We've all been in the position where a task needs completing, but scrolling down Facebook seems much more appealing. Or a five minute time out turns into an hour break while we message back Auntie Maureen, get into a flame war with someone you haven't spoken to since high school or sign a petition to save an endangered rhino.
If you constantly find yourself distracted by anything and everything, we've found the perfect apps to get you focused and stop you procrastinating.
Forest (£1.99 on ios and Android)
Forest is a really popular anti-procrastination app with a very simple premise. You open the app and it plants a tree. The tree will take thirty minutes to grow, but if you close or minimise the app in that time then your tree will die.
If you make it through thirty minutes, however, you'll be rewarded with a lovely little tree which is added to your own personal forest. You can even spend virtual coins that you earn on planting trees in the real world.
Flipd (Free on ios and Android)
Flipd is a great little app which blocks all of your games and social media apps for a predetermined amount of time. It also replaces your lock screen with a timer to let you know how long you've stayed away.
It has a nice little interface, and blocks the things distracting you without rendering your phone useless. You can still make emergency calls, and unlock your phone for sixty seconds at a time if you absolutely can't ignore that text.
Arise (£2.99 on ios)
Arise takes a different approach to stopping procrastination, by addressing why you're procrastinating in the first place. It helps you to identify what is off-putting about the task at hand using an array of colourful demons.
Once it's figured out which demon is blocking your progress, it gives you the tools required to destroy it. The app walks you through the strategies to help you to navigate around whatever is holding you up, so you can get back to work.
Rare Candy (£1.99 on ios)
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If you'd really like a gold star whenever you finish a task, then this is the app for you. Rare Candy is your classic RPG, only you have to finish real tasks instead of in-game missions. And you get a nifty virtual character.
Rare Candy works on the premise that you need to complete 10,000 hours of a skill to master it. It keeps track of all the time you're dedicating to a skill, hobby or job and offers you in-game rewards once you've put in the hours.
Not done procrastinating? Check out more of our tech tips
