We built Focus Bear with the help of our scientific advisory board. Standard productivity apps work well for neurotypical people but not so well for neurodiverse folks.
Read more about our approach here.
Other apps send you gentle push notifications asking you to track your habits. Focus Bear is much more hands-on: your whole computer and phone is locked until you finish your morning routine (you can still skip habits if you absolutely need to). It’s not just habit reminders either, Focus Bear does your habits with you in real time. For habits that benefit from guidance, it can play relevant YouTube videos (e.g. a follow along HIIT video) without the distractions of the YouTube feed.
There are a lot of content blockers out there that try to avoid distractions. We’ve tried a lot of them and haven’t found one that works well across all your devices. With Focus Bear, when you’re in deep work, your phone won’t ding and distracting apps are automatically blocked. We’ve got all the obvious features: pomodoro mode, block lists, allow lists.
Focus Bear reminds you to take regular breaks so all that productivity doesn’t give you a screen headache/sore neck.
Importantly, it won't interrupt you when you're in a meeting to avoid awkward screen sharing moments. We detect if your microphone/camera is on and don't prompt you for breaks until you're out of the meeting.
Not sure where to start? No problem!
Customize your daily routine with a selection of Habit Packs by fitness instructors like Emily Hughes to guide you through your day with short exercises like yoga, pilates, and breathing exercises.
G'day mate!
Despite my best intentions, every day my amazing morning routine would devolve into sleepily checking emails - and then wondering what happened to my time.
I wanted a tool that would actually force me to get my yoga done instead of scrolling. And I tried everything; parental control apps, hiding my laptop in a cupboard, asking my wife to slap me if she found me on email in the morning.
None of them worked consistently and my cheeks were getting sore.
In desperation, I started working with a MacOS dev on a new app that would blend the best features from other apps out there. One that would guide me towards better habits while reducing procrastination.
And now I have the solution - Focus Bear.
Since using the app, I’ve consistently done my morning routine and reached Super Saiyan status as a Yogi (or at least that’s my excuse for dying my hair blond).
Try out Focus Bear for free and have your beary best day!
Jeremy Nagel
Chief Bear Obeyer (CBO), Focus Bear
The Focus Bear app has been designed based on recent neuroscience and psychology research. Our scientific advisory board include Marta Galan (Registered Clinic Neuropsychologist and ADHD specialist).
Focus Bear has an emergency kill switch that will let you use whatever you need in 60seconds or less.
But don’t try to jailbreak! Barry will ask you why you’re stopping so you have to think before you call it quits.
Focus Bear automatically detects when you’re mic and camera are one and won’t show breaks when you’re on one. Works for Looms too!
Yep! decide your start and end times during setup, including break intervals, and change them any time.
Oh yes! Make them completely personal to you. You can even add in videos for workout breaks and cycle through them at random.
Focus Bear is available for Mac, Windows, and Android. An iOS app will be released soon.
Focus Bear features a secure cloud sync design, so you can keep your data and focus modes synced between devices.
Send us message through the contact page, or start a chat with one of our support team members by clicking on the chat icon on the lower left side.
No. The only thing we log is information you provide at the end of a Focus Block (what did you achieve/what were the distractions?) and when you use our quantified self feature (how many pushups did you do?).
Valid concern. If you’ve used other apps like Focus Bear, you’ve probably had them interrupt you at inappropriate times (e.g. when you’re on a video call) or be very inflexible with blocking. We’ve done our best to use the best aspects of nudge theory (i.e. a slight amount of friction will move you towards your goals) without being annoying. Focus Bear is smart enough to not pop up during video calls. We have two modes: “cuddly bear” mode and “grizzly bear” mode. In “cuddly bear” mode, it is very easy to remove app blocks and postpone breaks. In “grizzly bear” mode, you have to wait a while before you can deactivate blocks. Cuddly Bear mode is the default and you should only activate grizzly bear mode if you really want extra support.