If your attention span is anything like mine, all of this screen time over the last year has been brutally difficult, especially when it comes to simple things like staying on task and not checking Twitter 100 times in one hour. Luckily, a productivity app called Motion might help you get that time back.
Motion is an in-browser app originally designed for Google Chrome. The team behind it recently launched a Firefox version as well, effectively doubling your browser choices. While it isn’t free for long-term use, you can give the app a try for five days without paying a cent.
The call to action on Motion’s landing page is bold, yet oddly corroborated by those who use it: With the right settings, you can reclaim up to 2 hours of lost time per day. This includes, but is not limited to, time spent browsing social media, looking through complex file management systems (we’re not naming names, but Motion happily will), and negotiating with your planning app of choice.
In fact, given permission, Motion throws away most of your daily annoyances and replaces them with its own reimagined versions thereof. For example, Motion can replace your Google Drive and Gmail interfaces with a lightweight, easy-to-navigate version that—in theory—cuts down on navigation time. Motion also gives you a smart scheduler to automate at least some of your calendar tasks, and it won’t fail to hold you accountable for clicking onto a social media tab.
Actually, the social media behavior exhibited by Motion might be the most endearing (or most frustrating, depending on your level of addiction) aspect it offers. The app has settings that can hide newsfeeds, remind you (politely) to hurry up when you absolutely must check Facebook, and display an announcement that tells you how much time you have spent checking your socials for the day.
There are a ton of nuanced and personalizable features that Motion includes that aren’t covered here, but the end takeaway is this: Motion can save you a ton of time if you’re willing to let it do so. Whether you use Chrome or Firefox for your various nefarious deeds, this app is a must-try if you’ve been struggling to stay on-task.
Jack Lloyd has a BA in Creative Writing from Forest Grove's Pacific University; he spends his writing days using his degree to pursue semicolons, freelance writing and editing, oxford commas, and enough coffee to kill a bear. His infatuation with rain is matched only by his dry sense of humor.
