Motivation Apps

“I’m a Really Big Procrastinator…I always find myself leaving important stuff last minute!”

Does that sound familiar? If you find yourself constantly pushing back your to-do lists because watching your favourite show is more interesting than getting down and focusing on that piece of assignment that’s due in tomorrow morning, there’s nothing wrong with asking for help!

Motivation is a hard thing to grasp, especially if you are assigned things that you are just not interested in. Technology allows us progress further than we might have done without it, so I found some motivational games that you might enjoy using to progress to your potential goals. Let’s strive towards good productivity.

I believe all these apps can be helpful. But it is also important to remember that the most important thing to do is to believe in yourself that you CAN do things.

It’s about the will and the effort, which everyone is capable of. It is just the strength to get up and say, “I want to achieve my goals, even if it’s as little as smiling at myself in the mirror for drinking some water.”

Some reviewed app’s are free, some have a small cost. Try them and see what you think.

Forest

The app where you grow trees!

The tree grows the longer you work.

This app costs £3.99. It might seem a lot for an app that is technically a stopwatch but it does more than count the time. It lets you grow trees! You choose a seed, you set the time and you work! The point is to stop you from distracting yourself and going on your phone. Also, you can set your timer so that if you leave the app, the tree immediately dies as it is a distraction from your work. The goal is here to create a virtual forest to be proud of your collection of trees. The more hours you put in the more coins you can get so that you can save up for bigger trees to collect into your forest. This helps you start motivating yourself so that you have a “no phone zone” and can be used for many aspects of your life.

The app has many other aspects that help motivate you, like Forests and Timeline. These categories help see your virtual forest, but also give you specific minutes on how long you worked for. It can make your forest focus from a single day to a whole year. The Timeline shows you what actions you took to build your forest. You can change Tags that will help you categorise which trees grew for what reason. You can add your friends and compete against them for the most focus, which helps create a very positive work environment as well. You also have achievements to complete so it really does feel like a game.

Personally, I enjoy this app because when I play games, I have a mindset of being a ‘completionist’. For me, I would like to be able to collect every tree in this app as my little goal. Which means focusing on a lot of things to collect the coins to buy the trees! You can also plant a real tree, using the coins you focus on, so not only can you get the work done, but also can plant actual trees to help against the global crisis against climate change! No money required, you just save up your coins and plant a tree. Whilst completing your homework!

Habiticia

This one was recommended to me, by my friend Jack.

(say thanks to Jack everybody!)

Habiticia is a to-do list apps that recreates your life like a game. It is completely free for you to download and you get to complete your goals! How cool is that?!

By completing your to do list, you can collect items to not only upgrade your health bar and experience, you can also get little pets, some armour, wings and so much more. It helps motivate you to get more coins so that you can customize your little character! You can download this alongside your friends so you can see how far they have progressed with their own goals! They split the to do lists into three categories: one list is for positive and negative attributes that you either want to try and achieve or just avoid. For example, one of my positive attributes was to drink water but one of my negative attributes was to not eat sweets. I lost some of my health that day. The other two categories of lists were one that you had to complete in the present day and a to do list that you specifically wanted to achieve on the present day.

Overall, it helps you keep organised whilst trying to organise a routine and habits to stick to. You get to build a virtual character AND do your homework, which always helps me feel very productive. I like this app, because I like to game myself, so helping me think of my work as activities part of a game helps me so much in keeping organised.

Finch

Finch is like a personal pet you get to keep for £3.33 a month

You can customise your beloved pet’s colour, name and even personality.

This app is truly like having a personalised pet just for you. You can also add it to your Widget on the iPhone, so you can see your pet in real time.

Every new day you open the app, you are greeted with a little motivational message for you and a mood chart to see how you are feeling. As you open the app, you have to lists. You have one that’s for your mental health, which asks you questions like “Who makes you feel less confident?” or “What would you describe your journey from last year?”. It makes you stop for a second to review how you feel about yourself and to reflect on these things that will help you look into the future with a more positive view. You also have a physical side to it, where it tells you to drink water or to go outside, to change your environment from sitting inside on your phone. It has many great things like breathing exercises or quizzes on anxiety to learn more about these topics and apply. It even has goals for you to add and enjoy.

You can also do this alongside your friends as well and get reward if you invite them! I like this app because it not only gives you productive habits but also a productive wellbeing that looks after you to be healthy and care for your mental health too. Also, it’s cute!

Study Bunny

This app is similar to Finch with having a pet but it’s free!

It works with a timer for you to study whilst your bunny friend studies with you too.

Every time you complete a session of studying, you get some coins and increase its happy metre, so you can give your friend outfits, new stationary, food and so much more.

You obviously can name your rabbit so that it is personalised to you. It also has a feature where you can add your flashcards on it and also create a to-do list, so your bunny knows what you need to do and when. To make sure you don’t forget to come back and study, the bunny’s happy metre goes down, to remind you it needs looking after. It also shows your progress on how much you have studied with your bunny pet and you can also study with your friends, so you are never alone!

I like this app, especially if you are trying to find worthwhile apps for free. It’s very easy to use and you get a free pet out of it!

Fabulous

When I first opened Fabulous, I was surprised that it had been featured on massive news networks.

It’s very easy to use, so this app isn’t one to ignore.

It claims to use behavioural science to help commit to their intentions and goals! It feels similar to a to-do-list like Habiticia, but it involves a side of wellbeing as well. When you first open the app, it asks you to answer a quiz about your current behaviours, to really understand the type of habits you currently have. Once you have completed this quiz, it gives you a personal habit list to follow!

They categorize different stages of your progress with mountains, which I find a really cool concept. They give you challenges that you can complete and commit to, which helps your current progress. The premium version of this app costs, £3.00 per month, or £35.99 yearly. For what the app provides, it seems very worthwhile. If you are a student going to uni, or are a uni student, you will be pleased to know there is also a student plan you can have!

This one is very aesthetically pleasing, for those who care about the design of the app.

Motivation

Last but not least the ‘motivation’ app. Some people may already have good to-do lists or habits, but just don’t feel they have reason to do them. Motivation is an app that gives you quotes, that persuade for self-development and care. You, my dear reader, might be the type that need some quotes to begin your work journey. This app helps you set up your own motivational quotes together. Alongside this, it allows for you to pick what sound you want alongside your quotes, when you want your quotes to arrive and how many quotes you want a day!

This app can be placed on a Widget as well, so you can actually see the quote as well. You can also pick the icon image for the app, so it can match the style of your phone as well. You can also choose a theme to enjoy whilst reading and liking quotes. All for £1.66 a month or £20.00 a year. This allows you to like the quotes that you enjoyed the most and you yourself can make your own quotes that perhaps you believe and resonate with a lot more.

Personally, I like this app because it takes on a more thoughtful approach to motivation, reaching into your heart, to make you start your work.