Forest: Focus for Productivity Ratings and Reviews

Tangible for ADHD

I am someone who struggles tremendously with studying due to my ADHD. Part of this is because setting restrictions on time and trying to force an intangible structure on myself doesn’t work. I can “say” I’ll follow a schedule to do my homework, but there’s nothing stopping me from straying from that schedule only I have a stake in, so I don’t maintain it.
This app gives me a time limit that has a tangible consequence for breaking, because the flower or shrub (or TinyTan BTS member) I’m growing will die if I break the rules of the app, and will remain on my forest record forever. I don’t want that to happen, so I follow the rules and do what I set out to do originally.
However, as is the case for many people who are neurodivergent, setting habits is almost impossible, because one missed step or one missed day ruins the entire process. So opening this app and turning it on to study is a choice you have to actively make every day, and that’s difficult. I choose to because I like the act of having a little forest I don’t have to maintain in real life, but also because I know I feel worse if I don’t study or don’t get everything done when I could have, but it took me 2 years to get to this point of knowing the choice to open this app and use it is worth it.
It’s so hard to do things of my own volition, but this app helps. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing at all, so I think it’s worth the download.

Developer Response ,

Hello,
Thank you so much for leaving a detailed and awesome feedback! We totally understand your situation and how much you've struggled all along; that's why we're always striving hard to keep improving Forest.
We want Forest not to be just a tool, but a partner who will constantly provide motivation and positivity to users along their focus journey. Seeing feedback like this really makes us feel like our intention has been approved and we're on a right track.
We truly appreciate that you have chosen Forest as your partner in your focus journey and are so glad that you've found your comfortable way to build a focus habit. Thank you once again for sharing your story with us. This really means a lot. :)

Forest is my new favorite app

I’ll be honest: I’m a student, and I spend WAY TOO MUCH time on my phone. It is a major distraction and I can feel myself getting sucked in but was having trouble ever convincing myself to just put it down and get stuff done. I never buy apps (I only go for the free versions of everything) — I literally just paid actual money for my first app ever earlier this year, after owning a smart phone for the past 6 years. This app is well worth the $2. It helps motivate me to stay off my phone when I’m practicing (music student) or trying to get work done. My boyfriend also has the app and we’ve made rooms to help us both focus simultaneously a few times but I’m hoping to get more friends to buy it so I can do this more. It is the perfect combination of motivating and making you feel disappointed in yourself if you slip up 😂 Seriously, it’s so satisfying to watch your forest grow and it’s very easy to use. You can also create new “tags” for why the trees were planted, which I love (I made one specific for practicing which is also a good way to help me keep track of how much practice I do). I had tried setting time limits for screen time/social media through iPhone settings but I’ve already started ignoring that....but Forest is so much more convincing and I just can’t let my sweet little trees die lol. Overall I love love this app and wish I’d heard of it sooner! It’s a relief to have something really hold me accountable for my screen time!

Consistent user since 2016, love it!

Hey forest team. I rarely ever post reviews, but I feel after this many years this app deserves my effort. I’ve been using this to help me focus since 2016 and have literally logged hundreds and hundreds of hours using this. It’s helped me with highschool, college, technical programs, and other courses. I’ve even used it to track my meditation and personal reading. I just want to say thank you. I have a ridiculously difficult time focusing thanks to a myriad of mental health issues that are quite literally out of my control. This app has been a game changer for me and I hope other people can have the same experience.

I also just wanted to voice some issues that I’ve had with the app (not very many at al but I know your development team is strong and actually takes reviews seriously). One issue is with the friends feature. I’ve tried to get many people to join the app and plant trees with me but I feel like each time it’s pretty difficult. That process could maybe be a bit more streamlined? One more thing is I think that I’ve noticed the app slow down as I’ve been using it. Maybe it’s because how much data I have logged in it? Not sure. It doesn’t affect the functionality too much but just something I’ve noticed.

All in all, hands down the best app I’ve had the pleasure of using. Again, thank you. If I could give more the 5 stars I would.

Honestly a game-changer

Don’t get me wrong, my phone is a useful tool, and I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m addicted to it. However, it’s also a super easy way to waste time you don’t even realize you could be using on other things. I use Forest mostly in small increments, and it keeps me from picking up my phone whenever I have a few free minutes and get bored. Since I don’t actually need or want to be on my phone, the small motivation of growing little bushes and trees is enough for me to direct my attention elsewhere- and it turns out that those few free minutes throughout the day can translate into a lot of extra productivity!

Otherwise: initial download price might seem a bit high, but considering that they plant real trees if you make enough coins to buy the option, the $2 is warranted. Coin prices in the app are average, but payment per tree during the week is okay and you can make enough yourself with a little effort (I personally think you should make a little more per tree than they offer, but it’s not a bad amount either). The interface is simple and intuitive, the art is charming and stylistically uniform, and my favorite part- the white noise options- are incredibly helpful for studying and neither overly expensive or so complicated that they become distracting.

All in all, great app that I use frequently. $2 has never bought me so much extra productivity.

