Tools and Resources for Student-Moms

Updated September 28, 2023

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Online resources can assist moms in college with time-management and study skills. In addition, scholarships, grants, and financial aid help moms with the financial pressures that accompany enrolling in college.

Moms juggling college with the responsibilities of home life can locate online organizers, planners, and other resources to help them manage hectic schedules. Moreover, mental health resources can provide essential outlets to handle stress.

The financial pressures of attending college while running a household can be especially trying. College resources for student-moms include scholarships and grants, many of which are specifically targeted toward mothers.

Planning and Organization Resources

College for single moms is especially challenging. Balancing school and family life takes planning and organization. Moms not only need to structure their days effectively, but they also generally must manage the daily activities of other members within their household. Here are some tips and tools to help.

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Tips for Staying Organized as a Student-Mom

Student-moms should aim to set boundaries for their time and energy. Finding just a few hours a day to focus on school allows students to stay on top of coursework without getting behind. The following additional tips can help:

Establishing a regular sleep schedule

Hiring a babysitter, if necessary and if financially possible

Using on-campus daycare or childcare options (some schools offer scholarships)

Carpooling or joining a rideshare

Joining a study group

Using the campus nontraditional student support center, if available

Multitasking

Asking for help

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Apps for Planning and Organization

Due is an app that lets you customize reminders with just a few clicks. Snooze features and checklists ensure no deadlines fall through the cracks. Due can also sync with iCloud and Dropbox, has timers at the ready, and incorporates themes to help users make the app their own.

Milanote allows users to organize their thoughts, ideas, and projects visually. By creating visual boards, users can gather notes, lists, images, web links, and files into one place as they bring a project to fruition. Milanote also allows for collaboration and board sharing, features a calendar, and has privacy features.

Notion can be used independently or with groups for projects. Notion includes tools to visualize, coordinate, and design projects. Notion also features a Team Wiki and a roadmap that integrate short- and long-term action items, notes, and documents. Users can embed current tools to clean up potential redundancies or gaps.

By mapping out your workflow, Taskade facilitates brainstorming, project management, and task organization. Taskade features visual organization through lists, boards, and mind maps with an additional daily, weekly, and monthly calendar. Templates include household manager, remote work checklist, and action and habit trackers.

Todoist features ways to prioritize and favorite tasks. Reminders accompany tools to assist in delegating tasks, with board, label, filter, and themes to help users optimize their workflow style. Todoist also provides productivity visualizations and activity histories, and it stores emails, comments, and file uploads.

Note-taking Resources

Taking notes is an essential part of college. It is also a skill that takes time to develop and implement effectively. Note-taking apps provide adaptable features to allow learners to find a note-taking technique that works best for them.

The way students take notes also varies by course. After several classes, labs, or practical activities, it can be overwhelming to find all of your notes. An app allows you to collect notes into one place, to access notes at the ready, and to minimize clutter and redundancies.

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Apps for Taking Notes

Evernote allows students to keep all of their notes together with features to sync devices. Users can add documents, images, and audio to notes, with additional opportunities to set reminders and establish goals. Individuals can use Evernote for free, while monthly subscriptions make keeping track of home and work even more convenient.

Genius Scan helps users scan important documents and notes and store them on their phones. With this app, users can scan financial aid and enrollment forms, digitize readings, and take notes. Genius Scan allows users to avoid messy paperwork, stay organized, and share documents with others.

Google Keep is included in the free Google Docs Editors suite. Google Keep allows users to create notes and lists, share and collaborate with fellow users, and sync notes across devices. Like many of Google's apps, Google Keep has a web-based format.

The versatility of Notion earns it another mention on this list of online college resources for moms. Note-taking with Notion helps users organize notes, create documents, and move materials around for rewrites. Notion features labels for types of notes, tracks users, and lists participants and collaborators, as appropriate.

Typora presents a minimalist approach to taking notes. Users simply type without distractions as the app turns their words into documents, lists, tables, and diagrams. Typora organizes files and includes export and import features, customizable themes, and typewriter modes to help users stay on task.

Mental Health Resources

All students need to prioritize mental health. Student-moms, with their numerous responsibilities and obligations, are no exception. Being a student-mom can add to the stress of earning a degree, especially while juggling numerous tasks and caring for others. Going to school, finding the right resources, and learning how to navigate the educational system all takes time, and can quickly become overwhelming.

Colleges and universities offer mental health services to students. Additional online mental health resources allow student-moms to be proactive in their efforts to take care of themselves, their family, and earn a degree. Consistent and ongoing attention to mental health helps prepare student-moms for overall success.

