App of the Week: Forest 🌲

Over the past year or so we’ve seen an influx of apps designed to help you curb your smartphone screen time addiction. Even the Apples and Samsungs of the world have built screen time tracking capabilities into their latest models.

This week, I wanted to briefly share one app that I’ve been testing out called Forest.

They describe themselves as such: “Forest is an app helping you stay away from your smartphone and stay focused on your work.”

Pretty straightforward, right?

Well, the manner in which they keep you off your phone is simple, smooth, and surprisingly impactful—and not just for your addictive self—also for planet Earth.

How It Works

Step 1: You choose a type of tree and an amount of time, during which you won’t be able to touch your phone at all. Let’s say we choose 25 minutes to start. During this time, your tree of choice will “grow.”

Step 2: You press the “Plant” button and away we go. The app deters you from picking up your device with prompts like: “Don’t look at me!” and “Hang in there.”

**Step 3: **Once you’ve successfully completed the amount of time without touching your screen, your tree will appear in your forest! You can keep “planting” until you’ve filled up your forest.

What I really love about this simple app is that they’re doing more than just helping you curb your addiction. Every tree you plant earns you coins and when you reach 2,500 coins, Forest will actually plant a real tree a la Toms or Warby Parker-style giving back.

To date, they’ve planted 380,000+ trees in areas of need!

So next time you need to spend some quality time off of your device, give this a try.

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