

But if you use your phone or banned sites before the timer goes off, your tree withers. As long as you don’t use your phone (or go on certain sites, if you’re using the Chrome extension), your tree continues to grow. The basic concept is this: You plant a tree and set a timer for how long you want to be productive. Listen, guilt is a pretty great motivator, and Forest requires you to murder a tree if you want to give in to the temptation of a distraction. Below, find the best focus apps, websites, and extensions to make getting work done a little easier. When it comes to tools like these, it’s worth experimenting to find out what works for you because they’re definitely not one-size-fits-all. I even consider certain task managers and habit-building apps helpful for improving focus, so I threw a few of those in as well. Some work by blocking distractions others work to help you get in the zone. Luckily, there are plenty of apps, websites, and extensions to help you focus and get shit done in a variety of ways. Whatever it is, there’s no shame in needing a little help. Hell, maybe you’re just easily distracted. Maybe you deal with a mental health condition that makes it difficult to concentrate, like ADHD, depression, and anxiety. Maybe you’re dealing with brain fog or having trouble working from home. “This will be especially helpful with automatically blocking apps like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit from 1 am onwards, without needing to initiate that every night,” Tigas said.“I can also see people appreciating the ability to block emails at various times during their workday.If you’re having trouble focusing these days, you’re not alone. Tigas told me that he’d really like to add support for scheduling recurring filters.
STAY FOCUSED APP ON PHONE MAC
But since automation support is not available in Shortcuts for Mac, I’m interested in bridging that gap to seamlessly apply filters on the Mac from my iPhone or iPad (or even my Apple Watch).” “On the Mac, Ochi can lean on Shortcuts & Focus to automatically block distractions on iOS devices via automation in the Shortcuts app. “I’m really excited for the next phase and have kept an open mind about keeping Ochi as flexible as it can be!” Tigas exclaimed. It’s a bad habit, and Ochi keeps me on rails in those fun moments.”Įven though the app has only recently launched, we wondered whether there are any new features under development.

“I sometimes tend to pick up my phone in-between Apex Legends or PUBG matches and disengage with the group conversation. “Outside of work and when it’s time to go to bed, Ochi has been really helpful while I’m playing online games with friends,” Tigas explained. Since Ochi is solving a focus issue by targeting distractions, we wondered in which situations Tigas found the app to be particularly beneficial. It’s also possible to seamlessly enable filters on your iPhone and iPad from a Mac with Shortcuts - a first in the distraction-blocking space.” “You can create timed filters that block access to iOS apps, Mac apps, websites, and categories of websites including Social Media, Chat, and News. “It’s a flexible utility, that can seamlessly integrate with various workflows, especially if they take advantage of automation capabilities in iOS (and to a lesser extent - macOS),” Tigas said. “Rather than motivating people to focus on completing a particular task, Ochi instead helps steer people away from distractions so they can maintain focus for longer periods of time.”

We asked Tigas what specifically made Ochi different from these and third-party focus apps. There have been efforts by Apple to look at how we manage our time on our devices, from Focus in iOS 15 to the ScreenTime feature in iOS 13. It becomes very easy to doom-scroll with them instead.” But sometimes, I use my iPhone or iPad to test apps that I’m working on. “During the day, while focusing on a task, I block apps like Twitter on my Mac with the app, Focused Work. “Ochi was inspired on a whim, by the idea of blocking distractions across all my devices, keeping me focused when my willpower is at its lowest,” Tigas explained. Speaking with Tigas after the launch of Ochi, I asked what prompted him to create the app. Ochi also shows up in the menu bar on macOS, so you easily pause the filtering if you need to access any of the apps or sites you’ve blocked. And the design of the app on iPhone and macOS is appealing, both simple and colorful, with useful widgets to enable filters or show you how much time remains before Ochi unblocks the apps and websites you’ve specified.