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Online Therapy

Dedicated to making mental health resources available, affordable, and convenient, Better Help provides access to professional counselors that specialize across the field. Users get matched with a therapist who meets their personal needs via a computer, phone, text, and/or messaging. Additional features include digital worksheets, group sessions, and easy scheduling.

Taskspace provides therapy services to individuals, couples, and teens. Medication management is also available. Users take part in a brief assessment before choosing a therapist from a list of recommended providers. Talkspace offers flexible and convenient scheduling, with options to switch therapists at no cost.

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Mental Health Apps

With resources to improve sleep, reduce stress and anxiety, and improve focus, Calm's meditations benefit mind and body alike. Users can access video lessons, listen to music, take part in sleep stories, and experience the sounds of nature. Calm's meditations are either self-guided or guided by experts in the field of mindfulness.

Daylio takes stock of a user's mood and activities, using the information to create customized reports about their habits and achievements. Individuals can create daily, weekly, and monthly goals based on their moods and activities, use the data as a motivational tool, and learn about themselves through Daylio's private and secure resources.

Designed to help users break negative patterns and form new ones, Happify provides tools and techniques to facilitate positive change. Users track positive emotions through activities and games, have access to reports about meaningful improvements, and gain insight into how to mitigate negativity.

Headspace provides hundreds of mediations to help users manage stress, sleep better, and gain focus. Mental exercises accompany music and articles. Headspace also offers workouts to help ease tension and facilitate relaxation. With an array of resources, individuals are well-equipped along their personal mindfulness journey.

Moodfit is designed to provide fitness for your mental health. The app features a mood journal, a gratitude journal, breathing exercise, and a list of daily goals. As users practice self-care, they have access to mindfulness meditations, cognitive behavioral therapy resources, activity trackers, and reports on patterns and behaviors.

Personal Finance and Budgeting Resources

Keeping track of personal finances when juggling family life and educational expenses can be challenging. Online budgeting resources help moms in college keep track of what they spend on family and school. Tuition, fees, transportation, and other education-related expenses add up quickly. With an app, students have help keeping track of short- and long-term budgets.

Money going out needs to be budgeted, but so does money coming in. Personal finance and budgeting apps let student-moms track loans, financial aid, paychecks, and funds from scholarships that can be used to pay for college. Student moms should also visit the financial aid department of their school for additional resources and be sure to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year.

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Personal Finance and Budgeting Apps

EveryDollar allows users to set up planned expenses based on monthly income while tracking spending and remaining funds. With quick tools to create funds, track debt, and expenses, EveryDollar helps users prevent overspending, save money, and make sure they never miss a payment. Users can plan, schedule, and keep track of short- and long-term expenses.

Mint includes features to create customized budgets, track spending, and monitor scheduled payments. Additional tools include credit monitoring, encryption, and multi-factor authentication, all designed to keep users and their money safe and secure. By linking all financial accounts, users can establish clear financial goals, save money, and receive money management and personal finance tips with Mint.

PocketGuard keeps track of how much money users spend and have to spend, with consideration for pending expenses and established financial goals. PocketGuard helps categorize spending, provides personalized financial reports, and provides tips about how to save money. Pocket Guard can also be used to establish payoff plans for existing debt.

With an emphasis on spending smart, not less, YNAB helps users optimize their existing resources, prioritize spending, and understand where their money goes. YNAB focuses on proactive, forward-looking budgeting with goal-tracking tools, reports, and personal support resources. College students receive YNAB free for 12 months with proof of enrollment.

Melissa Sartore

Melissa Sartore holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her BA and MA in history are from Western Illinois University. A medievalist by training, she has published on outlawry in medieval England with additional publications on outlaws in popular culture and across geographic and historical boundaries.

Reviewed by: Rayelle Davis, M.Ed., LCPC, NCC

Rayelle Davis is a nationally board certified counselor and a licensed clinical professional counselor. As a nontraditional student, she earned her associate degree in psychology at Allegany College of Maryland. She went on to earn her bachelor's degree in psychology online at the University of Maryland Global Campus. Davis earned her master's degree in counseling education with a concentration in marriage, couples, and family therapy from Duquesne University. She has taught several undergraduate psychology courses. She is currently a doctoral student and teaching assistant at Duquesne University and practices psychotherapy in Maryland.

Rayelle Davis is a paid member of the Red Ventures Education freelance review network.

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