The new school year is officially upon us and if you’re like me, you aren’t ready for all the readings, papers, and lengthy assignments dedicated to boring topics. Regardless of your major, schoolwork can be tedious. There’s a million other things you’d rather be doing and a million more things you need to do. Reading Chapter 3 in one sitting might be the last thing you want to do, but it has to get done and I found the perfect app to help.
I discovered Forest late last semester and it’s honestly been a lifesaver. I’m addicted to my phone and I’m always super tempted to scroll my Insta feed when my classwork isn’t thrilling, but spending time on my phone has a tendency to drag 20-minute assignments out for hours. The Forest app has the ability to change that.
Forest works by allowing you to set a timer for a designated amount of time and then starts growing a virtual tree in that time. The catch is that you can’t open any other apps or Forest shrivels up your tree and decorates your digital forest with an ugly little stick. The app is super easy to use and you can toggle the settings around a little bit to really personalize the experience.
Personally, I think the best part of the app is that it isn’t perfect. You can still run Spotify or other music players in the background. Just be sure you choose a good playlist before you set your timer because there’s no switching while your tree grows. The app also allows access to onscreen pop-ups like the Facebook Messenger so you won’t get completely cut off while using it.
For each tree you grow, you not only get more work done, but you earn coins that you can use to unlock new trees like Susquehanna’s favorite, the gingko tree. Premium users have the opportunity to cash in virtual coins earned by focus time for real life trees planted by an organization called Trees for the Future.
The app certainly isn’t for everyone. If you’re not going to be motivated by the health and well being of your virtual forest, you may feel no remorse killing off your digital trees, which probably won’t keep you off your phone, but it can be a fun tool for unplugging for a short time and getting assignments done just a little bit faster.
Forest is available on Google Play and the App Store and can also be downloaded as an extension for Google Chrome.