Best Focus and Productivity Apps 2021

A task manager with a Pomodoro timer built-in, Focus To-Do lets you manage your day all in one place. (A "Pomodoro" is a set period of time, usually 25 minutes, where you focus on one task before taking a break.) Using a task manager and a timer in two separate apps, as I used to do, was no great hardship. Yet, having both in one place has streamlined my process, and opening the app has psychologically become a cue that the workday has begun.

You don’t have to enter estimated Pomodoros — you can do as many as you need to finish your task, while Focus To-Do keeps track for you. This is helpful for tasks that you don’t do regularly, and it can also help time-challenged folks learn how long tasks really take. Just using it for a week, I got the sense that prolonged use could improve my ability to estimate time — a genuinely life-changing benefit. You can also list quick non-Pomodoro length tasks, so you don’t have to keep short to-do lists in a different app.

I'm surprised to be writing this since I've used and loved Forest, probably the best known in this category, for years. The two apps have the same basic idea but different themes: In Forest, you grow a forest by “planting” trees when you stay off your phone for a set period. In Nox Ocean, you build an undersea city, earning buildings as you go. In both, you earn tokens that allow you to buy different buildings (or trees). The difference here is just aesthetic -- and both are pretty darn cute.

Flipd is built around timers for different activities. To keep the session going, you must stay in the app, although you can pause the session to take a break. Preset timers include a 3-hour study timer, 1-hour timers for exercise and hobbies, an 8-hour sleep timer, and a 12-hour detox timer if you want to take a real break from your phone. It also has a 25- minute Pomodoro timer and a custom option. You can change these lengths if they don’t work for you, whether because you only have 2 hours to study on a given day or because you know you tend to need a break after an hour and a half.

I am a long-time Forest user and was shocked (and a little sad) that it didn't make the list. A screen blocker where you get trees for focus periods, Forest is a delight to use. Looking at daily, weekly, and monthly forests is super motivating. However, compared to NoxOcean, the tags and timers in Forest are more difficult to use.

I really love the look of the trees in Forest, and the app is constantly adding more features. They recently added a stopwatch option. Instead of setting a timer, you start the stopwatch and turn it off whenever you need it, without killing your trees. You earn new trees at the same rate (1 per 30 minutes of focus).

Forest is free, but you can buy upgrades to earn more coins per session to buy trees. 

Another cute screen blocker! When you stay off your phone, you earn donuts to feed to an adorable monster named Focus. A free app, though you can buy donuts if you want. 

The graphics are appealing, and it's easy to apply tags to track how much time you're spending on different activities. I found donut accumulation less satisfying than growing the forests in Forest and creating the undersea landscape in NoxOcean.

A timer and goal setter for students. Kids can set the amount of time they want to study each day (and designate different goals for subjects and activities). Then they can start the timer to get to work. 

The app tracks progress, has a calendar feature, and a premium upgrade that has lets you add unlimited goals and schedules. Premium upgrades range from $1.99 per month to $14.99 per year, with 3-month and 6-month options available as well. Flip doesn't have as many features as Flipd but may be particularly good for younger students. 

Space provides tools to help with phone overuse. These include interruptions when you've been on your phone for too long, screen dimming when you've reached the end of a pre-set session, and notifications if you try to unlock too often. 

Space also offers an 8-day course on phone addiction. These are useful and there are good ideas here, but the app is glitchy. Also, the app is designed around defining types of phone addiction problems - you take a quiz and are assigned a user type. But the recommendations appear to be the same for every type. 

The Freedom web app solves a problem: people do deep work on their computers, but the internet, and certain websites, in particular, distract from that work. So Freedom blocks the internet for a set period of time or blocks specific websites. The situation is different with phones. People do work on their phones, but often not on the deeply focused writing or coding that is done on computers. 

Freedom offers a web blocker, an app blocker, and an option to block specific websites. There are only a few situations where I can imagine that last one being useful. So you're left with a screen blocker -- and there are so many cuter options. But if you want a lock on your phone that doesn't rely on psychological motivation, Freedom is the way to go. (I also highly recommend the desktop version.)

A nice, simple Pomodoro timer. List your to-dos in a single list and knock them out one 25-minute block at a time. 

The app has a pro upgrade for $3.99 per month that syncs with calendars, adds advanced to-dos and goal-setting functionality, and session-length customization.

The app works well but lacks the advanced features of Focus To-Do, which serves a similar function at a similar price point.