Apps Aren't Always Distracting. These 10 Apps Actually Help You Focus!

Apps Aren't Always Distracting. These 10 Apps Actually Help You Focus!

About LifehackContact Us Psychology Productivity Health More Productivity Apps Aren't Always Distracting. These 10 Apps Actually Help You Focus! Arthur Peirce Arthur is never

happier when writing. Full Bio Our computers and smartphones are often considered the ultimate machines of distraction. They can be so full of entertainment possibilities that many of us can’t go a single hour without looking at our phones many many times. When some apps seem built to test our self control, placing themselves in our minds, almost like

addictions. These 10 apps don’t demand our attention, but instead aim to improve it. With them improving your productivity and reducing stress 1 in your day-to-day life will be easier. Headspace 2.0 Headspace is a very popular meditation app. Don’t worry though, the meditation here is stripped of any religious and spiritual stuff and instead aims to help you receive the many benefits meditation can give you. Aside from improving your focus and concentration, meditation has been shown to make you less prone to anger, improve memory, make you more empathetic, and improve your ability to make good decisions. It’s little wonder then that Headspace advertises itself as a kind of “gym” for the mind.

Headspace aims to bring you in easy ten minute chunks. Noizio Noizio, and Noisli are not only pretty similar in name, but also function. Noizio is an ambient sound generator, one exclusive to Apple devices such as your Mac or iPhone. I have written about how ambient sound helps boost your focus, so if you loved Noisli or other ambient sound apps, then you’ll love this one, too. Panda Focus Mode While online, with the sum of all human knowledge and cat videos at your finger tips, it can be easy to get distracted and forget why you went on the internet in the first place. Panda Focus Mode counters this by showing you a to-do list you entered every time you open a new tab. By being reminded of everything you need to do, the items on your list will take center stage in your mind. Focus Booster

Focus Booster is built around the Pomodoro technique 2 , a time management system, where the time spent on work is broken down into manageable chunks. The app is extremely versatile, it allows you to set the time spent on work or rest, as well as generate graphs showing you how your time was spent throughout the day. With this info, you’ll be able to plan your day and time, exactly according to how you use your time. Currently it’s only a desktop app, but mobile versions are coming soon. Noisli Noisli aims to boost your

 focus and productivity through ambient sounds and music. What’s more it helps you create a playlist of your favorite sounds, making sure you are as happy and comfortable as possible while you listen. But how can simple ambient sounds actually improve your productivity? Surely, the only way ambient music can improve your focus and productivity is by boring you so much you want to work instead of listening. Actually, there are many ways ambient sound can improve your self control and focus. For example, normally when we listen to sound, it is coming from many different directions and different distances. Ambient sound presents a persistent sound that doesn’t change. Enabling you to listen without your mind

jumping to the causes of each noise. It helps you focus on the present 3. In a way, ambient sounds creates a new mental environment. This is what Nosili can bring you. Forest Forest is a pretty ingenious app. The previous two sought to improve your focus and concentration aimed to hack your brain and subconscious through meditation and ambient sounds. Forest functions more like a game. Some of you more seasoned readers may remember the Tamigotchi, that annoying little virtual pet that had the habit of dying on you when left

alone. Forest functions remarkably similarly. Once you activate the app a virtual tree begins to grow, and grow. Soon a virtual forest powered, by your productivity can grow and flourish. While its growing you are encouraged to work, or at the very least, leave your smartphone or computer alone. If you pick up your phone and turn off the app, your virtual tree dies. Its a unique concept, an app that doesn’t want you to use your phone. But its popularity suggests it works. Brain.FM Like Noisli, Brain FM uses music to help your

concentration. However the music here is artificially generated and designed for you to improve your focus. There are different channels on the app to aid you through a number of tasks, working, for example, but also a channels for meditation, and sleep. Though the

pieces of music are computer generated, they, none the less are generated with relaxing and improving focus and concentration in mind. As such, the app is extremely effective at boosting your focus while in use. Freedom Freedom is an app that is growing in popularity. The way it works is quite simple, it blocks access to chosen apps, programs, and even your

 browsers cutting away all distractions. We all have that app we check or use more than we should. I was a fiend for Angry Birds a couple years ago. This is fine, but it becomes a problem if they are distracting you from work or creative projects. Freedom (the app not the concept) eliminates the issue by making it impossible to access these distracting apps. Unlike some other, similar apps, freedom can be used across many devices, making both it

and you more efficient in the process. Hocus Focus Hocus Focus is pretty similar to Freedom, in the way it helps boost your focus by cutting out distracting apps and programs. However, what makes it different is that it hides applications which are not in use, making you less tempted to move away from whatever you’re doing and go back to it. There are

different ways it works. You can have it hide applications as soon as you move away from them, or instead, hide them after a few minutes have passed. It works according to your preferences. Self Control Where the other apps in this list are like friends or parents, lovingly guiding your hand to productivity, Self Control is like an angry drill sergeant who plans to

