At one point, I was tracking all my activities with Google Calendar. I use different colours for different parts of my life. At a glance, I knew where time was going.
I no longer do this, as I am familiar with the rhythm of life and ministry, knowing which hour of which day goes to which activity.
Recently, I downloaded an app called “Forest”. It is listed as one of the Top Productivity app in Google store. This app aims to help the user to “stay focused” and “be present”.
Forest app applies the Pomodoro technique: set the timer for 25 minutes, you work on your task. After that, you take a 5 minutes break. After 4 sets of 25 minutes of work, you will get a longer break.
When you first install the app, it will guide you through some instructions. I think the default minutes of Forest app is 25 minutes, but you can adjust it.
What I like about this app is that I can’t up pick my phone for mindless Facebook/Instagram scrolling when I have something to finish up. If I am disciplined enough (not picking up my phone), I can plant virtual trees and earn coins, which can be saved up and used to help plant real trees in Africa: Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda and Tanzania.
As I am writing this blog post, I have this 25 minutes timer on. I get to finish this blog post as well as preparing for a short devotion for the meeting this afternoon.
The message I got after picking up the phone 25 minutes later, “I’ve stayed focused for 25 mins without touching my phone! #forestapp”
The coins I got
Planted a virtual tree today
My forest looks like this