Are you in high school? Maybe you are entering college as a freshman or going for an advanced degree? For every academic challenge, these apps for an easier school life should be at the top of your back-to-school shopping list.

There are tons of websites and apps that can enhance your education rather than hinder it. So this collection of twenty apps and websites that can be repurposed for school is here to help you get through an entire day at school.

Apps for Starting Your School Day

You can get ahead of the day when you feel rested, know your plan for the day, and are up to date with current information. Here are three apps that help you on any school day.

1. SleepCycle

Let's face it, getting enough sleep when you're in school is hard! Between late-night study sessions and early morning classes, it can be impossible to get the amount of sleep you should.

Make waking up as easy as possible to feel refreshed with SleepCycle. There are a lot of effective alarm apps that make sure you'll get up in the morning. But SleepCycle takes it one step further with its intelligent sleep tracker and alarm.

SleepCycle will monitor your sleeping patterns---only waking you when you are in a light sleep stage. SleepCycle ensures that you will always feel well-rested when you wake up, even if you fall short of sleep hours. The app also gives you premium features like a library of sleep stories, relaxation guides, and calm sleep sounds.

Download: Sleep Cycle for Android | iOS (Free, In-App Purchases)

2. Any.do

It's important to start the day knowing what's in store for you as the day goes on. Any.do makes sure you stay on top of all important tasks and chores always.

Use the lists to break tasks down into smaller sub-tasks, sort by priority, and share them with others. Synchronize all lists across several devices, browsers, and the web to stay aware always.

Download: Any.do for Android | iOS | Mac (Free, In-App Purchases)

3. Feedly

Feedly appearance

No matter what your major is, it's important to stay up-to-date on current events. A feed reader can be one of the best apps to help with school work.

Feedly lets you curate feeds from any website, blog, or online newspaper that you like to follow. Quickly scan your top sites over breakfast (or while you're still in bed, no judgment) without visiting each site individually or getting distracted browsing the web.

Feedly is available on the web, Android, and iOS. It also integrates with over 200 third party apps.

Download: Feedly for Android | iOS (Free, In-App Purchases)

Apps for Classroom Productivity

The many apps on your phone bring their own distractions. Here are three popular productivity apps that help with school work too.

4. Forest

Forest can quickly become one of your favorite focus apps. Forest encourages you to stay on course by growing a virtual tree. It doesn't lock you out of websites and apps but pricks your conscience with a warning.

It takes a minimum of thirty minutes for your tree to grow and be added to your forest. But if you check your phone or visit a blacklisted site within that time frame, the tree will die.

You are awarded virtual coins when you grow a complete tress. These earned coins go towards planting an actual tree in problem spots around the world. This app is perfect for avoiding your phone and its distractions while working on your school projects.

Download: Forest for Chrome (Free)

Download: Forest for Android | iOS ($1.99, In-App Purchases)

5. Dragon Anywhere

When your professor is highlighting a key point in the class, you may want to be sure that you can get down exactly what they are saying word-for-word. While the most effective method of notetaking is certainly not to take down everything your professor says, it can come in handy for short bits of information.

Why not use the Dragon Anywhere mobile speech to text apps do most of the work for you? Converting speech to text can be an incredible timesaver and Dragon can be one of the best school apps in your toolkit.

Dragon Anywhere is subscription-based and is available for purchase in the U.S and Canada only. Apart from this, there are other good speech recognition apps you can use in the classroom too.

Download: Dragon Anywhere for Android | iOS (Free, In-App Purchases)

6. CamScanner

An important diagram on the board? Not enough copies made of an important handout? Use CamScanner to immediately transform an image into a PDF file that can be easily integrated into your documents for future use.

Not only that, but CamScanner also has several features that allow you to interact with, share, and edit your files more efficiently than other existing apps.

Download: CamScanner for Android | iOS (Free, In-App Purchases)

Apps for Group Projects in School

There is nothing more frustrating than group projects. However, they will be a part of your educational experience, so it's best to make the process as easy as possible. Use these three apps to keep your grades intact no matter who is in your group!

7. Calendly

Probably the most infuriating part of any group project is trying to establish a time when all members of your group can meet. Calendly is a web app that makes the impossible possible by automating the entire process to find the most convenient time for everyone. The video above shows how it all works.

Calendly offers a basic free tier. The Premium and Pro plans are priced for larger teams.

Want something just as clever and free? Use Cortana and Calendar.help for painless scheduling.

8. Google Docs

The universal and free Google Drive is by far one of the best apps for school.

Google Docs is just one of the apps within the suite that removes any worries about software incompatibilities, people having different operating systems, or sharing files back and forth through email. Instead, it provides a hassle-free collaborative workspace. It's an added bonus if your school uses Google Classroom.

Plus, you use the free Google apps to help with schoolwork while on the move.

Download: Google Docs for Android | iOS (Free)

9. KanbanFlow

Kanban Flow for group work

Another huge component of group work is making sure that everyone knows their role and gets their tasks done on time.

Instead of sending constant reminder texts or hoping that everything comes together in the end, Kanban Flow is a great, visual way to increase personal and team productivity.

This visual representation of a multi-user to-do list allows real-time collaboration (with mobile support and easy methods for attaching documents) that is structured enough for people to know what they should be doing, but flexible enough to adapt to any custom changes you may want to try.

Visit: Kanban Flow for Mobile Web (Free, Premium)

Fitness Apps for a Healthy School Life

Health apps should be an essential part of your school apps to download list. It's common for students to stop taking care of their health, especially when things get stressful. Staying healthy allows you to be more productive, happier, and to perform better in school.

10. Sworkit

It's a challenge to find time to work out when you are a student with assignments and deadlines. But it's not impossible to carve out five minutes for working out. Sworkit is one of the best ways to make the most out of any little time you have.