break you into working. There are many productivity apps which try to block distractions for a predetermined time limit. Some of them are on this list. However what makes Self Control different, is that it cannot be turned off. That’s right, even if you choose to delete the application or turn off your computer, it keeps working. The only way to get it to stop is by

waiting and working until the timer runs out. By doing this it enforces rigid discipline and focus. References [1] Huffingtonpost: 4 Unexpected Benefits of Increasing Focus [2] Lifehack: The Pomdoro Technique: Is It Right For You? [3] Noisey: Ambient Music Isn’t Boring, It Changed My Life About Lifehack Lifehack is about helping you improve your life through efficient and comprehensive learning. By leveraging the vast amount of knowledge available to us, we explore and present a wide variety of content catered to encouraging individual

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Warren Buffett Says Most People End up Being Average Because They Don't Keep This List Productivity Warren Buffett Says Most People End up Being Average Because They Don't Keep This List Jenny Marchal Jenny Marchal is a freelance writer. Full Bio Sitting down and

setting your life goals can be exciting and motivating. It gives us purpose, sets clear intention, makes us feel productive and creates the feeling of moving forward. But have you ever started out making a mental or physical list of your goals only to end up with quite a few? Then when you start acting on them, they either end up cast aside or only half achieved? Having goals has been drummed into us from an early age but are having all

these goals actually hindering us? Warren Buffett, one of the most successful businessmen in the world today, questions the need for having so many goals. Instead he puts his success down to eliminating, sometimes important goals, in order to focus on the few that will bring the success we desire. Warren Buffett asked his pilot to list 25 priorities in his life To illustrate Buffett’s idea, there’s a great story involving his personal airplane pilot of 10 years, Mike Flint, and how Buffett helped him to focus and prioritize his goals using a 2-list strategy. Buffett asked Flint to carefully think about, and write down his 25 top career goals. Once Flint spent time doing this he came back and presented them to Buffett. He then asked Flint to pick out the top 5 most important goals. So at this point Flint now had two

separate lists – the list of 5 goals and the list of 20 remaining goals. Like many of us, Flint concluded that he would focus primarily on his top 5 and work towards the other 20 as and when he could find the time. However, Buffett stopped him and said that this is actually the path of becoming unsuccessful because really he should now throw away his list of 20 altogether – no matter how important many of them may be – and focus solely on the top 5. Why? Because that list of 20 is essentially a distraction. Average people don’t know they should AVOID seemingly important things in their lives The reason we often never succeed with our goals is because we don’t prioritize, focus and therefore, complete, the important

few. It’s human to get demotivated and distracted – two feelings that can be the death of our goals. The bigger the list of goals we have, the more chance there is to give up and move on to the next one in the hope that this one will succeed. If what Malcolm Gladwell claims is true, to become an expert in any field we must spend 10,000 hours of deliberate practice towards gaining knowledge in that area. That equates to 20 hours each week for

almost a year, for a total of 10 years. So imagine Flints original list of 25 goals – that would mean it would take him 250 years to fully master his complete list. You can see how having too many goals can lead you down the path to a less successful and fulfilling life. Make sure you keep the “Avoid-at-all-cost list” Minimizing has become a hot topic when it comes to living the best life we can and this also applies to our life goals. Like our physical stuff, it can be hard to make a decision to throw certain goals out of the window when they feel important to us. But the process itself allows us to work out our priorities and what’s truly

important. Try writing out 25 goals – whether it’s long term goals or even short term weekly or monthly goals – and start the process of prioritising in order to discover your top 5. Now, instead of literally throwing the list of 20 away completely, label this your avoid-at-all-costs list to serve as a reminder of what not to focus on. This is the list that will decrease your time and focus and ultimately your success. In other words, if you start working on this list you are in danger of having 20 half-finished goals instead of 5 completed ones. Whatever your top 5 goals are, whether you want to learn a new language or skill, or work towards a

particular career goal, make a conscious effort to stick to these. Keep motivated to achieve these goals and don’t wander onto your second list. Remember, your time investment is key to success and this time will be compromised the more goals you take on. Get the success you want: prioritize efficiently, focus intently and stick to it. References Featured photo credit: Fortune Live Media via flickr.com About Lifehack Lifehack is about helping you improve your life through efficient and comprehensive learning. By leveraging the vast amount of knowledge available to us, we explore and present a wide variety of content

catered to encouraging individual growth and solving problems. Learn more about our mission Advertising Advertising What’s Popular now? Poor Sleep Quality Comes from All the Things You Do Since Morning Warren Buffett Says Most People End up Being Average Because They Don't Keep This List Keep A "Friend Bank" So You Can Maintain The Right Kind Of Friendship! How I Become Creative by Spending 10 Minutes a Day to Exercise My Brain

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