The best productivity tools to keep you focused

‘No Interruptions Day’ marked the final workday of 2021. With a fresh start and new year ahead, now is the time to clear your inbox, file your papers, clean your desk and generally refresh your working environment — without being disturbed. We’ve selected a few apps that we think might help you block out those all too common interruptions, keep you focused and at your most productive. 

In the words of Tim, Escape The City’s Content Researcher, “My old science teacher told me that he used to mark our homework by candlelight while listening to Handel. This would have been 2010, around 200 years after the electric light was invented.

In my head, he lived in a cavernous gothic house, with an organ behind him, a small dog on his lap and the candle casting the shadow of his pen across the walls. This all felt far too grand an image to be wasted crossing out mistakes on my Chemistry homework but he said he had experimented over many decades and Handel was the perfect music for him to work to. 

This was the first time I considered optimising my environment for work. That night I tried working to Handel too and, despite quite enjoying the aesthetic, my intellectual capabilities weren’t transformed quite as dramatically as I had hoped. 

However, it made me consider the importance of getting your working environment right. So to mark No Interruptions Day, here at Escape The City we put our heads together and selected our favourite apps that we use when we really need some extra focus. Here’s what we came up with, with a special little shoutout to ClassicFM for Elena, our Employer Happiness Officer.”

Headspace & Calm - Meditation apps

Rather than an accompaniment to working, we start with a total transformation of your ability to concentrate. When practised regularly, meditation and mindfulness can extend how long and how precisely you can concentrate. Headspace and Calm have whole courses designed to improve focus and concentration. 

Brain.fm

Brain.fm create music that increases productivity and reduces mind-wandering. They use science to build and test their music, running trials in universities that have proven that brain.fm improves concentration better than silence, Spotify and binaural beats. We could try and explain the science, but that would involve learning it first, we’ll leave it to them to explain.

Focus Keeper

This app uses the Pomodoro technique and makes it easy. Set the timer, and work for around 25 minutes before it reminds you to take a 5 minute break. This keeps your mind fresh and allows a little scheduled mind wandering. It creates manageable chunks of work, and you know that a break is never far away. 

You also learn that Pomodoro means tomato in Italian, who knows how useful that could be to you one day.

FLOWN flocks

Harness the power of group work and accountability alongside trained facilitators and make the most of flocks ‘deep work’ sessions. Flown run different types of sessions to suit your particular goals that day and ensure that you are always your most productive self.

Freedom

This one is simple and direct but requires a little honesty with yourself. Which websites are you using that interfere with your work time? Block them. For some it may be Twitter and BBC Sport, for you, it might be shopping, games, Instagram, or one of many other websites that are designed to grab and hold your attention. 

Reclaim your focus and claw back a few productive hours of your day.

Noisli

With Noisli you can mix and match different sounds in order to create your perfect sound environment for focus. Think you’d work well in a windy forest, by a river with a distant thunderstorm, with birds chirping and crackling fire? It’s all available!

We hope you find a focus partner for life among these suggestions - and that you get a headstart on the New Year and all you are going to achieve. Let us know your favourites!