According to the author of Sound Business, Julian Treasure, 66% of office workers are less productive due to conversational distractions. However, some people find background noises to improve their concentration. Finding the appropriate sound effect and noise is the key here, and the following productivity apps make good use of that.
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Focus Bear
Focus Bear is a feature-rich productivity app supporting macOS Catalina, iOS, android, and windows devices. The app has the following features:
- Focus Modes
- Habit Stacking
- Break Timer
- Focus Music
Focus Modes
To help you avoid self induced distractions from your computer/phone, Focus Bear lets you configure focus modes where you define what websites and apps are productive and block everything else.
Habit Stacking
Through the app’s habit stacking feature, you can create an achievable schedule for yourself without having to manually keep track of it every day. It will alert you with a sound before starting a habit routine with a full-screen notification system. After the countdown is over, Focus Bear will use sound alerts for you to end the session and move on to the next. This is helpful if you’re doing an activity where you’re not looking at the screen (e.g. journaling on paper) and might miss the end of the activity otherwise.
Break Timer
With a built-in adjustable break timer, the app also takes care of your break times so you can completely immerse yourself in your task until it suggests taking a productive break. It can be stretching, pushups, or even deep breathing.
To further ensure a productive day, Focus Bear has the allow list feature, which can be used to block every website and app on your device except the ones necessary. It is a far more effective approach than its popular alternate system.
Focus Music
To help you get into the zone, the Focus Bear desktop apps come with Focus Music.
We’ve chosen a shortlist of tracks including binaural beats which drown out distractions and keep you on task. Importantly our music doesn’t have lyrics - hearing voices in music is not great for focus.
Bear Focus Timer
Bear Focus Timer is a smartphone productivity app with a set of features. The app is available for iOS and Android devices. Its two main features are:
- Pomodoro timer
- White noise sounds
The Pomodoro timer is a typical productivity timer broken down into work and break sessions. You can adjust the timers and the number of sessions, so you don’t have to reset and manually start every session in a row.
To make sure your attention doesn’t constantly wander off to how much time you have left on your timer, Bear Focus Timer sessions can only begin when you put your phone face down. And if you pick your phone up mid-session, the bear will turn angry till you put it back face down again. The goal of this simple system is to prevent you from getting distracted by your phone and breaking your deep work sessions.
But for those whose minds constantly wander around and struggle to stay focused even after putting their phone away, the app offers a few white noise sounds. The white noises will help eliminate surrounding noises that could act as distractions, increasing your chances of engaging in deep work faster and longer.
Conclusion
Like how a race starts and ends with the firing of a gun, sound effects can be effective for productivity as well. Focus Bear uses sound alerts before and after the session ends to help you enter and exit deep work without wasting precious time. It also comes with Focus Music to keep you zoned in.
Bear Focus Timer’s white noise sounds can help block distractions and improve your concentration ability.
Hi I'm Jeremy, and I understand the challenges of living with ASD and ADHD.