Great for studying

Honestly, I’m the type of person who just suddenly goes on my phone or laptop in the middle of doing homework, projects, etc. It’s especially been a problem since this new school year started. This app has helped me quite a lot, though sometimes I forget to plant a tree before I begin completing assignments. It’s helped with decreasing the amount of time I spend on schoolwork, and makes me feel like I’m doing so much more. Whenever I do reach over to my phone and am about to do something besides studying, like scrolling through Instagram, I’d open it and see the tree on my screen. Then, I’d ask myself, “Do I really want the tree to die?” I’d say no. In the beginning of using this app, I was always close to using my phone while the tree is growing. I began to develop a mentality after a few days that I should finish my homework before going on my phone and do other things. Of course, I sometimes still do it when I don’t use Forest, but I feel as if I’ve lessened the amount. This is the first productivity app I’ve used, and I’ve always seen people recommend it. It’s definitely an app worth the money. You can use it on your laptop or computer as well, as a Chrome extension (which is what I started out with). It’s simple to use, and has a minimalistic aesthetic that I really enjoy. Overall, it’s a great app.

Amazing App, I Highly Recommend It

I have been slacking off and pushing off a lot of responsibilities lately and recently I heard a student in one of my classes mention this app and how you can grow little trees and a forest and I thought that was amazing, the second I got home I checked out the app and decided to buy it, one of the best $2 I have ever spent, I’m staying way more productive lately and I love seeing the little trees get planted, it has great graphics and design and is really simple to use. When I saw there was also an option in the app to plant real trees to help the environment I thought that was absolutely amazing and made me feel really happy for getting the app and supporting the developers. I have also just recently purchased the other app by the same developers called SleepTown and it is also amazing, it has been helping me have better sleeping habits and I have been way more productive and active during the day and just feel over all happier and healthier and feel like I’m getting my life back on track. I would recommend both of these apps to everyone, I have been telling my family and friends about it a lot and how it’s helped me and they love it too. Over all 10/10 great apps, I hope to see more from the developers in the future and love what they have done to help others 😎👍 🌲🌳🌴🌵🌱🎋🎄🍀 😴👍🌖🏠🏡🏘🏰🏕🏛🏫🏤

Totally Worth the Money

This is the app that’s got me through middle school and two years of high school. I don’t have a diagnosed focusing disorder, but I get writing blocks and procrastinate a lot. Like, a LOT. This app has helped me so, so much. It’s really got everything you could ask for. An amazing user interface, currency that you get from focusing, fake (and real) trees that you can plant to make a beautiful forest out of focusing, tags so you know where you’re spending time focusing, and really cool analysis tools that show you what days and what times you focus the most. This is the one of the only apps that I would say is completely worth your money. The tech team is really amazing, I reached out to them about an issue I had and within a day they responded and within a week had fixed the issue. I’ve also for years been pushing for a stopwatch feature in their feedback survey(as a student I don’t always know how long homework will take) and they listened! The only things I guess I would say could be better would be the leaderboard, since it’s worldwide and there are some people who use the app to just get away from their phone, so they can have seriously high hours and it’s really impossible to beat if you use Forest for studying. Overall, amazing app that has literally changed my life in a positive way.

Great app

I love this that it helps me stay focused and I can get enough of it you get trees and depending on how long your focus for depends how many coins you get because every 20 minutes you get seven points but anything like 25 minutes or how are you hat you can plant a tree anything lower than 25 minutes is a bush and any cool events you get cool trees the best part is is that you can’t buy anything but you can’t pay for coins you can’t cheat so the only way to get coins is you have to play the app for a while and it’s not technically a gameTechnically it’s not a game but such a cool thing to have if you’re having trouble staying focused like me I would totally recommend this app but anyone who is looking for a game to play don’t take this up but if your having a little bit of trouble I suggest taking a try at it it will be deafly worth the while of two box rather than going for the cheaper version the free one which was Flor at no offense but the only way you can login is my Facebook but this one is much more accurate and definitely the more original version I would’ve definitely done this if this was definitely free but it still worth two dollars you pay at the very beginning I would totally go for this app if you are really need some help focusing.

Easy, motivating, effective

I downloaded the app for work productivity, but it’s made me hyper-aware of how often I actually pick up my phone. For any task, just having the reminder that my phone is not currently available to me is extremely helpful. I’m realizing that I waste a ton of time that stems from, say, just looking at a text that could wait until later. Moral: don’t think this app isn’t useful because you’re not at a desk all day. It has countless uses.

I agree with what other users have said about gamification being a good motivator, and the user interface is very appealing. Creating and naming tags produces helpful data. For instance, if you’re concerned about work-life balance, you can see a colorful pie chart with a few simple clicks.

One thing: I’m fine with how the trees become more “expensive” as time passes. However, it can take a long, long time to gain sufficient coins after awhile. I’m not asking for instant and easy gratification, because that’s contrary to the spirit of the app. I think adding more achievement bonuses (that don’t depend on having friends that use the app or on leaderboard performance) would be great. Unlocking achievements is also rewarding and something to strive for, so I’d love to see more!

Developer Response ,

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.
We will forward your suggestions to our team.

Feel free to contact us via our in-app feedback system if you have further questions. :) - Forest

The app everyone needs

Let me start this off with a statement everyone can agree with — I never want to spend money on apps. But Forest is the best app I’ve ever used and I’ve never regretted spending that $2 for a second. I am a student with horrible attention problems and struggles with staying motivated, and this app manages to solve it all. I’ve been using it since 2018 and I’m only reviewing it now to say that the newest update brings this app to a whole new level. With the app allow list using apple’s screen time feature it solves every single little problem I had with the app (except for the plant together feature, it lags a bit when planting with users across platforms, if a developer is reading this please fix it!). I’ve referred so many friends to forest and it’s helped them so much as well, it gives us an incentive to study, to be productive, get off our phone, and then makes it so easy to do so. If you need help staying focused, this app is the app for you. And you can help plant real physical trees!! No other app gives you the chance to save your brain and the planet. I really do love this app & I can’t recommend it enough.