Stay focused and present with Forest

If you happen to struggle regularly with concentrating on tasks caused by getting distracted by your phone, then this week’s Inspiring CX article might help with that.  
When I was a teaching assistant at the University of Amsterdam, I had many sessions with the students about study methods and tips on how to avoid procrastination - a quite common problem not only limited to students. In one of these sessions, a student of mine introduced me to Forest, an app that helps you staying focused on your tasks, whether you are studying, working or just simply want to stay away from your phone for a while (for instance, when you are having some quality time alone or with friends and family).  

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Distractions caused by notifications, or just wanting to check out your favourite social media platform, can easily get out of hand and make you lose your focus. But how does Forest help in you with that?

It’s quite simple.  
You start with setting on a timer based on how much you want to stay away from your phone, and a tree will be planted. As the time goes by, the tree will keep growing. If you manage to not open any other apps by the end of the timer, your tree will be fully grown, and you will earn some coins after each successful session. If you decide to use your phone, the tree you planted will wither.

But that’s not only it.

With the Pro Version (which comes for a one-time only €2 fee), you can plant real trees on Earth; get detailed statistics on your focus habits and time distribution; allow some apps to be used while focusing; get access to a cloud forest; get more trees options, free trees and events; plant with friends and create rankings; categorize your focus time; get achievements rewards and fun challenges; remove ads and get other features such as customizing phrases to encourage yourself.

While cruising on their website, I bumped into this adorable personality test based on your focus type. Once you find out your type of focus, you can share with others on social media to find other people with the same type and become study buddies! It was quite fun taking it, and this is what came up to me.

What kind of focus do you have? Maybe we could be Study Buddies!

So, it started as an app that should lock your phone away from distractions, but as you can see it is much more than that. At MadeFor, we have developed 8 Customer Way principles to help you achieve customer centricity. Principle 5, namely “Experience is more than product”, we focus on how important it is in a connected world for brands to differentiate on more than product feature, since every service that a brand offers is an opportunity to stand out.  

Forest clearly succeeds in this, giving its users a full experience when using their app. It helps users achieve their daily tasks by helping them focus while making it a fun and rewarding experience, that can lead to achieving even more than expected normally. It also creates a community, by letting users add their friend groups and encourages them to engage with each other on social platforms. Moreover, it lets you personalise the service through many features along with statistical data and a personality test to help you better understand what works best for you. Finally, my personal favourite feature is that, by just staying focused through Forest, users help planting real trees on Earth. So far, users worldwide have planted 1,094,509 trees. That, to me, sounds like one of the best incentives to stop procrastinating and get things done efficiently.

Ps. All the coins that I will have earned by working on the Inspiring Customer Example articles will be saved to plant a real tree! Are you joining me in this challenge?