Forest (focus app)

What it is

Forest, made by Seekrtech, turns staying off your phone into a small game. You start a focus session and a tree begins to grow. If you leave the app to check social media, the tree dies, and dead trees stay in your forest as a record. Finished sessions add living trees, and over weeks your forest shows how much focused time you have put in.

What you get

• A focus timer with a tree that grows during the session.
• Deep Focus mode, which blocks other apps during a session.
• A browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that brings the timer and blocking to desktop browsing.
• Real trees. Forest works with Trees for the Future, which plants trees in countries including Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Cameroon. The site's counter showed more than 2.1 million real trees in October 2026.
• Focus with friends: plant together, and the tree dies if anyone leaves.

Price

Forest's site says the core focus experience is free, with occasional ads (never during a focus session). An optional Plus subscription removes ads and adds features; the price varies by country and app store.

Who it suits

Students who pick up their phone without thinking, study groups who want to keep each other honest, and anyone who responds well to a visible streak.

How to use it well

• Plant with a study partner for exam season; group sessions are harder to abandon.
• Pair it with a plan: know exactly what you will work on before you start the tree.
• Use the browser extension if your distraction is on the laptop, not the phone.
• Do not chase the forest. The point is the work done, not the number of trees.

Pair it with on Sefism

• Focus, habits and time covers phone and social media habits, deep work and study routines.
• For a browser-based timer with a task list, try Pomofocus.
• Ask Tauseef a question if you want advice on your own situation.

Best for: making it a little harder, and a little more fun, to stay off your phone while studying.