Jorge Quinteros
Blogger, web enthusiast & avid photographer based in Brooklyn.

4th November 2009

Grounded with Focus Booster

Walking into a supermarket is very similar to launching your browser to navigate the web in that if you don’t establish a purpose before your visit, you inevitably spend more time trying to recall or stepping away from what you came for other than focusing on what needs to get acccomplished.

We’re all guilty of this and while having all the time in the world would be ideal for perfecting a task, that’s simply not reality, so setting up perimeters for ourselves to “getting things done” is what’s most critical. Add to that the extra effort we need to put forth in fighting for our time from all other distractions (Twiter, Youtube, etc ) that we still willingly participate in daily and things get worst.

I’m personally a time freak and especially as it pertains to anything computer related. Not by choice but because I feel like have to. Any type of activity on these machines is equivalent to walking into a dark room and the presence of having a system to manage your time on them is the railing that will bring you back to reality.

Keeping Me Grounded

Focus Booster is this amazing, simple and elegant application I’ve been using that’s powered by Adobe AIR and it’s designed to help you eliminate the anxiety of time and enhance your focus and concentration. There’s quite a few other effectual applications that excel at the same thing but I really don’t need all the extra features that others offer.

If you don’t feel like downloading the application to your desktop, there’s also a neat online version with identical functionalities. The application is essentially based on the principles of the Pomodoro Technique which is a time management method created by Francesco Cirillo. It can be used for any kind of task and enables you to view time as a valuable ally in acomplishing what you want to do.

The idea is to focus on one task at a time through the following steps -

• Pick a task and perform that task for 25 minutes straight.
• Take a short break — about five minutes.
• Work on the task again or pick another one to do for another 25 minutes.
• Repeat until you’ve done this four times.
• Take a longer break.

The first time I applied this technique on my day off, I think I became more mentally exhausted thinking back how much I had accomplished in a day and not because I really was. I played Xbox, read chapters on my Kindle, published an article and cooked dinner all revolving around the 25min limitations. It felt great knowing there was still time left on the table to focus on other responsibilities.

I can’t highly recommend enough Focus Booster or the technique it applies. Test it out. I leave you with a passage by Keith Robinson which is what inspired me to embrace the method.

In my opinion, one of the biggest discouragements to getting things done is having a system that has to be managed. If you’re spending more time looking for new ways to help you get things done you’re missing the point. Keep it simple.