As a doctorate student, I have had to find many aids to help me through. In this post, I talk about some of the life-changing apps and websites I use on my doctorate journey.
Below is a video of me describing the apps that I have used in my program.
Canva
I use Canva for a variety of things! For this website, for YouTube, for other business ventures, and for my PhD program. I used canva to craft my recruitment flyer to gather participants. Canva is such an easy tool to use that it gave me more freedom to create something eye-popping. Some of the participants that I gathered said they noticed my flyer and loved it!
Double Pane
Double Pane is perfect for when I am reading an article and want to take notes at the same time. This app allows you to put two windows side by side but the app does the resizing for you, which is so convenient. When I first downloaded the app it was free. Now it is $10, but I would say it’s a good $10 spent.
Powerpoint/Word
I had no idea that the new powerpoint did most of the work for you. As I show in the video above, the new Powerpoint will offer design ideas for your deck so all you have to do is input the information. That is so helpful and takes the pressure off of having to not only come up with great content but making it look pretty as well.
Google Suite (particularly Google Docs, Scholar)
Google Suite is the greatest thing ever! Of course I use GMail but I could not live without Google Docs. It allows me to access documents across devices which is convenient.
I also love Google Scholar. I have created alerts about my topic so that I can know the new and emerging literature. I use Google Scholar way more than I use many other databases because it’s just so much more convenient.
Otter
When conducting qualitative research, you have to audio record your interviews so that you can later transcribe them and review. I was told about the Otter App from a colleague and it has been the greatest help. The app will record and transcribe interviews for you. While you still have to clean up the transcriptions, it does reduce the amount of time it takes.
Toggl
I just found out about this app. I have only tried it once and I can say that I like it. Toggl will log your work hours. I have seen other people account for the amount of hours that it took to work on their dissertation and I knew I wanted to do the same which is where this app comes into play. So far I have used this app to log my transcribing hours but I think I will also use it to log my reading and writing as well.
