Focus at Will the Productivity App You’ve Been Looking For

cindy — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 11:00:37 +0000

Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.”Sometimes, when you come across a product that improves your work flow, you just need to tell everyone about it! Last year, I was listening to some old episodes of the Go to Girl Social Media & Networking - Natalie Cutler-Welsh" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Go To Girl Podcast, someone mentioned the app Focus at Will. As a music educator I understand some of the ways music effects our brain, learning, concentration and comprehension. Also as a musician and vocalist I cannot work with my favorite music playing. If it has lyrics or if it is a familiar song because I end up singing along and not getting my work done. When I heard about Focus at Will, I knew I had to give it a try.

About Focus at Will

Focus@will is a new neuroscience based music service that helps you focus, reduce distractions and retain information when working, studying, writing and reading. The technology is based on hard science and proven to be extremely effective at extending your attention span. Focus@Will has a unique library of instrumental music that you won’t find anywhere else. Every track has been remixed, re-edited and scientifically remastered specifically for focus enhancement. We’re soothing your fight or flight mechanism, engaging your brain’s limbic system, to increase your attention span and general concentration.

Developed in partnership with leading neuroscientists Dr. Evian Gordon, Dr. Stephen Sideroff (UCLA Professor of Psychology) and ADHD expert and best selling author Dr Ned Hallowell. Trials show typical 12-15% positive increase in focus bio-marker and up to 400% extended session time.

Mom Maven’s Thoughts on Focus at Will

I have been using the service for several months now and I love it! I don’t use it everyday. I use it on days when I have a lot of writing to do or when I am finding myself having trouble concentrating on the task at hand, I go to my Focus at Will app, and get to work. There are many music channels and styles in the app. I have tried several of them. I have found Baroque Piano Beta to be my favorite. Other styles you can choose from are:

Classical
Focus Spa
Up Tempo
Alpha Chill
Classical Piano
Acoustical
Cinematic
Ambient
Water
ADHD Type 1
Oct Beta Test
Cafe Focus Beta
Cafe Creative Beta
Drums and Hums Beta
Drums and Hums Turbo Beta
Drum Zone Turbo Beta
Hand Drums and Hums Beta
Kora Beta
Kora Beta with Entrainment

As you can see, there is a musical style for just about everyone on the Focus at Will app. Also, looking at the screenshots above you have your main screen where you can set your musical style, timer and even skip tracks. Next is the productivity log which shows up when you finish a work session. Third is the graph of how productive your sessions have been. I’m a data nerd so I love this kind of stuff.

Of course, an awesome app like Focus at Will has a subscription fee. BUT, if you click any of the links in this post you will get a FREE 15 day trial first. This way you can kick the tires, test it out and see for yourself how much this app helps you increase your productivity.

Have you tried Focus at Will? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this helpful app.

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Listful Thinking -Book Review

cindy — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 19:00:53 +0000

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”I am a list maker, I have been since at least 5th grade when my teacher, Mrs Kelly, made it her job to teach us to be personally responsible for our work. As someone who’s done her share of online proofreading jobs, she used all sorts of lists and to help us do our best work, proofread and even to make sure all our schoolwork was completed. My love of marking things off lists began in 1974 and it is still very strong today. In her book, Listful Thinking: Using Lists to Be More Productive, Successful and Less Stressed, Paula Rizzo expounds on how to use different types of lists in your home and work life.

About Listful Thinking

A self-described glazomaniac, or list-lover, Paula Rizzo teaches all the tools and tricks she knows about lists and how they can help you manage your life in the new Listful Thinking. What do Madonna, Martha Stewart, John Lennon, Ellen DeGeneres, Ben Franklin, Ronald Reagan, Leonardo DaVinci, Thomas Edison and Johnny Cash have in common? Each is or was a list maker. These successful people along with CEOs and lucrative entrepreneurs all use lists to keep track of their ideas, thoughts and tasks. A recent survey by the career website LinkedIn.com found that 63% of all professionals frequently create to-do lists. Whether or not they use those lists correctly is another story.

Listful Thinking highlights:
• List making will make you more productive and efficient at work and at home
• Give you new strategies and fix bad list-making habits
• You’ll have more time to do the things you really want to do
• Be able to outsource aspects of your life so you won’t have to do everything all the time
• Learn about apps, services and websites to help you keep organized
• Give better gifts, throw better parties and be more engaged because you’ll have the time
• Be less stressed

Broadcast journalist Paula Rizzo is the senior health producer for Fox News Channel in New York City and founder of ListProducer.com. An Emmy Award winner, she attributes much of her success to her compulsive list making.

Paula Rizzo teaches all the tools and tricks she knows about lists & how they can help you manage your life.
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Mom Maven’s Thoughts

Listful Thinking was an easy read, I read it in under 2 hours. I am a list maker so I didn’t need all of the time she spent encouraging her reader to become a list maker. She also spends a lot of time, especially at the beginning of the book bowing down to Oprah and since I am not an Oprah fan at all I was personally a bit put off by all of the author’s adoration.

Chapter 2 is where the author starts really discussing the different types of lists and chapter 3 is the “how-to” make a list chapter. Again, I guess these are good chapters for non-list makers but I found the author to repeat herself often and not really give me any of the meat I was looking for. The next three chapters cover using lists at work, at home and to manage your lifestyle. These chapters are a little meatier but not what I personally was looking for when I agreed to read this book. Chapter 7 is all about outsourcing. I am the queen of delegating, just as my family Unfortunately, while I agree with her stance on outsourcing, it does come with a price tag and until I am making more than $20-200 a month I cannot take her advice. She also suggests using unpaid interns but, as we have seen recently in the news, most interns need to be paid at least minimum wage-unless they meet all six criteria listed by the US Department of Labor. Personally, this is a sticky situation I would not personally want to get caught up in. Chapter 8 deals with apps. Apps for listmaking. There are many apps out there and the author pushes Evernote, which is one of my favorites too. She lists several apps that I have never heard of so I’ll be checking some of those out in the near future.

Who Should Read This Book

If you want to be more productive and have less stress
If you do not live with lists for just about every area of your life
If you want to learn to make better use of the lists you make

While I didn’t learn much from this book, it was a good read and I did glean a few techniques to help me be more productive.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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