I have tried several different options—Pandora, Spotify, and even a neat website called SimplyNoise. While they were helpful at masking most of the distracting sounds of the office, masking was all they really did. Occasionally I would feel compelled to skip a song that was distracting, or that I just didn’t like. Worse, if they played a song I liked, I would sometimes find myself concentrating on it rather than my work. Either way, what was supposed to be keeping me from distractions actually became the distraction.
That’s why my interest was peaked when I came across Focus@Will. It is a streaming music service that is intended to help you do exactly what the name suggests: focus at will.
Their website has a page dedicated to explaining the science of how it all works, but I’ll give you the short version: The music playing through the service is specifically chosen to help you much more quickly achieve what is called “flow” state—the state at which you are fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus on the task at hand.
Now before you dismiss it as some sort of psychological mumbo-jumbo, let me be the first to tell you that I have noticed a definite difference in my ability to concentrate when I’m using the service, versus when I’m not. Sometimes I even manage to get completely lost in whatever project I’m working on, yet come away feeling energized rather than drained.
Of course every good thing comes with a cost, and Focus@Will is no different. There is a monthly subscription fee of about $6 per month, but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial to see whether it will actually work for you.
The Rundown:
- Sign up for your free trial here.
- Explore the various “channels” (accessed through the top-right menu on the player page). Notice that you can adjust the intensity of each one to suit your mood.
- Give a gift account!
- Download the app for iOS or Android.
—Daniel
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