I’m jealous of modern students. There are just so many tools out there that I wish I’d had when I went to school. And I’m not talking about laptops either. We actually had those when I was growing up. Admittedly, they were slow. We used to have to alternative between them and chiseling our notes into stone tablets while they were trying to process our most recent keystrokes.

No, I’m talking about some of the new stuff that’s out there. It almost makes me want to go back to school and get another beer bo… degree.

So what am I talking about? Well, check out these uber cool gadgets that you can now buy.

Lumie Bodyclock Starter 30

When my alarm clock went off in the morning it used to be that I’d need about 15 minutes to recover the near-heart attack the damn thing gave me. Then I’d need about half the day for the feeling that whoever was near me needed their heads ripped off to subside.

That need no longer be the case. There are now plenty of alarm clocks that are far friendlier in the way they wake you up. That will make your mornings nicer and make your relationships last longer.

One great choice is the Lumie Bodyclock. This little beauty starts off by slowly brightening as if the sun is rising in your room. This will allow you to wake up more naturally. As an extra bonus, you can also tell it to do the reverse, which might help you go to sleep more naturally if you find that difficult.

That sounds like a much better insomnia cure than my bottle of whiskey a night, I can tell you that much. Cheaper too.

Moleskine Smart Writing Set

Taking notes by hand lets your remember more of what you wrote down. So there’s definitely something to be said for the good notebook and pen combination. On the other hand, it makes it a lot harder to pass on your notes to whoever didn’t come into class that morning.

The solution? This Moleskine Smart Writing Set. It will allow you to take notes by hand and then will convert them into digital writing. Awesome, no?

Add to that that Moleskine products are just phenomenally beautiful and it will be a joy to carry around this gadget to every class. One question, what it will do with the doodles you draw?

PowerCube

You know what’s annoying? More plugs than outlets. And as the gadgets keep multiplying that problem keeps growing. Fortunately, there’s the PowerCube to help you. You can choose to have it provide you with five outlets. Alternatively, you can buy one which also provides you with USB charging points.

Yes, that’s right, basically this is an extension cord. Those have been around for a while. We used to make them out of bamboo. Still, they didn’t look at as good.

Amazon Kindle

Are you still printing stuff out? That’s so 2010! You should really get on board the e-reader revolution and buy a kindle. It means you’ll be able to keep all your books in one place, store your papers next to them and, with its backlight, means that you can read with the lights off, which is just fantastic for me as so many of these damned textbooks books have a tendency to put my to sleep.

They’ve got tremendous storage space, so you’ll never have to throw out another book and moving all your literature from the room with the leaky roof to your new apartment will become an utter breeze. Just remember to back up everything on the cloud in case somebody knocks your bong over and spills weed water all over yours.

Buddhify

And then there’s this app. It will let you de-stress through mediation techniques – and that really is something you’re going to need when the end of the year comes rolling in and all those exams start heaping up on you even if your mind mapping is perfectly done. After all, stress is poison and the last thing you need is to be thinking out about how all this is impossible when instead you should just be getting on with things.

I’ve tried this myself recently and have to say it is very restful, though I do have to admit I immediately got the urge to go out and buy stretchy pants. So, buy it at your own risk.

Conclusion

Sure, the life of a student isn’t the same as it used to be. You’re expected to do more, even while holding down a job and watching your future sink into a swamp of debt. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools to distract you while the banks nail your hopes and dreams to the grindstone of modern society.

Here we’ve outlined some of the best ones. Heck, they might even serve to help you get those better grades you’ll need to one day pay back those debts you’re building up. Of course, you’ll still have to check into a retirement home the day after, but we can’t have it all, right? At least you have all these gadgets. I can tell you, they sure beat being chased by a saber tooth tiger.