Enter the amount of time that you have into the app and your preferred kind of exercise (Strength, Cardio, Yoga, or Stretching), and the app will then guide you through a selection of exercises taken from 400 unique workouts and over 800 exercises.

Download: Sworkit for Android | iOS (Free, In-App Purchases)

11. MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal

It's important to exercise, but it's even more important to fuel your body with healthy, nutritious food. While MyFitnessPal is best known as a calorie counting app for the sake of weight loss, it is also a great way to make sure that you are getting all the nutrients that you need.

This app is a great way to track the foods you eat (MyFitnessPal has one of the biggest food libraries on the internet). Make sure that you're eating your vegetables and drinking enough water---these will help you function better at school too!

Download: MyFitnessPal for Android | iOS (Free, In-App Purchases)

12. Runkeeper

Staying active isn't just about working out---it's also about making sure that you don't sit at a desk all day, which is all too easy to do when you are studying all day! There are a lot of GPS fitness trackers, but Runkeeper is one of the best ways to use GPS and see what your activity looks like day-to-day.

Runkeeper can track your runs, hikes, walks, or just about any physical activity in real time. You can set fitness goals or just let the app nudge you to get more active if you have been sitting around for long.

Download: Runkeeper for Android | iOS (Free, In-App Purchases)

School Apps for Writing Papers

Writing papers can become an overwhelming part of your coursework. Here are some of the best apps for school to keep your information organized, your citations correct, and the whole writing process as painless as possible.

13. Mendeley

Researching a paper can be one of the most frustrating experiences possible, especially if you're left with a bunch of disorganized PDFs scattered all over your desktop. Instead, download Mendeley---a reference manager app and social website intended for researchers and students.

Follow researchers whose work you are interested in, store and save PDFs in a centralized location, annotate them with any notes you may want, and create automatic citations that conform to any style guide with the handy Citation Manager.

Basic Mendeley is free with 2GB of shared space. You can upgrade for more space with the Premium plan. Mendeley is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux with companion apps for Android and iOS.

Download: Mendeley for Desktop | Android | iOS (Free, Premium)

14. Hemingway Editor

The Hemingway Editor Web

It's fantastic to have a friend on hand to read over your papers before you submit them---but what if your essay-reading friend is busy with their own assignments?

Enter Hemingway, a website that will give you a detailed breakdown of your writing and give you hints on what you should be paying attention to in your edits. It isn't a perfect substitute for an editor, but it's a great way to recognize bad habits in your writing and any typos or spelling mistakes that you may have made.

Download: Hemingway for Web (Free)

Download: Hemingway for Windows | macOS ($19.99)

Apps for Around Campus

These apps will make sure that you are always equipped to handle any kind of surprise--whether it's a threat to your safety, an unexpected purchase, or a health emergency.

15. Noonlight

Noonlight

Patents exist for phones to also work as panic buttons to ensure your personal safety. Till those become mainstream, personal safety apps are filling the gap.

Noonlight is a popular app that can give you peace of mind. It uses a combination of a panic button and a pin to get emergency help to your exact location. The app has also partnered with Tinder to ensure your dates go safely.

Download: Noonlight for Android | iOS (Free trial, subscription required)

Related: The 5 Best Self Defense Apps for Personal Safety When Walking Alone

16. Mint

Student loans are part of an academic life these days. Learn how to budget from an early age and life will get easier.

Managing your money with Mint is easy to do. Connect the free personal finance manager with all your bank accounts for accurate and current financial information and use it to set (and stick to) a budget.

Download: Mint for Android | iOS (Free, Premium)

School Apps for Studying

It goes without saying that studying will take up a big part of your time this school year. These apps can help you study more efficiently, helping you to boost your marks, retain more information, and free up some time for activities outside the books.

17. Clockwork Tomato

Clockwork Tomato is a free Pomodoro Timer app for Android

The Pomodoro Technique requires you to work for a set amount of time (generally 25 minutes), before taking a short break (generally 3-5 minutes). After four sets of this (two hours total), you can take a longer break.

You will be spoilt for choice with Pomodoro timer app for all platforms.

But if you are a student, go for a simpler one. Clockwork Tomato is one of the free options available for Android that is uncomplicated, but it also provides handy stats to track your efforts.

Download: Clockwork Tomato for Android (Free)

18. Anki

While they don't work with every subject, Flashcards can be invaluable. This app is a great option for flashcards because it synchronizes across devices, allows you to embed media, and enables you to customize your card layouts and timing.

Anki has combined all the best parts of creating flashcards by hand with some of the best parts of technology, and the combination makes this app a studying essential.

A note of caution---the iOS mobile app does require a purchase, so try the desktop version alone before deciding whether you need a mobile version of your flashcards as well.

Download: Anki for Desktop | Android (Free)

Download: Anki for iOS ($24.99)

19. MindMup

Struggling with a complicated concept or a course that doesn't seem to have any coherent outline? Create one yourself using the web-based mind map program MindMup.

This program is effortless to use, with an interface that allows you to work on your mind map in real time with other users, save your mind map to Google Drive or Dropbox, or use its "completed" notice to mark off the branches that you no longer need to study.

You might also enjoy the best tutoring sites for homework.

Download: MindMup for Web (Free)

20. Language Learning Apps

No list of study apps would be complete without a shout out to the huge number of free language learning apps available for those studying another language at school.

There are many (with frequent updates making them nearly as good as any paid language learning programs!), so take the time to pick out the one that best fits your learning style and language of choice!

Build Your Own Kit of Apps for School

Instead of letting apps become a distraction, it's far better to use these well picked apps for school as powerful sources of information and motivation.

Want more choices for acing your subjects on the go? Look into some incredibly useful Android apps for students.