Recommendations

Focus Friend

I’ve got a fun recommendation, for all of you who have difficulty achieving that deep focus during the day. So many genius UI/UX designers worked very hard to ensure a constant dopamine rush when you pick up your phone, creating nagging interruptions throughout your day. Just when you get into the weeds on a project there your phone goes, buzzing, notifying, begging you to look at it. Depending on who you are, it can take as long as 25 minutes to refocus after that interruption (Based on studies from UC Berkley), making real productivity a constant struggle. 

Concepted by Hank Green, Focus Friend is an app you can download on your phone that encourages time away from that annoying technological marvel of engineering. The concept is based on the Pomodoro Technique, a cycle work mode that encourages pre-determined time allocated to deep work followed by a shorter period of break time. Side note, this is a great way to manage your time if you get a lot of emails throughout the day, by setting aside 15 minutes or so at the top of every hour to dedicate to correspondence and 45 minutes or so for deep work. As a designer (with a little ADHD) I’ve found it difficult to really deep dive into a project if I’m constantly concerned with responding to emails quickly. This method allows me to really put my all into a project when I want to. 

The way Focus Friend accomplishes this is by giving you a sort of tamagotchi to take care of in the form of a sentient bean character. You get to name him (my little guy is named Telemachus) and decorate his living space. Telemachus loves to knit (he must take after his mama), but he can’t work when he’s distracted by me surfing the web and responding to texts. When you set your app to focus mode, your little bean gets time to work on his yarn projects, proudly showing you his finished work when you return to the app after your focus time is over. These completed knitting projects turn into a sort of currency you can use to buy furniture and outfits for your digital pet. If you return before your focus time is up, he gets distracted and can’t finish his projects, resulting in zero new knits for that session. 

Honestly, when I first started using the app I was skeptical it would actually help me focus. Maybe it was that I related to his love of yarn-weaving hobbies, or that I felt guilty whenever I interrupted him, but I found myself getting successfully conditioned by this app. Now my little Telemachus has a nice chill spot, with a place to play video games and a desk to make his own crafts, all bought from my dedication to focusing. 

Focusing in a world that constantly fights over your attention can feel nearly impossible. It’s up to us to treat our time with respect, and give ourselves space to do our best. I think that’s why this app works so well, on me at least. It shifts my thinking into looking at my time as a creature to be protected and nurtured, rather than something I should be giving out freely. 

There’s a chance Focus Friend might not work as well for you as it did for me, but even making the decision to try is a major step towards protecting your attention span. It might be Telemachus’s knitting adventures that keep you from picking up that phone, or maybe putting it in your desk when you want to focus, or perhaps chucking it in a river when you have a major project looming (I’m not responsible for any water-logged devices as a result of this post). It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it works for you! So, today I challenge you to try to find a way to better protect your dedicated focus time. For me, at least, I found that when I made a conscious decision to allocate my time this way I was able to think more clearly and solve problems in a much more effective way. 

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Recommendations
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Recommendations

Focus Friend

I’ve got a fun recommendation, for all of you who have difficulty achieving that deep focus during the day. So many genius UI/UX designers worked very hard to ensure a constant dopamine rush when you pick up your phone, creating nagging interruptions throughout your day. Just when you get into the weeds on a project there your phone goes, buzzing, notifying, begging you to look at it. Depending on who you are, it can take as long as 25 minutes to refocus after that interruption (Based on studies from UC Berkley), making real productivity a constant struggle. 

Concepted by Hank Green, Focus Friend is an app you can download on your phone that encourages time away from that annoying technological marvel of engineering. The concept is based on the Pomodoro Technique, a cycle work mode that encourages pre-determined time allocated to deep work followed by a shorter period of break time. Side note, this is a great way to manage your time if you get a lot of emails throughout the day, by setting aside 15 minutes or so at the top of every hour to dedicate to correspondence and 45 minutes or so for deep work. As a designer (with a little ADHD) I’ve found it difficult to really deep dive into a project if I’m constantly concerned with responding to emails quickly. This method allows me to really put my all into a project when I want to. 

The way Focus Friend accomplishes this is by giving you a sort of tamagotchi to take care of in the form of a sentient bean character. You get to name him (my little guy is named Telemachus) and decorate his living space. Telemachus loves to knit (he must take after his mama), but he can’t work when he’s distracted by me surfing the web and responding to texts. When you set your app to focus mode, your little bean gets time to work on his yarn projects, proudly showing you his finished work when you return to the app after your focus time is over. These completed knitting projects turn into a sort of currency you can use to buy furniture and outfits for your digital pet. If you return before your focus time is up, he gets distracted and can’t finish his projects, resulting in zero new knits for that session. 

Honestly, when I first started using the app I was skeptical it would actually help me focus. Maybe it was that I related to his love of yarn-weaving hobbies, or that I felt guilty whenever I interrupted him, but I found myself getting successfully conditioned by this app. Now my little Telemachus has a nice chill spot, with a place to play video games and a desk to make his own crafts, all bought from my dedication to focusing. 

Focusing in a world that constantly fights over your attention can feel nearly impossible. It’s up to us to treat our time with respect, and give ourselves space to do our best. I think that’s why this app works so well, on me at least. It shifts my thinking into looking at my time as a creature to be protected and nurtured, rather than something I should be giving out freely. 

There’s a chance Focus Friend might not work as well for you as it did for me, but even making the decision to try is a major step towards protecting your attention span. It might be Telemachus’s knitting adventures that keep you from picking up that phone, or maybe putting it in your desk when you want to focus, or perhaps chucking it in a river when you have a major project looming (I’m not responsible for any water-logged devices as a result of this post). It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it works for you! So, today I challenge you to try to find a way to better protect your dedicated focus time. For me, at least, I found that when I made a conscious decision to allocate my time this way I was able to think more clearly and solve problems in a much more effective way. 

Post Views: 10
Recommendations