Focus apps claim to improve your productivity. Do they actually work?
The Conversation••business
Key Points:
- Modern smartphones contribute to distraction and make concentration difficult, prompting the rise of productivity and focus apps designed to help users manage attention through timers, app blocking, and rewards.
- Difficulty focusing often stems from challenges in self-regulation, where unpleasant tasks lead people to seek relief via smartphones, which serve as coping devices but can derail productivity.
- Focus apps like Focus Friend use gamification and psychological principles such as incentives, reward substitution, commitment, and the IKEA effect to encourage sustained attention and task completion.
- Research on the effectiveness of focus apps is limited; while gamified apps are popular and enjoyable, simpler strategies like switching phones to grayscale may be more effective in reducing phone use.
- Users are advised to use focus apps strategically by
