If you’re like most people, you have goals and ambitions – some big, some small. Also, like most people, you could likely use a little help with keeping up your momentum, avoiding procrastination, and making the best decisions to nudge you ever closer to reaching those goals.
In today’s technological age, you likely have a powerful tool to help you turbo-charge your productivity, and it’s right in the palm of your hands – your smartphone.
Here are five of the best smartphone apps to help boost self-discipline and move you closer to your goals.
1- Stay Focused With Forest
If you find yourself distracted by your phone when working, one solution is to turn your phone off or leave it in a different room until you finish. But that’s not always possible.
In this case, you should consider the Forest app.
Forest works by allowing you to plant a virtual tree. You start by setting a time limit, “planting” the tree at the beginning of the time slot. Time begins counting down, and you must avoid using your phone the entire time, thus allowing your plant to flourish.
If you close the app, the plant dies. And you don’t want that!
So, if you can’t turn your phone off completely or leave it in another room, the Forest app will keep your eyes off your phone and on your work.
If the increased focus isn’t enough to motivate you to try this app, you’ll be happy to know that Forest financially contributes to Trees for the Future, an organization that plants trees worldwide. You can improve your focus while helping the Earth.
I use the Forest app myself to boost productivity and help me stay focused. It has helped me tremendously.
Click here to learn more about Forest.
2- Make Your Good Habits Stick With Chains
The basic idea behind the Chains app is one you accrue several days of either starting a good habit or ending a bad one; you don’t want to “break the chain.”
Chains is a free app that provides a visual representation of your habit streak. You can choose from a wide variety of skins to suit your taste, and even join social groups within the app to give and receive motivation from other users.
3- Make Goal Setting & Tracking Fun With Habitica
A great way to make goal tracking and setting fun is to make it a game. If you enjoy playing games, you’ll love Habitica.
Habitica is like a role-playing game, where you get gear, goods, and the chance to level-up as you complete more and more tasks.
Habitica works just as well for adding positive habits as it does for eliminating negative ones.
If you gain motivation and inspiration by working with other people, you might enjoy the challenges and quests feature of this app. Groups of people work toward achieving the same goal. You may also find more accountability by using this feature, as you don’t want to let your teammates down!
4- Use Todoist To Create Your To-Do List
The to-do list is probably the most basic self-discipline method that anyone who wants to stay on top of their goals should use daily. But what’s the best way to create one? Using a pen and paper, the calendar on your laptop or phone, or keeping a daily planner or organizer are all valid options. But if you’re serious about organization and productivity, you should give Todoist a try.
The Todoist app is easy-to-use, and you can create an account by logging in you’re your existing Facebook or Google account – which is a huge plus for simplicity.
The app has useful features in addition to setting up your tasks, such as setting deadlines, assigning priorities, grouping and filtering functions, and even location-based notifications, where you’ll receive different reminders based on your geographical location.
Click here to manage your to-do list with Todoist!
5- Find Daily Productivity Patterns With Daylio
Your emotions, moods, and mental health impact productivity in various ways. Naturally, when you’re feeling your best, you’ll have an easier time getting things done. On the other hand, when you’re not doing so well, it’s a lot harder to maintain momentum.
The Daylio app has a beautiful, smooth, soothing design and allows you to quickly and efficiently track your daily moods along with your productivity. Over time, patterns will emerge.
For example, you may notice a pattern or correlation between feeling more upbeat on days you spent time outside or less happy and productive after you socialized for too many hours the day before.
While perhaps not directly related to self-discipline, getting to know yourself better and having accurate data on what drives your moods can help you create a schedule that includes more of what keeps you motivated – and less of what doesn’t.
Click here to try Daylio for free.
Final Thoughts
While it’s true that your smartphone can become a hindrance to your productivity and thwart progress to your goals if you’re not careful. Spending countless hours scrolling through social media feeds, impulsively checking e-mail at all hours of the day or night, or getting lost in addicting – yet distracting – games are means through which your smartphone can obstruct your growth. By using your smartphone the smart way and downloading one or more productivity apps, you can use it for good, and turbocharge your self-discipline and goal setting power.
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