6 Great Android Apps That Will Help You Focus, Study, and Be More Productive
The smartphone is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is one of the best tools for getting work done, organizing information, or consulting. But technology also has its dark side, which is that it encourages procrastination by sheer negligence.
No matter how old we are, if we have a mobile phone or computer nearby, we are very likely to get distracted by looking at irrelevant things on the internet, instead of studying or doing that work we have to do.
Fortunately, the same elusive technology that lures us in with hours and hours of entertaining content also offers solutions to our more primitive instincts. If we need to focus for a few hours and study, these are some apps we should install on our Android device. They will undoubtedly help us disconnect from social media and get work done more easily.
- Stay Focused
If we want to get away from the sucking whirlwind that is the mobile phone, this is one of the most powerful alternatives. With Stay Focused, we can block apps and notifications so we can study without distraction.
Best of all, it's versatility. It allows you to set usage limits (for example, no more than 1 hour per day on Instagram) and time intervals for hours when apps remain blocked for the user.
- Forest: Stay focused
Forest is one of those apps that plays with the user’s willpower. Instead of blocking access to certain web pages or apps, it simply tries to get us to put our mobile phones down. Like? Using the effort-reward dynamic.
Remember the classic Tamagochis? Well, the idea is very similar, only instead of taking care of a virtual pet we will have a beautiful tree. First, we indicate the time when we want to be “disconnected” from studying.
From that moment on, the forest will plant a seed, and as long as we stay away from the cell phone, it will grow into a very beautiful tree. On the other hand, if we use our cell phone to check our mail or anything else, the plant will wither and nothing will grow. A very interesting way to combat cell phone addiction.
- Trello
It is an application that allows us to manage several projects at once. Something that can be great for us if we have to study several subjects or do several jobs at the same time. One of its most interesting features is that it allows you to create workflows and set due dates.
To give us an idea, Trello works through "boards", where we usually find 3 columns: "Pending", "In Progress" and "Completed". Both the columns and the names are customizable, so they can be perfectly adapted to our projects or study tasks.
- Pomodoro Timer
Francesco Cirillo was a college student in the 1980s when he discovered that he was wasting a lot of time while studying. He felt unproductive, even though he was spending hours and hours “studying.” One day, he took a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato and set a countdown timer for 10 minutes, forcing himself to stay focused for those 10 minutes.
Little by little, he got used to doing 10-minute periods of complete productivity, followed by a short break. Francesco called it the Pomodoro Method (literally meaning “tomato” in Italian), and it has since become one of the most popular study techniques.
The Pomodoro Timer app works on the same technique. First, we set a time to study and another time to rest. Then we activate the timer and start working until the break alert goes off.
A very interesting application, which also allows us to create longer rest blocks, to avoid falling into monotony and fatigue after several hours of study.
-Todoist
It is an application for creating and managing to-do lists. When we have to do work for class or study, we usually waste a lot of time organizing ourselves, deciding what to do and how to do it. If we have a project or a job that requires going through several stages, it is important to organize ourselves properly. This way we will achieve faster and more efficient results.
This application also allows us to create reminders and deadlines so that we do not miss anything, as well as define habits or routine tasks (for example, "do the documentation work every Monday", etc.). It also has collaborative functions and can be integrated with Amazon Alexa, Gmail, Google Calendar, etc. In short, it is a very practical application that does not hurt to have at hand, especially if we are a bit disorganized.
- Brain Focus
We end with another productivity timer. In this case we have an app that combines the Stay Focused and Pomodoro method app blocking. In this way, using Brain Focus, we can block apps while the timer is active. Something very practical considering that we almost always study with our cell phone next to us.
For the rest, the app allows you to keep a record of the time you spend on each task, and other interesting functions such as the possibility of activating the timer from the notification bar, or deactivating the Wi-Fi and mobile phone sound during study sessions.