Forest: Your Focus Motivation - app review 2022!
Forest: Your Focus Motivation - app review 2022!
Study Hub: in-depth review of the most famous app for the pomodoro method.
I use the app ”Forest: Your Focus Motivation” when I’m studying to focus better and I use the pomodoro method with the app. Although, sometimes I do some kind of ”alternative” method by increasing the amount of focus time to 50 minutes and break to 10 minutes sometimes.
I have tried various focus timer apps on the appstore but this one seems to fit my needs the best and I like it more than the other timer apps I have tested.
For every amount of time tracked with the app you plant one virtual tree in your own virtual forest. You earn points by focusing to buy different types of virtual trees. You can buy very cool types of plants and trees with the focus points you earn for each session. There are also quite a few default trees to use too. I like the idea of this concept of growing tres, because it gives me a more visual way to see how much studying I actually spending time doing. You can see an overview of the day, week, month or even a year.
The Number One reason I really like this app and I think its the most fascinating one is the fact that you collect points for the time spent focusing on tasks and with the points you can then plant a real life tree to help saving the environment! Yes a real tree, so you both help yourself by doing your work/studies/tasks, and you helping the earth the more you use the app to keep track of your focus time.
They plant a tree if you choose to spend 2500 points on that instead of the different virtual types. And to me the option to plant a real tree is overwhelmingly more important and cool. Because you actually get a certification of your contribution with your name on it. And I think that’s actually motivational enough for me… It’s exactly the kind of kick in the butt I need to do my assignments and tasks.
For me, making a difference for the environment is a huge deal and makes it easier for me to actually study! Because it’s a good reward and we all know that rewards keep us motivated.
Sure, I really like the subjects in which I’m studying and I’m very interested in my studies. And in particular my education and my journey towards my degree. But sometimes you need that little ”extra” motivation.
If I have some kind of negative feedback, it might be that it takes very long time to get enough points to plant a real tree. For 30 minutes you earn 6 points and you need 2500 point to plant a tree. If I would have anything slightly negative to say is that I would wish that it required a little bit less time and points to plant a tree, but I guess it’s not a very big complaint. Because when you finally have enough, you feel more awarded. But a slightly less level could be good, like around 2000 points. But again, time is quality and it should be moderately difficult to plant a real tree too, you should actually have spent much time focusing for it to be a good reward.
I’ve heard that this app is not the favorite of everyone and there are other apps I see people recommend instead, especially on the study community on youtube. I think that might have to do something with the amount of focus points. But I don’t really know to be honest. The virtual trees you can buy should be a lot cheaper though! They are nearly worth as much as a real life tree… and that is a bit greedy maybe. I understand that a real life tree is worth much, but the virtual ones should be much less. So it actually gives value to the physical contribution.
I started to use Forest in december 2021. So I have not tried it for so long. But I like the interface and simplicity of the app alot. It’s a clear and logical design and no ads even tho it’s free to use (except for options to buy points for real money). The user experience is simple, yet entertaining and pretty fun to use. Well, I don’t require very complicated things to feel satisfied with the experience though. In fact, for me, a more complicated and like ”gamified” interface would actually give me a harder experience to focus on my actual studies. This app does the job of having a good balance between simplicity, the perfect amount of features and entertainment/rewards.
I also like that you can turn on deep focus mode and regular mode. So you have the option to not be able to leave the app otherwise you lose points, or you can have the app running in the background. This of course is helpful dependent on what kind of preferences you have and how you need the tools to be. So it’s great that you can choose!
Another feature I like is the summary page in which you can see all your collected data about your time using the app. You can see all kinds of stats, for example which days you are the most focused, which time on the day you tend to be focused, focus trends compared to last year or last month and so on. It’s pretty in-depth and fun to look back at. I feel so productive when I do that!
I don’t really know if there is any other focus app that helps the forest on earth though. If I find one I might compare them in the future.
From 1 to 10 points I give this app 7,5!
That’s pretty darn good! Very few apps would be a 8 or 9 out of 10… if that would the case it would be an app created entirely for me and by me and well that’s not going to happen.
App reviewed in this article: FOREST: YOUR FOCUS MOTIVATION
App owner: SEEKRTECH CO. LTD
Since I don’t have that much experiences with other focus timer apps, I thinking about testing a few more (more ”for real”) just to see other options and how they are! It might come another article about my other recommendations in the future, but that’s not completely decided yet. It might happen or it might not, we’ll see! However in any case I think that Forest will always be my main app for focusing.
However, since I gave this app 7,5 out of 10 - or maybe I have changed my mind and instead give it a solid 8 out of 10! - I can say that I personally would recommend this app to anyone who would benefit from a tool to make them focus more. I recommend it especially for people who are procrastination a lot and need a way to just start with their tasks. And also people who want to track their focus time.
I hope this article helps anyone out there.
xx
Tricia Joy