Are you the king of procrastination? Do you find yourself sidetracking to check a tweet or personal email? I have compiled a list featuring some of the best apps for stimulating concentration and reducing the likelihood of becoming distracted. No longer will you be forced to make feeble excuses about why office tasks weren’t achieved on time.

#1: Focus@will

This app enables you to stream music that is intended to boost your focus. The development team behind this project actually worked alongside neuroscientists at UCLA in order to gain an understanding of how certain types of music can influence motivation and put people in the right frame of mind in which they are most productive. Each playlist within the app is designed in such a way that you won’t be distracted. So you can forget about vocals or electric guitar solos, for instance. The songs are picked to help improve concentration and to get you into the flow of working. There are genres to suit every mood.

Platform: Android, iOS and can be accessed through any web browser.

Cost: You are limited to 100 minutes as a free user although if you decided to upgrade to a premium accounts then you will be charged $4 per month or $35 per year for the service.

#2: ZenDay

Have you ever had tasks slip you by because you’ve been preoccupied with other things? Never let this issue plague you again. This app combines calender information with tasks and do-do material and converts it into a 3D user interface, which then helps you to visualise what is on the horizon. A smart feature that this app offers is the ability to generate “floating tasks”, which are dynamically placed within calender whenever time is available. Depending on priorities, tasks get rearranged in the calender and once accomplished, they get automatically deleted to make more room for other commitments.

Platform: Android and iOS

Cost: FREE

#3: CARROT

Have you tried various to-do apps and found their functionality to be lacking or just too easy to ignore? Meet CARROT, your own personal “task manager.” This app will spend all its time prodding, entertaining and insulting you into fulfilling the tasks which you have programmed it to nag you about. Throughout your usage, you can expect frequent notifications such as: “Your torture begins now” or “my hatred for you already burns with the passion of 10,000 suns.” The app cruelly punishes you for continuous procrastinating by presenting you with the following message on your return “Public Shaming 001: Would you like to confess your laziness to all your social media friends?.” It does however reward you for productivity by giving you points that you can exchange for numerous prizes.

Platform: iOS

Cost: $0.99

#4: Clear

If you prefer simplicity over a multitude of features when it comes to task management apps then you’ll love this. Your to-do list is laid out in a tab based format, so rather than mundanely checking boxes, you can easily swipe away tasks that you have accomplished, pinch to change lists and pinch apart to create items. “Clear” colour-codes tasks in a heat grid. For instance, most urgent items will be shown in bright red whereas ones which can be left till later are highlighted in light blue. For an intuitive, simple experience – check out this app.

Platform: iOS

Cost: $0.99

Thanks for reading this article. I hope that you find at least one of these apps useful.

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