Best Apps to Stay Focused
In today’s digital world, it’s hard to focus on one task at a time. Once you get down to business, your smartphone vibrates with incoming messages and social media notifications.
Twelve years ago Harvard Business Review published an article entitled “Why Smart People Fail at Work. It described the reasons why people find it hard to stay focused, prioritize and prioritize their time. According to the author, the main reason was the increasing number of distractions that require time and attention.
And this was already the case in 2005. Most people cannot ignore absolutely all external stimuli. But due to the rapid growth of software development companies like Redwerk that offer custom medical software solutions, we can choose useful tools and form habits that will help us not lose focus and stay healthy.
1. f.lux
Platform: Mac, Windows, iOS (Jailbreak), Android, Linux.
Cost: free of charge.
Function: adjusts the temperature and brightness of the screen according to the time of day.
Looking at a computer or smartphone screen for a long time can make you go crazy. Also, blue light causes insomnia. To avoid distractions due to annoying backlighting, you can install f.lux – a program that adjusts the brightness and saturation of the screen depending on the time of day and protects the health of your eyes.
2. Escape
Platform: Mac.
Cost: free of charge.
Function: helps you find out how many times the user has visited distracting sites.
Escape is a simple application that takes into account how often a user has opened mail, social networks or other distracting sites. Every day the service sends a report on the number of interruptions, length of working time, and sites that absorb the most attention.
It’s a good tool to understand where your time is being spent and figure out how to spend it more sustainably.
3. RescueTime
Platform: Windows, Android.
Cost: conditionally free of charge.
Function: helps to analyze habits and productivity.
This is one of the most well-known applications, largely due to its efficiency. It helps to understand exactly what your work time is spent on. With its paid features, users have additional options: blocking distracting websites for a certain time, tracking offline activity (for example, meetings or phone calls), and recording personal achievements.
Users can also set up notifications. They pop up if you spend more time on a site than originally planned.
4. Proud
Platform: iOS.
Cost: 379 rubles.
Function: helps allocate time and tasks.
Sometimes it seems like there’s at least one productivity app popping up every day. That may be true, but Proud is still worth a look.
Its idea is simple – to take the best features of analogs and combine them in one place. For example, here you can store all ideas and to-do lists, create reminders of important moments, set up triggers to form habits, and set personal goals.
5. Flowstate
Platform: Mac.
Cost: 749 rubles.
Function: A text editor that deletes text if the author is distracted.
When trying to write an email, a blog post, or a book, it is sometimes very difficult to force yourself to finish. With Flowstate, the user has no other choice: the app forces them to overcome their discomfort and move right up to the last letter, otherwise, the entire text will disappear.
The process is quite simple: you need to select the name, font, and duration of the session. As soon as the user starts writing text and is interrupted for more than five seconds, all the letters disappear. The only way to save the literary work is not to be distracted until the session is over.
6. One Big Thing
Platform: iOS.
Cost: conditionally free of charge.
Function: helps you focus on the most important goal during the day.
This is an enough simple application. It allows you to select a “goal of the day” to focus on. You can also add two or three secondary goals and switch to them when the main goal is complete.
It’s similar to the digital version of regular stickers, and the design of the app is so simple and clean that you want to use it daily. In the paid version, users can choose the background and stickers that appear when a task is completed.
7. Headspace
Platform: iOS, Android.
Cost: conditionally free of charge.
Function: an app for express meditation.
Headspace helps fight stress and unfocused with the help of meditation. Its authors claim that if you use the app for 10 minutes a day, you can become a more mindful, creative, and happy person.
The developers have provided a 10-day introductory course to help you adapt and form a new habit. The app allows you to choose sessions for different purposes – to calm down, to cope with stress, anger, or to find balance.
Brian Zeng
Founder of Ponbee.com: I like to write about self-improvement and achieving excellence, and believe that it is these qualities that ultimately make people successful in life.
