I have talked about a few productivity and focus apps on this blog and I have found that although I did enjoy using each of them, none of them really worked for me. Flora is fun for those that have the money to donate and enjoy the incentives of keeping your tree alive, but I am a broke college student and can't use the app in a way that I would like. I enjoy Study Bunny, but I found I am not completely focused on my tasks when using it because of everything going on, it is a bit distracting for me. So, I went on a search for bare-bones productivity/Pomodoro/focus apps that would be nice to look at and are user-friendly.
Emphasis
Of all the apps I have tried, Emphasis was my favorite. I will explain why I say was my favorite by the end of this review. Emphasis is very barebones and really only includes the timer that is customizable. The timer has different settings from the "work session", "short break", and "long break". Then there are goals you can make for how many work sessions you have in a day and how many sessions you want to have before a long break. It is a totally customizable Pomodoro timer. You can also change the app's theme color to your liking, the timer type (pie or digital), sound theme, and settings like keeping your phone awake and auto starts. I loved this app because I could make it however I wanted and it was so simplistic. I used it for a while but as of today, the day I am writing this post, the app is no longer my favorite for one very big reason. You now have to pay for many of the customizations. Although I am an incredibly broke college student, I don't mind paying for apps and subscriptions that I feel are worth it and will make me happy. Emphasis would have been one of those apps for me, but their subscription price and option to pay have rendered the app almost dead to me. They are charging $24.49 for a year's subscription with no other option to pay monthly. If you do not care for changing and customizing the app fully, then, by all means, go ahead and try it out because it truly is a great app, but for the customizations I had made that made me believe it was a perfect app for me and my productivity, just to be prompted to pay $25 for them only a month after I had downloaded the app, I won't lie, it was pretty heartbreaking.
MinimaList
Of the two apps I am reviewing here, MinimaList is now my favorite. MinimaList is exactly how it sounds, a minimalist app that combines, you guessed it, lists, and includes a productivity timer. It is very easy to use and it really is minimalist. The app is all white with no distractions. How it works is you create a list of tasks you wish to complete and when you want to begin working on a task, you can set a timer. The timer is only a circle on a white background with the task at the top and the time counting down in the center (pictured below). The app also leaves messages to you as you work with the timer going. Some of my favorite messages were "If you see this, you are not focused", "If a man sees this, an app fails", and "A man is not focused, an app is sad" (can you tell I like Game of Thrones?). The app also will play sounds if you wish, but if you want to play anything other than the ticking sound, you must pay a MinimaList Premium subscription that starts at $1.49 a month or $4.49 a year or $5.99 for life if you subscribe right away. To me, I might like that subscription because of the features it allows you to have custom themes, multiple to-do lists, Sync across multiple devices, and more.
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