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The fall semester is gearing back up. My kids go back to school in 2 weeks and I am back the week after them! I’m currently hunting around for my kids school supply list and clothes. Then my supply list is next! The last 18 months I have learned a lot about managing graduate school and I wanted to share the most helpful tools I have used as a full time online graduate student.
My MacBook Air is my most used item. Duh. Obviously for online graduate school you’re going to need something that you can use a general word processor. I really love the capabilities of my Air, but I also really like that my whole “apple world” is all linked together in the cloud or on evernote. This is important because I can jot things down in evernote and be able to access them on my phone, iPad and iPhone anywhere I am.
My Erin Condren Life Planner. I chose to go with the vertical boxes because I can choose three areas of my life and keep the tasks. I keep my top box for business tasks and appointments, my middle box for graduate school due dates and task lists, and the bottom box is for all the things I keep to keep up with for family:appointments, bills, work schedules, and school events.

Evernote is one free tool I use for capturing ideas and thought trails that randomly hit me about papers I’m working on. My evernote is a mess, there are bits and pieces everywhere but I have it on my phone, laptop, and I can log into it anywhere. My academic writing process can be scattered and ideas or streams of consciousness hit me when I’m usually doing non academic things.
Flair Pens – I am completely in love with flair pens! They write so smoothly, go perfect in my planner, and are amazing to take color-coded notes with.
Amazon Echo Dot – The Echo Dot has been such an amazing tool for grad school this semester. I use Alexa to set timers for when I’m using the Pomodoro Method, or setting 10 minute times to flash study or write a paper when I’m feeling distracted. Alexa can also call you an uber, order pizza, play your study playlist on spotify, and manage your to-do list.
What do you the most for online academic work?
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We’d love you to join our Courage & Chaos community group on facebook!


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