The 3 Best Focus Timer Apps to Help You Minimize Distractions While Working
I’m a big proponent of using focus hacks when you need to focus and get work done, and most of them rely on some way to block out distractions and engage in what’s known as deep work . When you’re doing deep work, you should be in a “flow state,” meaning you’re focused only on what you need to do, without looking or thinking about anything else. The important thing is that most productivity hacks suggest doing this in short bursts only, and then taking short breaks before returning to work. The most common example of this is the famous Pomodoro Technique , which calls for 20-minute work sessions punctuated by five-minute rests.
You have a lot of wiggle room if you want to work (or rest) less or more, but no matter how you split it, you still need to keep track of how much time you work and control notifications and distractions. That’s where focus apps come in. Not only do they track your work time and create a schedule for you, they also help you avoid getting caught up in your phone or other distractions. Here are three of the best.
Flora (and forest)
I really like the Flora app , available on iOS and Android , for its many useful features. Its main function is to create virtual trees that grow and bloom only during “concentration” sessions, and which will die if you leave the app within the time you set. Watching the trees grow and form a forest is nice and calming, but there is still a slight feeling of guilt. You don’t want to kill your tree, do you? No, so you mind your own business and leave your phone out of reach.
There are other motivating elements to Flora, too. First, you can bet on yourself — real dollars. On the same screen where you choose the length of your Focus session, you can choose a price between $5 and $100, enter your card details or use Apple Pay, and bet on yourself. If you lose, the money goes toward Flora’s real-life mission of planting real trees in the wild. That brings me to the second motivating factor: For $11.99 a month, you’ll get access to FloraCare, which lets you earn unlimited Real Tree plantings, with eight hours of Focus equal to one tree. For $3.99 a month, you can also earn unlimited Real Trees, but each one will cost you 24 hours of Focus. A similar offer applies to the $1.99 a month option, which lets you plant unlimited trees, but each one will cost you 48 hours of Focus. According to the company, more than 100,000 trees have been planted thanks to the app’s users.
So whether you’re motivated by a virtual forest-building game, the prospect of losing your hard-earned money, the desire to do something good for the environment, or a combination of the two, Flora is a great focus timer app.
I’d also like to point out that it’s similar to another app called Forest, which has been around for a while and has also been popular with Lifehacker staff for a while. Both apps let you grow virtual trees and plant real ones, though Forest limits you to five live trees per year. I haven’t used it, but I know a lot of people like it. But for me, Flora is everything.
FocusPomo
I also really like FocusPomo , an all-in-one focus timer available for iOS . It uses the classic Pomodoro method, letting you choose the length of your focus sessions and breaks, but it also ensures that you stick to your commitments by blocking all other apps on your phone during the session. If you try to open any other app, a message appears: “Deep focus. [App] blocked by FocusPomo. Through hardship to the stars.” If you need to whitelist an app like Slack or an email client, you can do so in FocusPomo’s settings, but try to avoid even that.
Like Flora, you get a virtual reward for completing sessions. Instead of trees, you get a single cartoon tomato. If you’re a visual motivator, this might be helpful, as all the tomatoes you collect will stack up on the screen. It’s cute, but it’s just a bummer if you like that sort of thing.
Another impressive benefit of FocusPomo is its use of a variety of productivity techniques. In addition to Pomodoro, the app also uses concepts such as time limiting and time blocking . If you need a refresher, time limiting involves scheduling the exact amount of time you need to work on a task, while time blocking involves scheduling every moment of the day on your calendar, filling Google Calendar or iCal with fields such as “commute,” “snack,” and “working on a project.” FocusPomo syncs directly with your calendar, allowing you to import tasks and run automated focus sessions.
You can pay $2.99 per month, $9.99 per year, or $24.99 for a lifetime subscription.
Focus Friend
And finally, a focus timer that’s all the rage right now: Hank Green’s Focus Friend . The app shot to the top of Apple’s free apps in the App Store this week as users eagerly flock to the latest from their favorite YouTuber.
Like the other two apps on this list, Focus Friend rewards you for working with animations. However, instead of a tree or a simple tomato, you interact with a small bean who is also knitting something. The bean can only knit socks for you if you leave your phone off and let it work. Like Flora, you will feel guilty if you disturb the bean. You can choose any time for your concentration session up to 120 minutes, like the other apps on this list. The longer you work, the more socks your bean knits, and the more in-game currency you can buy to decorate the space where it lives.
A little silly? Sure. Motivating? Also yes. You can enable integration with your phone’s Screen Time Monitor, which also blocks access to other apps, but beware: If you’re using the free version, that means you won’t be able to access almost all of your apps. If you want to whitelist some of them, you’ll have to pay an upgrade of $1.99 per month, $14.99 for a year, or $29.99 for a lifetime subscription.