As a college student with a full schedule, my studying and homework time is precious. I have trouble focusing, and I need an incentive to get started on work. So, I tried out different focus apps. You can download these “focus apps” on your phone to help you study. There are hundreds, but I tried three different ones so that you don’t have to. All of these apps have a free version and use different tactics to increase your productivity.Â
- Focus Friend
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The first focus app I tried was Focus Friend, created by Hank Green (who you might know from Crash Course on YouTube, or his famous author brother, John) and Bria Sullivan. When you open the app, you’re greeted by a little brown bean. You get to choose the bean’s name and set your focus settings. This is where you will choose which apps you want to restrict access to (I chose Instagram, TikTok, and anything else that might distract me). Then, you and your bean are put into an empty room, and it prompts you to start a timer, during which your bean knits socks. If you cancel the timer before it’s up, your bean loses all of his progress, and you get zero socks. If you stick it out, your bean typically makes a sock per minute of your timer; however, sometimes you’ll get a super or mega bonus amount of socks.
Socks are your form of currency in this app. There are multiple rooms you can unlock with your socks. You start with an office that you can decorate with items you purchase using your socks. From there, you can get a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, a garden, and even street view access to your house.Â
I’ve been using Focus Friend for months now, and it has definitely helped me focus; it makes me want to use it just so I can keep decorating my rooms. It’s also very fun to use with friends! There isn’t a way that you can team up with a friend on the app, which would be cool, but I use it with my roommate, and we always update each other on our sock count! Other apps similar to Focus Friend include Cat on Chair and Plant Focus.
@cnet via Instagram - FocusTown
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FocusTown asks you to make a username, but you don’t need to sign up or subscribe to anything. You get to customize your avatar to look however you want. They set you up with beans, which are your form of currency, and a desk in an empty plot of land. In order to get more beans and build your house, you have to study or complete tasks that correlate with reaching your academic goals.Â
You can study at your desk or at community spaces in the town, which you unlock along the way when you achieve certain studying milestones. You have two options when you first start out: the Starter Library or the Book Club CafĂ©. In these spaces, you can choose a seat next to someone else and study. They even have a chat button where you can talk to the people around you as well as your friends that you’ve added in the app.Â
My favorite feature in this app is how I’m able to study with other people. It’s so fun to see people from all over the world coming together to study in one place. Everyone has different goals, and we all come together to create a community. Even when I’m alone in my room, if I’m on FocusTown, I’m studying with other people!Â
@vanilla.notess via Instagram - Forest
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Forest starts out with a small questionnaire with questions like, “What usually distracts you?” Based on your answer, it offers to block certain apps for you and requests access to your screen time. This app requires you to create an account with your email address, name, and date of birth. This app’s goal is to grow trees for your personal forest.
Once in the app, you can select set timers up to 180 minutes and choose a session title. For example, you are able to distinguish if you are working, studying, resting, working out, etc., and separate your timers based on what you’re doing. I like this feature because it helps me separate tasks in my mind as well as in the app.Â
My favorite part of the app is seeing my forest grow. It creates the same sense of accomplishment that I get when I cross items off a to-do list, but I have a forest that represents the time I’ve spent studying.
@forestappus via Instagram
After trying all three of these apps, Focus Friend is my favorite. That’s not to say the other two don’t work, but personally, decorating the bean’s house has been the most effective incentive for me to study. Using these apps has helped me reframe my mindset towards schoolwork. Instead of thinking, “ugh, I have so much due this week,” I think, “I’m gonna get so many socks on Focus Friend this week.” These apps have made studying fun and stopped me from scrolling on my phone for hours when I should be getting my work done. If you feel like you also battle distractions, I’d recommend giving these apps a try.