Productivity apps to kick procrastination into touch

First of all, let us start by saying that the irony of suggesting using your mobile phone to stop yourself using your mobile phone isn’t lost on us. However, hear us out on this one because procrastination is a disease and productivity apps are the cure. We’re not sure if that makes us the doctor, but it’s a title we’ve always fancied so we’ll roll with it.

When it comes to working for yourself, you’re the boss. You clock in and out when you want – hell, sometimes you don’t clock in or out at all! You decide where you work and you choose when an extended coffee break turns into an afternoon off. All these things are amazing until that is you are struck down with a serious case of procrastination. The symptoms are easy to spot; you’re three months deep in a friend of a friend of a friend’s Instagram, you’ve read the ink dry on the Daily Mail app and Mr Muscle himself would marvel at how clean your kitchen is. If you’re ever going to get anything done, it’s time to address the situation. Now, reach for your phone – get off Facebook! – head to the app store and download these five productivity apps, then sit back and wait for the magic to happen. Or, you know, use the apps and notice a marked improvement in your productivity because they’re just that damn good.

ALARMY

We’ll start by boosting your wake-up calls. This one is for the snoozers who take the fact that you dictate your own hours and use it as an excuse to lay in more than is probably acceptable for a responsible adult. The concept is simple but effective; take a photo of the kettle, set the alarm, and you won’t be able to hit snooze until you’ve photographed said kettle in the morning, by which time you are already downstairs and might as well make a brew and start your day. Genius.

FREEDOM

The Freedom app is not messing about when it comes to kicking procrastination. The app will literally block those tempting timewasting apps and websites on all your devices for up to 8 hours, leaving you with nothing to do but a) your work and b) wonder what we all did all day before the internet.

POCKET

It starts out innocently enough. You’ve spotted an article that has some great information relating to a project you’re working on, so you hop on Twitter to find it again and next thing you know, you’re gone. Headfirst, down a virtual rabbit hole that leaves you aimlessly scrolling an hour later, wondering what you were looking for in the first place. Pocket is a bookmarking app that allows you to tag articles and websites for future use, meaning you can go back to them without having to battle through all the juicy temptations along the way.

MOMENT

Checking Moment tends to provoke the kind of shame usually reserved for checking your sent messages after a particularly heavy night out. You see, the free app doesn’t just tell you how long you have spent on your phone and on individual apps, but even how many times you have picked your phone up. Once you have been shamed, there’s an option to enroll in a 7-day boot camp designed to reduce your usage and regain your dignity.

So, there you have it; procrastination cured. Now, tag our blog on the Pocket app and get cracking on that project you’ve been putting off all week. Still stuck? Maybe a change of scenery will do the job – we know just the place.

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