Focus and get rewards

Sitting in class, listening to the lecture of the teacher when the portable computer in everyone’s pocket steals the attention away from the task at hand. Students take their phones with them everywhere and use them in class.

However, there are apps that use incentives and reward the user for being off of their phone. The application I have recently discovered is PocketPoints. This app gives you points every ten minutes your phone is locked and not in use. These points can then be used to buy coupons or deals for your favorite restaurants, clothing and apparel websites, etc.

The best part about PocketPoints is it allows you to select the school you go to and your graduation date, and detects when you’re driving. Whenever you are on school property, the app gives you double points for being off your phone. The downfall, however, is you only get double points only when you set a timer on the “goal” screen of the app. If you unlock your phone, or leave the app once you’ve set a timer before the goal is met, it will not give you the points you earned.

It will only allow you to be off your phone for a max of two hours, unless you are on the stopwatch that automatically tracks how long you’ve been off your phone. Unfortunately, this section of the app does not give you double the points no matter where you are. I see two hour as being very reasonable, though, because there aren’t many things today that will last more than two hours, and I don’t believe any student can last all day without using their phone.

When I found out about this app, I immediately got very intrigued and excited to earn points for doing something as simple as being off my phone as much as possible.

Overall, I use the app quite often and it has helped me become more engaged in my classes. It also sends you notifications right after you lock your phone to remind you that you are currently earning points. I 10 out of 10 would recommend this to every student and teacher. It has greatly improved my attitude, relieved stress, and has helped me do better this semester.