoted because Forest does not publish them on its site; the store shows them to you in riyals.

## What is the best calendar app for students?

Google Calendar, for anything with a fixed time. It is free with a personal Google Account, you install it from the App Store or Google Play, and on a laptop you open calendar.google.com in the browser.[^1] Make one calendar for lectures and one for exams. Then go to Settings > Settings for my calendars and give each calendar its own default alerts.[^2] Exams warn you a week out and lectures fifteen minutes out, without setting every event by hand.

To pull your university portal and Blackboard dates into the same view, see [one calendar for your university schedule](https://tiswa.app/en/blog/university-timetable-one-calendar/), and for deadline alerts in particular, [a calendar for assignment deadlines](https://tiswa.app/en/blog/course-deadline-calendar-alerts/).

## Why Microsoft To Do for the task list?

It is free and syncs across the web, iOS, Android and Windows,[^3] and most Saudi universities hand students an Outlook mailbox. Sign in with that same university account and your tasks are stored on Exchange Online, so they appear in To Do and in Outlook at once.[^4] Write each task as an action you could start in the next minute. "Solve problems 1 to 5 in chapter three" beats "maths".

> **Tip**: A To Do task does not turn into a calendar event on its own. Drag it onto your Outlook calendar when you want to book an hour for it.[^4]

## Is Forest free?

The core is, with no time limit: focus sessions, app blocking and group focus with friends, with ads that never show during a session.[^5] The allowlist, meaning the apps that stay open while you study such as a dictionary or calculator, sits in the Plus subscription, together with planting up to 5 real trees with your coins.[^5] The old one-time Pro purchase is closed to new users, though anyone who bought it keeps it.[^5]

## How do I stop my phone eating my study time?

Put a daily cap on social apps with Screen Time. Every iPhone has it, so there is nothing to install.

1. **Open Settings > Screen Time**: Start with the weekly report: how many hours go to each app.
2. **Tap App Limits > Add Limit**: Pick a whole category like Social Networking, or a single app.[^6]
3. **Set the time per day**: The cap on an exam day can be lower than the cap on a Friday.[^6]
4. **Schedule downtime**: Cover your evening study hours. A reminder arrives 5 minutes before it starts.[^6]

![5-step flow: Fixed time first / Big dates / This week's list / Book study blocks / Match tasks to blocks](https://tiswa.app/assets/blog/time-management-apps/time-management-apps-inline-1-en.webp)


On Android, Forest does the same job. To silence notifications in lectures, read [Focus mode on iPhone for studying](https://tiswa.app/en/blog/iphone-focus-mode-study/).

## How do I build a weekly plan with these apps?

The first setup takes half an hour on a Thursday evening. After that, ten minutes a week.

1. **Enter the fixed time first**: Lectures, labs, shifts and the commute go into Google Calendar. What is left is your real free time.
2. **Copy the big dates**: From every course outline: midterms, finals and submission dates.
3. **List the week's tasks**: In To Do, cut each one into pieces shorter than an hour.
4. **Book study blocks**: In the gaps, 25 to 50 minutes long, each named after its course.
5. **Give every block a task**: A task with no block does not get done.
6. **Start the timer**: Forest or downtime, with the phone in another room if you can manage it.

Short blocks with breaks are the idea behind [the Pomodoro technique](https://tiswa.app/en/blog/pomodoro-technique/), and first-year students can copy a ready week from [a weekly study plan for first-year students](https://tiswa.app/en/blog/weekly-study-plan-first-year-students/).

## Which app should you start with?

1. **Google Calendar**: If you forget dates. Alerts reach you even when the app is closed, and everything else builds on it.
2. **Microsoft To Do**: If your assignments are scattered across courses, especially when your university email is Outlook.
3. **Screen Time**: If the phone takes your evenings and you want a fix with no download and no subscription.
4. **Forest**: If you sit down to study and drift within minutes. A tree that dies when you leave works better than it sounds.

> **tiswa's take**: Our view at tiswa: pick Google Calendar and To Do if your problem is forgetting; pick Forest or Screen Time if you remember perfectly well and still do not start. Students with a part-time job need all four. And do not pay for anything in the first two weeks. The students we talk to drop the paid planner long before they drop the free one.

## Which time management mistakes should you avoid?

- Filling every minute. One small delay wrecks the day, so leave gaps.
- Switching apps every fortnight in search of a better one.
- Putting assignments in the calendar as fixed events, then pushing them back daily until the calendar means nothing.
- Adding dates as they come instead of copying them all from the course outlines in week one.
- Planning without a review. Five minutes at night to move what did not get done is enough.

In exam weeks, split each course in To Do into chapters and give exams their own colour. For the rest of your study kit, see [study apps for students](https://tiswa.app/en/blog/study-apps/) and [the best apps for university students](https://tiswa.app/en/blog/best-apps-for-university-students/), and to run the whole term from one dashboard, read [Notion for students](https://tiswa.app/en/blog/notion-for-students/).

Study tools and app subscriptions have student discounts in Saudi Arabia. tiswa collects them under [study tools](https://tiswa.app/en/deals/study/). [Join tiswa](https://tiswa.app/en/join/)

## Questions

### What are the best apps for students time management?

Google Calendar for dates, Microsoft To Do for assignments, and Forest or Screen Time for focus. Each does one job, and all four start free.

### What is the best calendar app for university students?

Google Calendar: it is free with a personal Google Account, syncs phone and browser, and lets you set default alerts for each calendar.

### Is Forest free?

Yes at its core: focus sessions and app blocking with no time limit, with ads. The allowlist and real-tree planting come with the Plus subscription.

### How do I stop my phone distracting me while I study?

Set an App Limit on Social Networking under Settings > Screen Time, and schedule downtime for your study hours.

### Does Microsoft To Do work with my university email?

Yes, when your university uses Outlook. Signing in with the same school account stores tasks on Exchange Online, so they appear in To Do and Outlook.


## Sources

[^1]: Google Calendar Help: Get started with Google Calendar, https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/2465776
[^2]: Google Calendar Help: Change Google Calendar notifications, https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37242
[^3]: Microsoft: To Do list and task management app, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-to-do-list-app
[^4]: Microsoft Support: Plan and connect with Microsoft To Do, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/todo/plan-and-connect-with-microsoft-to-do
[^5]: Forest: the focus app (plans and features), https://forestapp.cc/
[^6]: Apple Support: Set Screen Time schedules and limits on iPhone, https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/set-schedules-with-screen-time-iphb0c7313c9/ios