Keeping Mindfulness: How These 2 Apps can help

Hey friends,

I really know that feeling, when you're in a highly productive flow state and work on something, but then someone writes you on WhatsApp or you get an Impulse to watch something on YouTube or TikTok. Every so often, I catch myself just opening a social media platform without even planning to do.

Those moments can really ruin your productivity because it normally puts oneself in that endless consumption treadmill which at least costs you 20 minutes and your will to work. Furthermore, regularly letting this happen puts you in a mode where you tend to daydream very frequently.

Of course, to counter this zombie mode, you just need to practice mindfulness. It's the state of mind, that you can achieve with meditation and less to no social media usage. It's the condition of your consciousness that makes you fully present. I once already talked about this though and that's not what I want to educate you on today. Now, I intend to show you two apps that I use, to make sure that I'm more mindful of anything that I'm doing.

1. One sec

This is a very handy app I discovered recently. You actually don't need the cheap premium (€10 a year) of this app to make your most used “social media demon” less time-consuming.

So, the principle of this app is simple. When you install this App on your Phone and do some quick setup tutorial, you can customize a basic but effective function. Because from now on, if you open for example Instagram this App will automatically turn on and puts you into an annoying screen that says, “It's time to take a deep breath… ” and then after 5 measly seconds shows you how often you already opened the app and asks you if you actually want to proceed with opening the app or don't.

So, why should you add this cooldown to your favorite apps? Logically, to counter the phenomenon which I just told you about. When we work, we sometimes get bored. When we get bored, we grab our phone and open Instagram to look to what's going on, for example. But oh! This cooldown appears and makes you realize what you just did automatically, it makes you mindful of your actions. Then it asks you if you want to open the app, and the responsible mind notices that you're actually working and closes the app. This short process typically saves you a lot of pain and long minutes because it's always more efficient to get the work done, and then do what you want.

2. Calm

This app is remarkable! Even though it will cost you €65 per year, or €12 per month, it is the best App to start guided meditating. After more than 100 mornings that I've spent with this app, I really bonded with the narrator that always wishes me a wonderful day at the end of each session.

In the beginning, 3 Minutes were like a decade, but now I literally do at least 10 Minutes every day. I've only got positive effects from frequent usage like less stress, less to no overthinking and better focus. It's truly the bench press for your mind, and it really sharpens your ability to concentrate.

Personally, I find the Daily-Calm feature to be fantastic. It's a new 10-15 minute meditation for every morning, including a bit of wisdom to get smarter with. With time, it's a new source of education, and doing Daily-Calm for around a year basically turns you into a meditation guru. You can also choose a soundscape to always play in the background, for example a river or beach ambiance. At first, I only felt comfortable using something simple like rain, but now I always lock in a soundscape where an ethereal choir imitates the sounds of Tibet mountains. Believe me, after doing meditation for 100 Days, it only gets more crazy but effective. :)

Well, maybe you can get something out of this blog and practice mindfulness yourself. Even though this post came pretty late, I wish a wonderful day of course ^^