Whenever we’re hard at work on our laptops, tablets, or phones, it can be all too easy to distract ourselves by checking social media or browsing our favorite news site. Staying focussed can be difficult, especially when nothing is stopping you from veering off track.
To deter you from being the ultimate procrastinator we all like to be, there’s plenty of different apps you can download to help you stay focused. Here’s five we think you should check out…
Hocus Focus
This is for you… if you work disorderly with hundreds of tabs open.
Working in a messy environment is unproductive, and this is also the case if your screen is messy and full of unused pages, apps and sites that you’ve opened along the way. ‘Hocus Focus’ can combat your untidy and distracting screen by decluttering your desktop and hiding the pages and apps that are inactive. It makes your workspace far more efficient to navigate around, ensuring you focus on just one app at a time.
Cold Turkey
This is for you… if you just can’t help yourself from procrastinating.
If you tend to procrastinate by searching the internet, then ‘Cold Turkey’ is the app you need to save you from wandering onto time-wasting and distracting sites. It features a setting that locks you out of particular sites, and these locks can be set up to activate at certain times or dates. Tailor it around your work schedule, and your bad habits will slowly start to diminish.
RescueTime
This is for you… if you need help in understanding your screen habits and behaviors.
‘RescueTime’ works by blocking distracting sites and encouraging you to stay focused. However, it also analyzes and monitors the way in which you work. It’s essentially a multi-purpose app that records what you spend your time doing, which you can then look back on to see what improvements you need to make. It provides you with detailed reports on the trends, habits, and behaviors you have, which you can then use to set your own rules.
Forest
This is for you… if you need a fun way to encourage hard and focussed work.
If you don’t think numbers, graphs and reports will encourage you to change your screen behavior, then perhaps your very own digital tree will. The ‘Forest’ app works in a similar way that the old-school tamagotchi pets used to work… being that you are required to care for and tend to the needs of the tree achieved only by focussing on your work. The more you work on productive apps, the more the tree will grow. Vice versa, if you stray off course and distract yourself with social media, the tree will begin to perish.
Noisli
This is for you… if you enjoy working to sounds of relaxing and calming background noise.
Studies have shown that ambient and non-lyrical music is a great way to help you stay focussed and stay in the right state of mind to work efficiently and productively. ‘Noisli’ has a collection of atmospheric sounds and playlists that help you work harder and distraction-free. It also features a timer that manages your ‘focus time’ and ‘down-time’ to help you organize when you need a break and when it’s time to focus.
We can all find it hard to truly knuckle-down and work without any form of distraction – the internet is a hotbed for disturbances. However, with these five apps, your time working at a screen can be transformed into a far more productive and orderly workspace that won’t allow you to veer off the road to success any longer.
