Apps for Focus: The Top 5 List
Apps for Focus? Yes, they do exist! If you’re struggling with focusing throughout your day, you’re not alone. Many people are frustrated by wandering minds and multi-tasking that prevent productivity. The good news is that this has led to a demand for apps that assist with focusing.
Here are some of the best apps for focus on the market for helping you regain focus and get more out of your work day.
Apps for Focus:
My Top 5 List
TrackTime. TrackTime is an app that looks at everything you do on your computer. Instead of you having to keep a journal to track what you’re doing, this app will do it for you. It can tell you how many minutes you’ve spent on email, social media, and other work.
It will then create a timeline that shows you how much time you spend on specific tasks as well as your patterns of switching back and forth. This can help you to see where the problems lie.
FocusBooster. FocusBooster is an app that helps you to manage your time better. It helps you to develop a to-do list for the day and it coaches you throughout the day. The basic idea is that you work for 25 minutes on a single task and then have a 5 minute break.
The app keeps track of what you’re doing and helps you to stay on track with alarms and reminders.
Anti-Social. Many people struggle with social media distractions throughout the work day. But it’s hard to avoid social media when you need to use the internet for your work. The Anti-Social app will block social media sites for a period of time specified by you.
You can customize which sites are blocked and for how long. If you find that you need to override the control, you simply have to restart your computer.
Stay Focused. Stay Focused is an app that allows you to have a specific amount of time on time wasting sites such as social media sights and YouTube. For this app you set a time limit and the app will allow you to waste as much time as you allot and then cut you off.
This is a great app if you want to give yourself permission to waste some time, but you want to keep a handle on it.
Wunderlist. If you have a hard time keeping track of all you need to do, Wunderlist is an app that is specifically designed to keep all of your to-do lists in one place. This will help you focus on tasks, stay organized, and keep everything in one place.
With Wunderlist, you can make sure that no task slips through the cracks and you’ll feel less scattered.
Apps for Focus:
Understanding the Science of Focus
So, do we really need apps for focus? It’s not true that lack of focus is inevitable and can keep us from achieving all we can in life. Just because we sometimes feel overwhelmed from the distractions and volumes of material that comes to us from television, computers and other devices doesn’t mean that we must focus on our goals.
A few decades ago, focusing may have been easier because there was a definite shortage of information we could access. News from other parts of the world had to wait until someone brought it word-of-mouth on horseback or ship.
Now, we have instantaneous access to details that bombard us 24/7 unless we isolate ourselves. Google and Amazon bring the world to our doorsteps and our cellphones are libraries of valuable information.
The world now offers multitudes of distractions and unless we understand the science of focus, it’s difficult to focus on tasks that can improve our quality of life and bring us to ultimate success.
The science of focus now involves that we must develop cognitive skills that help us to control our thoughts and impulses. You’ve likely practiced this skill when you’ve turned down a sugary delight that would have ruined your diet – or stuck to a reading assignment when you’d rather watch television.
These mental talents are a result of practice and sometimes take years to develop. Studies have shown that when children are taught to control their impulses and attention spans, they are better able to cope with life and have a much better chance of becoming successful.
In many instances, those who developed the skills to focus become much more successful than those with higher IQs or those with more socioeconomic advantages. When children are taught at an early age to control and develop their abilities to focus, it can boost their mental skills considerably.
There are activities and practices that we can engage in that will help us with our focusing powers. Developing computer skills, short term memory skills, yoga and the discipline of tae-kwan-do can significantly boost our essential mental skills.
With the onslaught of information and distractions that we experience today, our minds can’t possibly focus as we once did. Skills and activities that will boost and empower us to focus must be learned and developed.
Understanding and
developing focus skills can bring an enormous amount of energy into anything we
do. For more information, check out online sites, books and other sources. Definitely consider some of the above-mentioned apps for focus.
Apps for Focus:
Why Focus Is Important for Success
Without focus you can become impatient with yourself, anxious about things that aren’t getting done and unable to achieve tasks that can take you to the next rungs of success.
Lack of focus usually impacts all areas of our lives. If you’re not able to focus at work, you’re likely to be irritable and anxious at home. If you’re not focusing on your relationships as much as you should, it could impact your work. It’s a vicious cycle that must be broken before you can achieve the success of which you’re capable.
Focus involves prioritizing what’s important in your life. If you’re having trouble in one area of your life, it may be more important to change the focus on the problem area for awhile. For example, if you’re having trouble with a child, work may need to take a back seat to focusing on getting help for the child.
Success in work and relationships depends on how you prioritize your focus. Focus helps us keep from trying to accomplish too much at one time and can mean that we do a job better simply because we’re giving it all of our attention.
Some of us begin a job or task with a lot of focus and then the shine wears off and we become bored. For example, many people are passionate about a business that they’ve started and accomplish tasks with enthusiasm and energy. Sacrifices are made so the business can become successful – long hours and neglecting our personal lives may ensue.
After the business is up and running, we may become lackadaisical because now the challenges aren’t so much fun. We’re tired because we lost sleep and didn’t take care of ourselves by exercising and eating a healthy diet.
Loss of interest and lack of focus is the predominant reason that many businesses fail within a short time of opening. We lose focus on the goals we wanted to achieve and scatter our energies and attention because we were unclear about the goals in the first place.
Keeping the focus on our business goals can make the difference between success and failure. The same is true for our personal lives. If we lose focus on a relationship, it’s easy for problems to creep in and sabotage it.
When focus becomes
unbalanced, the problems begin. A truly successful person balances his focus
between his career and his personal life so that neither lacks attention. Sometimes technology, such as apps for focus, can be our friend.
