The World Wide Web is saturated with lists of tools promising to help people be more productive, from Hours (which tracks the time you spend on tasks versus the time you spend on distractions) to Google Keep (where you can create virtual post-its).
What makes new productivity app Time 2 stand out is the fact that it addresses the psychology behind the process of procrastinating tasks, according to Shaan Singh, a Harvard University freshman who launched Time 2 in early December 2017.
"Why do we procrastinate? We know that it always ends the same way, it always has the same consequences," Singh explained in a recent interview. "And the reason is... It's not something that we can really control."
Citing a recent Ted Talk by Tim Urban, Singh said that you're most likely to get things done and stay focused if you have some sort of pressure driving you. "If there's a deadline approaching... we can do superhuman things like all-nighters and stay super-focused."
That's the reason why the design of Time 2 is all about countdowns. The first thing users have to do is create tasks and assign each one a deadline. Then, when the moment to work arrives, the app shows an animated container that progressively leaks liquid as time passes by. According to Singh, animations are easy on the smartphone battery and the app doesn’t do unnecessary work in the background.
Here's a video showing how Time 2 works:
Currently, Time 2 costs $0.99 and it's only available for iOS 10 and iOS 11. Singh didn't reveal how much money he made with the app so far but said it's in the thousands.
