We love technology. We love apps, software and all kinds of gadgets that make our work and lives more efficient and fruitful. Even so, there are moments that we need to focus and set the phone down for a minute. But sometimes it’s hard. I can pick up a book and start reading, but after a few paragraphs my phone right next to me is silently (or noisily) calling me to pick it up and see if there is something new out there for me to check out.
Meet Forest
Meet Forest, a simple app that helps you put down your phone for at least thirty minutes, so you can focus on doing what you have to do. It is also a little game, you plant “productivity trees” and they grow while the app is running on your phone, so you can’t do anything else on it. If you do, your tree will die and you’ll have nothing but an ugly dead tree on your productivity forest… that’s not nice.
The great thing about this is that you can keep track of how productive you’ve been away from your phone. You can register what type of activity you were doing, and even compare your progress to your Facebook friend’s. Nothing like a little bit of competition to keep yourself motivated!
It sounds like something very simple, but sometimes we only need a little push to stay away from the things that distract us… I know it helped me. Make those little productivity trees grow! As people in Forest say: stay focused and be present.
Andrew Fallows says
I have mixed feelings about this kind of app:
On the one hand, it’s definitely good to design tools that force you to step away by imposing restrictions on what you can do or penalties for not doing what you agreed to. That’s a pretty cool contract you can make with yourself.
On the other hand, I don’t think I’d promote this as an app to help you use your phone less. Sure, you’re not allowed to use other parts of the phone while a tree is growing, but it still deeply roots your phone as the means by which you become productive. I’d be worried that would increase my overall dependency on my phone, rather than decreasing it.
I don’t know – I’m not making a strong statement here, just thinking aloud. Thoughts?
Ana Avila says
Hey Andrew! You sure make an interesting point. Of course, it would be nice if we sometimes just shut down the phone all together and go on doing other stuff. I’d encourage that, even. I know people that “fast” from their gadgets from time to time, and I think that’s a great idea.
But most of the time, in this day and age, we need to have our phones close for work or other stuff. In those times, I use Forest to push me away from using my phone in a non-essential way. For example, if I am writing a post, I plant a tree… it helps me to keep track of the time I spend in one post and to keep myself from distracting with tweets or texts.
Andrew Fallows says
I think you’re right – phones have become pretty integral to how a lot of folks work, so during work time it’s really hard to properly “fast” from the phone. But it IS useful to force yourself to leave it alone for short stretches to focus on something else. For every productive, work-related app on your phone, there are probably 10 apps you need to avoid during work hours.
Eric Dye says
I like the concept of this app. And while I wouldn’t use it to keep me away from apps, it would be great for intense focus on work tasks. Thanks for sharing this resource!