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Can an app make you more productive?

Short answer: An app cannot guarantee a jump in productivity, but research shows that the things good productivity apps do can help: tracking your progress, making specific plans, and reviewing your time. Studies find moderate benefits from each when people actually keep doing them. The app only works if you use it consistently.[1][2][3]

By Seth Richardson, Founder of ProcrastiGauge · Last reviewed 11 October 2026 · Based on published research (sources below)

Key facts

  • Monitoring progress: moderate effect on goal attainment (d = 0.40 across 138 randomised studies)
  • If-then plans: medium-to-large effect (d = 0.65 across 94 tests)
  • Time management: moderate link with academic achievement and wellbeing (158 studies)

The details

Three bodies of evidence matter most. Reviews of randomised studies find that monitoring progress toward a goal improves the chance of reaching it (a moderate effect). Reviews of if-then planning ("implementation intentions") find a medium-to-large effect on goal achievement. A large review of time management found it moderately related to academic achievement and wellbeing.

None of these are magic. The effects are moderate, they depend on people sticking with the habit, and most of the evidence is correlational or comes from specific settings. Anyone promising that an app will make your productivity "skyrocket" is promising more than the research supports.

What a good app can do is remove friction: it makes the check-in, the plan and the review quick enough to keep doing every day.

Limits of the evidence. Effect sizes are averages across many different goals, and most monitoring studies were about health goals. ProcrastiGauge itself has not yet been tested in a published study.
How ProcrastiGauge helps. ProcrastiGauge is built to make those three habits (record, plan, review) take a few minutes a day. Try ProcrastiGauge free for 7 days.

Try ProcrastiGauge free for 7 days

A one-minute check-in every night: a score out of 100, what lifted or held back your day, one specific change for tomorrow and a streak that keeps you consistent. Android and web, in English and Spanish.

Try ProcrastiGauge: 7-day free trial

7-day free trial, then $4.99 a month or $34.99 a year unless you cancel before it ends. Cancel any time.

Related questions

Sources

  1. Harkin, B., Webb, T. L., Chang, B. P. I., Prestwich, A., Conner, M., Kellar, I., Benn, Y., & Sheeran, P. (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 142(2), 198-229. https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/91437/Meta-analysis of 138 randomised studies (19,951 participants).
  2. Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1Meta-analysis of 94 independent tests.
  3. Aeon, B., Faber, A., & Panaccio, A. (2021). Does time management work? A meta-analysis. PLOS ONE, 16(1), e0245066. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066158 studies, more than 53,000 respondents.