My friend and client Frank showed me a new app the other day. It's pretty simple. It's a focus timer. You set the timer an put the phone down to focus on your work. You can use it to meditate, focus, or just simply to remind you to stay off the fucking phone.
The thing that makes this app different, the Forest app, is the UX. This app plants a cute little tree that grows throughout the period the timer is set. If you pick up the phone, the app says something like, "Are you sure you want to kill this cute little tree?"
Frank swears by it. I'm loving it. The first day I killed 10 trees. They sit, bare and dead, on a parcel of ground in the app history to remind you what a bad person you are. The ones that live - the ones that grow, they live there too. You can review your days and see the forest grow.
Yes - it's silly. Yes it's simple.
It works.