Staying off your phone often requires a Herculean effort. You might have to hide it, stuff it in the bottom of your bag, or charge it in another room to get five minutes of screen-free peace. And yet, even with all these hurdles in place, there’s still a good chance you’ll grab it and unlock it without even thinking — and just like that you’re scrolling and texting again.
This habit is a sign you’re truly dependent on your phone, especially if you can’t stop reaching for it at work or hanging out with friends. It’s also why you might need to be guilt-tripped into giving it up.
That’s the idea behind Forest, a productivity app that encourages you to stay off your phone for a set amount of time, and as a reward you get to plant cute little virtual trees. The catch? The virtual trees wither and die if you use your phone.
It sounds silly — who cares about a pixelated oak? — but the app has 4.8 stars out of nearly 50,000 ratings, and thousands of comments that rave about how helpful it is for focusing at work, breaking a scrolling habit, getting through a study sesh, and more. As a phone fiend, I needed to give it a try. Here’s what to know about Forest, as well as a therapist’s take on why the app works.
Fast Facts
- Price: $3.99 to download
- Best for: Productivity, focus, breaking phone habit
- My rating: 4/5
- What I like: Cute trees, easy-to-use interface, helpful
- What I don’t like: My tree didn’t always wither when I looked at my phone
What To Know About Forest
Forest is perfect if you want to focus at work or be more present with your partner without getting distracted. Anytime you need to be phone-free, set the app’s timer from 10 minutes to two hours, and then vow not to look at your screen.
As the timer ticks down, a little seed grows into a tree. If you leave the app to, say, check texts or scroll TikTok — or if you hit the “give up” button and stop the timer early — your tree dies. The idea is to successfully get your tree to grow so you can add it to a forest, and the goal is to make the woods as lush as possible. If you use your phone, nothing gets added to the forest but a sad, withered stump.
The app has several motivating features. As you continue to use it you earn coins, which you can use to unlock 90 new types of trees and greens, including Monsteras, Christmas trees, mythical “Cloud Moon” trees, and more.
You can also add a competition factor by sharing your forest with friends. That way, you see who has the most trees. As a bonus, Forest also promises to plant real trees in partnership with the organization Trees for the Future, which you can do after you earn 2,500 in-app coins. It’s all the more reason to focus.
Forest works with iPhones, iPads, Android devices, and it can connect to the Apple Watch if you want to track your screen time.
Why Does It Work?
According to Jeanne Cross, a licensed therapist and owner of EMDR Center of Denver, there’s a reason why this virtual tree planting app is so helpful. “Gamified apps, like Forest, use reward-based psychology to encourage positive habits,” she tells Bustle. “Growing a virtual forest provides a sense of accomplishment and taps into our intrinsic motivation to nurture.”
Even though your digital tree isn’t real, it feels bad to let it die. “The guilt of losing a tree if distracted reinforces staying off your phone, making this simple game a powerful tool for behavior change,” she says. If that doesn’t work, the threat of an ugly stump in your pretty virtual forest might be your source of motivation. And the eco-friendly angle might also reel you in.
My Experience
While it seems counterintuitive to use an app to stay off your phone, there’s something about this one that really does click. When I set the timer, it gives me 10 seconds to put my phone down and get back to work before the tree starts to grow.
If I forget and pick up my phone, the screen says, “Stop phubbing!” or “Don’t look at me!” — or it gives me a very stern, “Put your phone down.” It’s a cute reminder, especially since I seem to grab my phone absent-mindedly every few minutes. (The struggle is real.)
It’s nice to have these chunks of focus time while I work. It keeps me out of my rowdy group chats and away from my endless TikTok scrolls — and knowing that a little tree is growing is oddly motivating.
While Forest is a productivity app, it’s also been helping me focus in other realms. I’ll set the timer for “work” sessions so I can lock in for 30 minutes and check emails or finish a story, but it also has other tags like breaks, entertainment, social, and study — and you can customize them, too.
I made a “reading” tag to turn on when I want to get through some pages without falling down a Pinterest rabbit hole. I also make a “walking” tag so I can grow a little tree while I go for a phone-free stroll.
The Takeaway
Check out my forest! In less than a week, I’ve racked up 400 coins, over two and a half hours of phone-free time, and almost 10 trees. (Ignore the withered stump.) Forest is definitely encouraging me to be less distracted during the day, and it’s successfully guilt-tripped me into lowering my screen time in my downtime, too.
Source:
Jeanne Cross, licensed therapist, owner of EMDR Center of Denver
