Charlotte Grainger 
Take control of your time once and for all
It's time to get productive and advance your career with the best apps for chronic procrastination. These time management tools and apps will help you produce more and stop the spiral of delaying and not getting things done. In the following guide, we'll take a look at the 9 best anti-procrastination apps and what you can expect from each of them.
Turn procrastination into productivity with these apps
When you're in the midst of procrastinating, it may be hard to stop. Focusing on your tasks and becoming more productive can be a real challenge. Luckily, technology can help you along the way. Let's take a look at some of the best apps for procrastination:
1. Freedom
To take back control of your time and attention
Social media, shopping, videos, games – these apps and websites are scientifically engineered to keep you hooked and coming back. The resulting cost to your productivity, ability to focus, and general well-being can be staggering.
Freedom gives you control by blocking the sites and apps that tempt you to procrastinate rather than work. You can set recurring work sessions which start automatically. During these pre-set times, this anti-procrastination app prevents you from accessing content that could potentially disrupt your focus.
Available on: Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, ChromeOS
Pricing: A monthly premium of 8.99 USD or yearly premium of 3.33 USD per month, or an upfront 39.99 USD annual fee
2. Focus@Will
If you have trouble focusing
Did you know that by nature, most people can only concentrate for a maximum of 20 minutes before needing to take a break?
Focus@Will uses the science-backed motivational power of music to improve your focus and retain information. Certain types of personalised music can help you focus, reduce distractions, and maintain productivity when you're stressed and under pressure.
This anti-procrastination app claims to have a specific type of music to help nearly anyone boost their productivity. Just plug in a few details about yourself and this app will play harmonious tunes chosen for your unique needs.
Available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, Chrome, Sonos devices
Pricing: 7.49 USD per month, or 52.49 per year
3. Toby
To organise your browser
If you think about the time it takes you to find a document or file your co-worker sent you two months ago, you can see how the minutes can quickly add up. Toby allows you to save time spent switching between tabs from web apps and websites.
Toby is a Google extension that reorganises your browser. This anti-procrastination tool stores your active tabs aside in customised folders so you can focus on one window at a time – without losing progress in your other windows.
The browser extension lives on every new tab page to help surface relevant information to you throughout the day. You create a collection and drag any open tabs into that collection, and the app will close the tab for you. You can sync these collections and tabs across devices.
Available on: Chrome
Pricing: Free
4. Evernote
So you never forget the important things
Evernote is built on the principle that effective note taking and filing is critical for success.
Helping you end procrastination, this app offers a single place for your notes, ideas, lists, and reminders. Think of it like a digital brain where you can save everything you've collected and then quickly find it when you need it through the use of tags. Evernote centralises all of your most important notes and documents and syncs them on all your devices. It also allows you to plan, keep records, and manage projects from any device – even when offline.
It gives you a plethora of tools to not only create notes, but also to share them with others. Once you share your notes with your team, you can edit, discuss, and annotate any document. It's great for collaborating with your team; you can write a project to-do list, set reminders for teammates and create “notes” that instantly save to everyone's devices. Additionally, the app groups notebooks and also lets co-workers present and swap ideas with ease.
Available on: Mac, Windows, Android, iOS
Pricing: Free or £6.99 to £14.99 per month for yearly premium access
5. Todo List
To prioritise your day
Do you find yourself unable to accomplish all the tasks on your to-do list by the end of the working day? If you're struggling with the same stale to-do lists, it's time to change that.
Todo List follows the “one-three-five” rule, making it easy to prioritise your day. You choose one big thing, three medium things, and five small things to accomplish and check them off as you go in this anti-procrastination app. Its emphasis on prioritisation will increase your productivity and help you to actually get things done.
Available on: Android
Pricing: Free, with in-app purchases
6. Simple Habit
To manage your stress
In this age of constant distractions and long hours, it's difficult to find even a few minutes of time to reflect. Yet finding that time and space can help ease the stresses of your demanding working life.
Simple Habit is a mindfulness app, offering audio meditations as short as five minutes so that busy people can squeeze a little tranquillity into their day. The app offers guided meditations for specific scenarios. Users can also find an enormous library of mindfulness content uploaded by the teachers on its platform and divided into topics like stress, relationships, and work. The content here can be filtered by both length and teacher.
Unlike its competitors, Simple Habit applies a Netflix-style model to the space, so there are multiple teachers to prevent content from becoming stale.
Available on: iOS, Android
Pricing: Free to download with limited hours of content, or 11.99 USD per month for premium access
7. Momentum Dash
For some daily inspiration
You might not think much of your morning routine, but it can be what makes or breaks your day; the way you start the day can either set you up for success or lead to failure. This is why setting daily intentions is so important to ensure you have the most successful and productive day you can.
Momentum Dash offers a personal dashboard designed to eliminate distraction and provide inspiration, focus, and productivity. The desktop extension lets you replace your new tab page with a personal dashboard featuring to-dos, weather, and inspiration so you can start each day with intention.
This anti-procrastination app lets you set a daily goal that'll appear on your homepage set against inspirational backgrounds of scenic views and motivational quotes, which you can customise. It's a nice special touch to personalise your working space and to encourage you to focus on what matters most in the moment.
Available on: Chrome, Firefox, Edge
Pricing: Free; premium version available for 3.33 USD per month
8. Mindly
To organise your inner universe
We have more electronic distractions than ever. Whilst you may not mean to procrastinate, the overstimulation of digital content can make it difficult to juggle all the thoughts that come to mind during the working day.
With Mindly, you can take back control of your thoughts. Mindly is a creative and visual organisation app for beating procrastination, built to structure your thoughts, capture ideas, plan speeches, and take notes. Through this anti-procrastination app, you create an infinite number of circles and interconnect related ideas. It makes your thoughts more colourful and easier to work with than a traditional to-do list. You can formulate topics and subtopics effortlessly, then print or share them from the app.
Available on: iOS, Android, Mac
Pricing: Free to download with limited features, with optional in-app purchases
9. RescueTime
To take back control of your time
Improving your time management can be hard. If you feel like you've lost control, RescueTime will help you get an accurate feel for what you're doing with your day. From procrastinating on social media to all the websites you visit as well as the apps you're using, it'll reveal it all.
RescueTime even sends notifications when you're spending too much time on specific tasks, so you can take back control of your time. It also provides in-depth reports and daily highlights to help monitor your progress so you can stop wasting time, eliminate distractions, and boost your productivity.
Available on: Mac, Windows, Android, iOS
Pricing: Free version available; plans start at 6.50 USD per month
Productivity is just an app away
Procrastination can get the best of us. However, it doesn't have to be that way. With the help of these anti-procrastination apps, you can improve your output and get more done at work. Why not try out a few to start with and see which ones work for you?
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This article was originally written by Yasmin Panahizadi Booth and has been updated by Charlotte Grainger. TopCV does not endorse any of the apps listed here.