Apps That Have Helped Me Get My Shiz Together in Quarantine

I started my first semester of my Master's Program online. Juggling zoom, creating a reasonably effective study space, and figuring out the other piling masses of problems that were suffocating me lead me to really re-evaluate how I'm spending my time.

In the book Atomic Habits by James Clear (A Great read, likely the book that changed my life), one of the key tenants in changing a habit is by affecting the environment to make your aspirations and processes easier to complete and repeat! Ask yourself this: Is Instagram really serving your purposes right now? Do you feel lost despite not leaving home, and crunched for time despite boredom setting in every 3.5 hours? Read on intrepid explorer!

1. Threads

The first, and hardest, feat I accomplished was deleting the Instagram app (If I need to do something not avaliable through threads, I use Instagram on my Desktop). However, I was only able to go through with it because of the Threads App.

The Threads App is an app from the Facebook/Instagram company that allows you to view posts that people send you, view friends' stories, and message with friends, without the added temptation of scrolling for an hour while you procrastinate on your work.

It still took me a while to adjust to not having a crutch ( I had already deleted Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, and had never used Twitter), but within a week I could feel the pull to check my phone lessen, and was able to refocus my energy on other, more meaningful areas of my life, such as school, cooking, and creating artwork for my Etsy account.

2. Libby

You always need something to fill the void - sunflower seeds instead of cigarettes & diet coke instead of coke.

Libby is an App that allows you to hold and rent digital copies of books from your local library system. All you need is a library card to get started. While the database for digital and physical books are different just in one library system alone, I still have gotten a good range of books that has saved me. After my local library opens up again, I would like to supplement my digital reading with physical books, but until then, Libby is a great tool.

The best part about this app is that you can send the book to be read in the Kindle app as well, allowing you to highlight and mark your books digitally, as these capabilities are not native to the Libby app.

I personally love to save quotes, so after I finish a book, or am done with it at that time, I gather all the quotes and paste it into my book database in Notion. This allows me to remember what I have read.

While it is a little annoying to do this manually, it avoids the monthly subscription to a product like Readwise, which can sync your kindle highlights to your Notion database.

If you want to learn more about Notion, you can follow the link to their product page.

3. Forest

Sometimes it just takes a little extra motivation for me to get going in the morning. When I just can't see to stop wanting to look at my phone, I use the Forest App.

The way this handy little tool works is that it allows you plant a tree, and if you leave the app to checks something else, your tree dies. I've had this app for longer than I can remember, and it has made some great strides in the way that it caters to the user's need.

Some new things I love are:

1. You can now set it so that the tree will not die if you leave the app. This is a really handy setting for me, because I pretty good about getting right back to work after answering a short text, as the app is motivation enough not to continually check it. If you find yourself needing the extra motivation, then setting the tree to die may be the push you need!

2. The company continually releases new trees for you to purchase with coins you earn from planting trees. I love looking at all the new little plants that I can add to my forest - it is a very small but highly aesthetical motivator. Even better, some of the trees have cooler iterations for longer times spent focusing, with a range of 10 - 120 minutes per planting session.

3. Once you plant a tree, you can turn on a white noise generator. I personally don't like white noise for working, but if you're into that sort of thing - Forest has you covered!

A little extra bonus about the app is that you can spend your coins planting real trees. The company Seekrtech has forest garden programs in Cameroon, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, and at the time of this article have planted 103496~ trees in these 5 countries.

Final notes

If you're interested in checking out any of the apps, I will link them here. Forest is the only app I have paid for, but I think it was well worth the price. These applications, combined with my personal motive to continue to improve and become better, have been a great help in creating more focused, deep work sessions.

Forest App on iOS & Android

Libby on iOS, Android, and In Browser

Threads by Instagram on iOS & Android