Managing My Time With an App

I was unproductive in the past few days and also last month of February where I only published less than ten blogs and articles. It is really difficult to start managing our time if we don't have self-discipline. Furthermore, if we started our day with an unproductive act, it is possible that we will be unproductive throughout the whole day…I can say it because it is happening to me.

Unproductive acts such as checking our phone, lying down in the bed for a long time after waking up, scrolling on Facebook and other social media are difficult to avoid and can cause an unproductive day.

Personally, I am experiencing it so I look for an app that will help me to avoid doing unwanted activities. I actually shared this app before and my daily routine so this is just an update for my past article and blog.

This app is called Block app, it is an app which can access your system (it will ask permission from the owner) and have the rights to block the apps that you will open depending on your set blocks. In my case, I am blocking the apps that usually consume much of my time.

This is an example of my blocked apps. On the left, you will see the remaining time until it unlocks the app. The exact time is also given under the category name. You can manually block the app and set the time that you want until when you are going to block your app. 

I am blocking Axie Infinity because it consumes my  time instead of doing my school work so I am putting a time limit on my game plays. But I am always spending all my energy everyday to earn SLP. I usually play the game after eating lunch and in-between doing my school work (rest time in Pomodoro).

There are three ways to block your app:

• Manual block

• Schedule

• Time limit per day

From the word itself, you can manually block your app by making a set of blocks, name the block, then manually block it by putting a time you want to block the app. Personally, I am using the manual block feature but I will definitely switch to a schedule block or time limit because I feel that it is better than the first one.

In schedule block, you will only schedule the time you want to block your app. For example, if you have a business thing to do from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and you want to focus on it without any distractions, then you can schedule your block app at that time to avoid distractions. I think it is suitable for busy people who always end up being lazy.

Lastly, you can set a time usage limit where you need to put the hourly time you will only spend in that specific app. For example, if you set a 3-hour limit on Facebook, if you spent 3 hours in Facebook, it will be blocked automatically and unblock it tomorrow. In this feature, I think you will be more productive because if you spend your time based on your set daily usage limit, you have no choice but to wait for it until tomorrow to unblock it.

Some people might think that we can uninstall it if we want to use the app again…but what I like in this app is you can turn on the prevent uninstallation feature so you cannot uninstall it if you want to use the app. Also, you can turn on the restriction mode to avoid unblocking the app. There are a lot of features in its settings and you can explore it.

Pros

For a long time of using the app, I learned that it has pros and cons:

Manage your time. It is undeniably that it can help to manage your time by blocking the apps that serve as your distractions while you are working and studying. Furthermore, you can also avoid doing unwanted activities during your work hours.

Cons

Of course, if there are pros, there are cons. There are times that you need to use the app that you blocked in a productive way but you cannot use it if it is blocked. In my experience, I need to login in my Facebook account to get the document that was uploaded by our professor but I cannot do it because I blocked my Facebook app.

Conclusion

Time is gold. But it is really hard to manage our time if we have no self-discipline. However, as they said, if there is a will, there is a way so you always need to look for a solution to be more productive every day.

Stop wasting your time and start doing the things that you need to do.

• All photos are screenshot by the author from the Block app.

• Lead image is created in Canva.

Published: March 13, 2022