The internet and smart phones have a negative impact on productivity. We based our system on studies indicating that blocking distractions can improve productivity. Importantly, our system blocks distractions across all your devices - most other distraction blockers only work on your computer or on your phone. Focus Bear works on both.
Research indicates that exercise can help improve attention throughout the day in adults with ADHD. If you're not a fan of exercise - don't worry: you can meditate instead. Other focus boosting morning routine activities may help too though research is in its early stages. Focus Bear guides you through a morning routine that will boost your focus throughout the day. It's customisable as everyone is different.
Thinking about what to do next can be mentally exhausting particularly for people with ADHD.
Focus Bear bridges this cognitive gap by showing the habit routines you've chosen every morning and evening (and also during breaks). Once you set your routines, they appear automatically each day, so you never have to worry about what will happen next.
We bundle in visual protocols that enhance concentration based on research from Balcetis and colleagues.
Get a holistic perspective of your goal-directed behavior without having to manually track everything. Every week, Focus Bear automatically tracks your breaks, routine completion, and time worked and displays a beautiful graph of how well you’re doing. Studies show that knowing where you stand in relation to your goals can really get your motivation going.
We see ADHD as a massive issue that affects us personally (4 of us on the team have ADHD) and the broader community. It’s estimated that reduced productivity due to ADHD costs the US economy $87-138 billion USD per year (Doshi, et al., 2012). Children with ADHD experience significantly more difficulty with study than neurotypical children (Caci, et al. 2014). Untreated ADHD also has negative impacts on relationships, finances and almost every aspect of life (Wehmeier et al. 2010).
There are several reasons behind these performance challenges:
Diagnosis of ADHD in the community is increasing (Zablotsky, Benjamin, et al. 2019) due to greater awareness of the condition and also potentially due to the increased distraction potential of modern tech. Even people without ADHD are finding it hard to concentrate in today’s environment of constant dings and pings (Ra, Chaelin K., et al. 2018).
Although existing productivity and habit formation apps exist, they are not well suited to neurodivergent individuals. Therapy/coaching programs can help but are financially inaccessible to many people.
Because we felt underserved by existing solutions, we built our own app. We based it on research showing that practices like aerobic exercise, yoga and meditation can help with ADHD symptoms. We also read studies showing that distraction blockers are ineffective if they are too gentle (just telling someone that they spent 1hr on Facebook today is not helpful).
The goal of Focus Bear is to be a holistic productivity solution that blocks distractions during the workday and also guides users through morning and evening routines in real-time. The combination of (not gentle) distraction blocking and the real-time habit guidance is both unique and effective at mitigating execution dysfunction challenges. We also built a feature to reduce tech usage in the evening and thus enhance sleep quality.
In the future, we hope to undertake a research study investigating the effectiveness of our app. We’d value your feedback on how we can make Focus Bear even better.
Pre-chosen routines have to be completed before you can start work. Each routine step has a countdown so you finish it before you move on.
Break activities are pre-chosen and show at regular increments with a countdown timer. Enjoy breaks that give your brain a rest and don't go too long.
Focus modes, either as Pomodoros, built in, or customised, keep you on task and in flow for a set amount of time.
Every break activity and habit is automatically tracked. Every time a task is completed, a graph shows you how far you’ve come.
