4 Essential Apps That Will Actually Help You Stop Procrastinating

For people who struggle with procrastination, having constant access to social media and entertainment is a nightmare. If that's something you're prone to, you already know how much time can be wasted without effort. But what if you can turn your smartphone into a companion that would help battle procrastination? You can save yourself from doom scrolling and focus on your work or studies with the help of certain apps. Productivity, mental-health, and focus apps help you block distractions, add structure, create accountability, or address the emotional roots that led to procrastination in the first place. Use these tools to work with your brain, not against it.

We looked at the best apps designed not only to time your focus, but also to make it fun. Some of them are presented as games, with each little victory pushing you towards more focus. Others find you a partner under whose watchful eye you'll have no choice but to concentrate on your task. And finally, some of them are designed with the help of real psychologists, and you can access their premium plan for free with certain health plans. Just remember that procrastination is not laziness. It's a self-regulation problem, which psychologists describe as a voluntary delay of important tasks tied to increased stress. 

Freedom is one of the most popular productivity apps out there. It's a tool designed to help you fight procrastination by shutting down your digital distractions. You can use it on your smartphone, tablet, or PC to block distracting websites, social media, or even games. All content marked as attention-draining will not open once you install this app.

Once you install the app, you'll get to choose which content you want to block. You can select individual apps such as TikTok or Instagram, or select a category like news and entertainment websites. Then you select how long the content will be blocked. Another handy feature is the option to schedule the block sessions ahead of time, but you can also do it on the fly. It's smart to create a recurring block schedule rather than a one-off event. That way, your procrastination will turn into a productive routine.

Freedom is popular because it can sync the content block across all your devices. Create a schedule on your phone, and the same restrictions apply to your tablet or laptop. That way, you won't be tempted to switch screens when you feel distracted. There's even a locked mode, which makes it hard to bypass the block session once it has begun. You simply won't be able to end the block ahead of time. Freedom is used by 3,000,000 people worldwideand has a high rate of reported focus and productivity increase. You can try out this app for free, but after the trial period, you'll have to select one of the subscription plans.

Forest is one of the most charming ways to fight procrastination. Each time you're ready to focus, the app will ask you to plant a virtual seed. As you stay focused and don't leave the app, the seed will grow into a tree. But if you succumb to your typical distractions and exit Forest mid-session, your tree will wither and die. This way, the app is giving you not only a visual, but also an emotional cue to stay focused rather than drift into scrolling endlessly.

Forest stands out as a focus-improving app because it offers gamified motivation. Each successful focus period earns you a coin and rewards that'll help you unlock different tree species and forest customizations. What's best is that you can use the Forest app and earn coins to help the real-world tree planting, as the app has a partnership with environmental nonprofit Trees.

For many users, Forest is more like a game that helps them beat procrastination, rather than just a powerful productivity tool. That's due to its fun nature (pun intended), visual progress, and environmental impact. Its gentle push to stay present and focused helps cultivate stronger positive habits, while reducing phone usage during work and study times.

Focusmate is a virtual coworking tool, built to help people beat procrastination through live accountability. Instead of working alone against your distractions, Focusmate will pair you with a real person from its global community. You both connect over video, share your goals for the session, and then quietly work, each on their own task, but together. Simply knowing your partner is there, watching you, and working alongside you can have a tremendous influence on focus. That sense of shared purpose and being "seen" will keep you on task. So if you have a TikTok problem, use this together with the newest TikTok features to limit your distractions.

Here's how it works: you select a time when you need to be productive and book a session. Focusmate will match you with another person who needs focus during the same time period. You can select the length of the session (25, 50, or 75 minutes), and you'll have to keep your camera on so your partner can see you working. You won't be doing the same task. 

This is not so much about collaboration, but about providing mutual accountability. At the start, you tell your partner what you strive to accomplish, and at the end of the session, you can celebrate the success together. This "virtual body-doubling" model draws on psychological principles that show how the mere presence of another person improves performance and reduces procrastination. For many users, this real-time accountability and the sense of community this app provides turn lonely tasks into shared rituals.

Todoist is a standout productivity app that'll turn the chaos of "I have so many things to do" into a clear and organized task list. Being able to see the exact steps you can take to perform the tasks ahead of you can help you fight the need to procrastinate. It doesn't matter if you have big professional goals you need to achieve, or simple daily errands that overwhelm you. Todoist gives you a central place to store and manage everything.

Todoist is perfect for everyone who needs to simplify their to-do lists but also add some depth to them. It lets you add due dates, labels, subtasks, and select priority tasks. You can break large goals into bite-sized actions that feel doable. The best part? You can use natural language, and the app will understand perfectly what you mean. Say you need to submit the report by next Friday. Phrase it just like that, and the app will automatically assign the right date and timeframe. It's almost like having ChatGPT help you manage your schedule. This is what makes tracking your tasks fast and intuitive.

That said, Todoist is more than a planning tool. Its Productivity view and Karma system gamify the whole process so you can have fun while engaging with both the app and your tasks. This gamification technique encourages achieving goals through different reward systems, helping you break procrastination and build positive focusing habits.