Our Smartphones and laptops – are mass weapons of addictions and distractions. I have come across people who spend more than 3 hours a day looking at social media – FB, Instagram, WhatsApp and more. In fact, if they don’t get a WhatsApp message every hour, they keep checking their internet connections.

While most of these apps are built to become addictions – there are a couple of cool apps that help us improve our productivity and reduce stress. I am listing here 3 of the coolest apps I have come across:

Focus Keeper: This app is built around Pomodoro technique – a time management system, where the time spent on work is broken down into manageable chunks. You can create focus work items for 20-25 minutes, post which you get a small break of 5 minutes. You can track how many focus sessions you spent and track your progress.

Forest: Forestis a pretty ingenious app. Forest functions more like a game. Some of you more seasoned readers may remember the Tamigotchi, that annoying little virtual pet that had the habit of dying on you when left alone. Forest functions remarkably similarly.

Once you activate the app a virtual tree begins to grow, and grow. Soon a virtual forest powered, by your productivity can grow and flourish. While its growing you are encouraged to work, or at the very least, leave your smartphone or computer alone. If you pick up your phone and turn off the app, your virtual tree dies.

It is a unique concept, an app that doesn’t want you to use your phone. But its popularity suggests it works.

Freedom– Freedom is an app that is growing in popularity. The way it works is quite simple, it blocks access to chosen apps, programs and even your browsers cutting away all distractions.

We all have that app we check or use more than we should. I must admit – I am addicted to my mails – This is fine, but it becomes a problem if they are distracting you from work or creative projects. Freedom (the app not the concept) eliminates the issue by making it impossible to access these distracting apps.

Unlike some other, similar apps, freedom can be used across many devices, making both it and you more efficient in the process.

While the above apps are great for improving productivity, you might want to start off by knowing how focused you are as a person. We have a great app for assessing your ability to stay focused, your perseverance and resilience – try it out today. Technology is here to stay, we might as well learn how to best use it instead of depending solely on traditional ways of measuring personality traits. Do write in to me for assessments and trainings –smita@ableventures.in