Be Focused - Focus Timer for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By ElevatingCreativity

  a great tool for "focus time"

  I teach classes on productivity and focus. One of the most imporant parts of a "productive" life is having focused time, with all distractions turned off, to do your core work. For years, I would just use a simple timer to keep track of focus time, and also remind me to take breaks. This worked okay, but many of the timers were clunky. Plus, I had no idea where/how I was spending my time overall, unless I wanted to separately track it. Then, along comes Be Focused. A perfect solution. It combines the timer with a lot more. It allows you to keep track of specific activities that you're engaging in, and how much time you're spending there. It automatically alternates between focus sessions and break sessions. It allows you specify how much time you want to alternate between focus and breaks, and will automatically remind you to stay on track. I haven't yet tried the pro version, but just this free version does a lot and is very useful.

  
  
• By August_M

  This is great; negative reviews seem to describe some other app

  I only have one quibble with this app being less than great for me: I would like it to take the computer’s focus away from whatever I’m doing to the app so that I have to actually decide and click to keep working. I usually work with music so the alarm sounds are either lost, ignored, or too jarring. There’s another Pomodoro-style app that I had been using that does the focus switch, but it doesn’t have the flexibility this one does, like pausing the work period and being able to log the task. I read through a bunch of negative reviews here, and they are all complaining about things that just are not true. Yes, you can change the length of the work period and the length of breaks, yes, you can turn on a ticking sound and control its volume. The only complaint I found to be actually true was that the default end-of-work alarm was too loud. But seriously, you knew you were setting an alarm from the app description; yet you didn’t check the volume? OK, people do just just jump in and a gentler default would be nice, but it hardly seems something to downrated to a 3 about. The rest of the complaints seem to more of that kind of thinking: it wasn't set to MY preferences out of the box and I didn’t bother to look at the settings before complaining. Seriously? Do you eat at McDonalds too much (where the default is just the way you like it) or what?

  
  
• By fqabba

  Does the job, in an easy intuitive way.

  - I have been using be focused for more than 2 years now, the application uses the pomodoro concept (in which you set a 25 min work session then a 5 min break). I can say, it does the job exceedingly well, in a good easy-to-learn UI. - I recommend using Be Focused for anyone who wants to custumize their pomodoro experience (I use 40 min work session instead of 25). Moreover, if you want to add a list of things to work on (studying, reading, etc). - In terms of improvements, I think if we can custimize focus time based on specific tasks (for example: when I put "studying" it automatically make it a 40 min focus session, while if I pick "playing" it makes it a 25 min focus session) and so on, other than that, the app is brilliant. Thank you for it!

  
  
• By Lyanlima

  Great help for concentration!

  I highly recommend this app to those who want a better time management. “Be Focused” had been very helpful to me, a highschool student. “Be Focused” has a simple, but highly functional and useful interface. I haven’t yet experienced any bugs with the app. The a lot of features in the app can be customized by users. The break time, intervals, focus time, and notification sounds and volume can all be adjusted. Some of its best features to me are the goal setter, the fact that it shows the timer when hidden, and the chronometer sound that can be played in the background. These features make “Be Focused" stand out from numerous focus apps in the market. A lot of thanks to the developers for the attention to details!

  
  
• By Mrchatterbox86

  Very Helpful Study Tool

  I started off with the free version, which works great and is still used on my laptop, but ended up buying the pro-version for my phone/ipad when they had a huge discount on it. With all the reading and studying that I have to do for nursing school, I was going insane (mostly because I can't stay focused for long periods of time) because I already have bad study habits and I just didn't know where to begin. I stumbled on to this app while looking for useful study habits that actually help. This app is very simple to use without having to too many "bells and whistles". I haven't really dove too deep into the extra stuff this app may have but maybe when I get a little more freetime I'll explore it a little deeper. While I love this app, I do have 1 issue (then again I may just not have the correct settings) that I wish it had (the phone/ipad versions)... I wish the alarms would still sound even when the phone is in "silent mode" or "ringer off" mode. I don't like having to turn the ringer on just to hear the "break start/end" alarm go off. Anyways, I LOVE this app and I'm glad I stumbled upon this. Thank you for being so simple yet so powerful!!!

  
  

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