I will share with you an application that helped me concentrate more on important matters and less distraction on my smartphone.
I began to notice that very often I get distracted by my smartphone for trifles: someone wrote in the messenger – looked, a new interesting article appeared – I read it, a new letter came – answered. And it seems not scary to be distracted for a second and see what came there, but, often, this translates into thoughtless tinkering with my phone. After one article, you move on to another, a quick response to a message turns into a discussion of something, perhaps interesting, but not so important at the moment. And now I understand that I have already forgotten what I was doing before the message on the phone. I'm sure I'm not alone.
It would seem that everything is simple – turn off the sound on the phone or move it away, then you will not be distracted. But my job requires a smartphone to be at hand, and sometimes you can miss something important. Along with this, there are obvious problems with self-discipline, and they must be somehow solved. I found a partial solution in growing trees. Only not real, but virtual, in the Forest: Stay Focused service.
The tree grows if you work
The principle of the Forest application is simple: as long as you work and are not distracted by useless applications such as social networks or instant messengers, a virtual tree grows. The timer for activities is manually configurable from 10 to 120 minutes. If you launch a 'harmful' application during this period, the phone will play or vibrate, and the small plant will die. Especially impressionable will be ashamed! In addition to pity for an innocent plant, you should be stopped by the attitude of your friends, who can also use this application and monitor your results.
Any application can be labeled as 'harmful', so, for example, making a phone call will not be considered a violation. I recommend setting up a 'white' list right away, otherwise Forest will swear at any use of a smartphone.
But in fact, it helps me to revel in a mythical plant or shame in front of friends in misfortune. When I turn on my smartphone, I see the background of the Forest application with a time report and involuntarily wonder if this notification is so important. Most of the time, I put my phone down and then, when the timer runs out, go through all the notifications. A virtual kindergarten is just a small reward for oneself for focusing on more important matters. So to speak, for the soul.
Importantly, the Forest service can be installed as a browser extension. However, in this case, you can select only 'harmful' sites, it will not respond to applications on the computer.
Reward
For the first five minutes of work, 4 coins are issued and one coin for every additional five minutes, another five coins are given for half an hour of constant concentration. For this money, you can buy new types of trees and plants.
The app is free for Android but there are ads. If you want to get rid of it, you will have to pay 128 rubles (including tax). Along with this, you get the opportunity to synchronize your process with the cloud and other devices, compete with people around the world. Some of this money will benefit the world: if you pay for the premium features, you will be able to plant a real tree in Africa by accumulating 2,500 virtual coins.
The Forest app for iOS is initially paid.
What's the bottom line?
I began to concentrate more on important matters and less distraction by all sorts of trifles. But it takes a little effort and work on self-control. In the future, it seems to me, there will be no need for this application and it will be easier to focus on the important things. In the meantime, I will continue to work on the self-dispatch line.
The application has one drawback – the absence of the Russian language. But this is a small problem, there are not many labels, and the interface is easy to learn.
Foreston Google Play
Forest on the App Store
That's all. Share in the comments your methods how you manage to control yourself and not be distracted by useless little things.