3 Most Effective Apps to Help You Stay Focused
Staying focused can be really hard these days. One moment you’re working on something important, the next you’re scrolling through the Instagram feed, which is not even the worst-case scenario (hello Netflix). Given that it’s almost impossible to maintain self-control with all these distractions, you can turn to the tools that will help you concentrate — and that’s when productivity apps come into play. Since there’s a whole bunch of them on the web, we’ve decided to point out our personal favorites:
Mindful Browsing (Chrome)
There’s a huge difference between people who tend to get distracted and people who seek for distraction. If you belong to the first group, there’s a chance that the only thing you need to stay concentrated is just a red flag, something to pull you out from that unconscious state where you forget about your tasks and start browsing Facebook instead. If this sounds like your case, this free Chrome extension will do the job. After you install it, you make a list of websites you want to avoid and a list of meaningful things you could do instead of visiting them. As you try to access websites from the list, something like this will pop up:
Of course, you can simply press the first button, but this combination of a tranquil landscape and a reminder of things that you find important somehow bring you back into that mindful state. If a reminder like that is enough to make you to go back to work, you should try this out.
Freedom (Mac, Windows, IOS, Android)
Then there’s the second type of people who struggle with distractions — distraction junkies. If you happen to be one of them, you already know just a reminder is not enough. You might need something to restrict your crave for constant sensation, namely a blocker. There are lots of apps of that kind, but Freedom is probably the best of them.
The concept is quite simple: when you want to focus, you create a Freedom session and choose the websites you want to block. You can also create recurring sessions if you want to avoid certain sites at a certain time of day, for example, block Reddit during your working hours. Then there’s the coolest feature of this app, the one designed for sneakier users who know their way around blockers — the lockdown mode. It basically prevents you from changing the settings in the middle of a session — there’s no way to bypass the block when this mode on.Just imagine: you can’t access Twitter by any means, same with Facebook and Youtube — finally. This is why they have called it Freedom.
Focus (IOS)
Lastly, if you can’t work for long and find it easier to concentrate when working in short bursts, there’s this free app based on Pomodoro Technique that can help you organize your routine:
Basically, it provides you an opportunity to break your working day into small “25 minutes of work — 10 minute break” sessions to increase your productivity. It also allows to keep track of the work you have completed throughout the day, so you know what still needs to get done. Overall, it’s a great option for anybody considering themselves a short-distance runner.
Since these three apps are designed for completely different kinds of people with different reasons behind their inability to concentrate, you’ll likely find at least one of them useful. Alright, enough with reading blogs — let’s get the job done!
