Focus@Will: Control Your ADD Reviews

I have been using focus@will for quite a while. I think I am now paying for my 3rd year. I don't think I have ever stuck with the same thing so long. I use FocusWill any time I need to focus and be productive. It really calms me and lets me be my best productive self. I find I am not only more productive but that the quality of my work improves.
I can also share a funny story about my teenage son. He had a report due by midnight one day. He "worked" on it all day getting no where. Finally at 10pm I lost it and decided I would sit in the room with him until he finished. Again no focus!(he has ADHD). Finally out of desperation I pulled out FocusWill and played the music. He fought with me that he did want to hear it, etc. Comically within 10 minutes he was turned towards his computer and writing. It was like a switch had been flipped. He wrote for 1.5 hours straight and turned in his paper on time. Now he asks for "that" music when he needs to get things done.

As an adult with ADD, I struggle to focus. A coworker turned be on to this service (and this related app) and it has been amazing for my productivity. Somehow the music and tones in FocusWill keeps me on task as good as meds have in the past. I believe in this service enough to have bought the lifetime subscription. But the iOS itself leaves some to be desired. I don’t, for example, understand why it requires an internet connection? I like to put my phone in offline mode while I study or work or on an airplane, and that breaks FocusWill . Why not download and cache the songs? Also, you can’t pause the timer, and the only time you can record your productivity is when the timer expires without interruption. My phone rang during a study session which caused the timer to restart and a missed opportunity to record my productivity. It also caused the song to restart. If developer can address those issues which I consider to be basic, I’d give FocusWill 5 stars all day every day.

I’ve used FocusWill for about 3 years. I typically use it when grading papers or longer assignments. Sometimes I also use it when reading. During those 3 years the team has continuously worked to improve the functionality of FocusWill . I love that there is a phone and Mac app. The interface continues to improve its display offering some interesting images. One of the best features is a productivity tracker that allows you to see how much work you completed. I find this helpful.
I do enjoy the music— especially alpha chill, focus spa, ambient, acoustic piano and guitar and classical. Even some of the ambient sounds are nice, but not that conducive for my work. Regardless I find it helpful when I settle in for long periods of work. My only wish is that they would obtain some additions music for the stations or develop some new channels— in particular I would like to see a dub channel or downtempo channel.

I believe the neuroscience part of this works. I put on the music and I stay focused. Very good. Sold! I’m a lifetime subscriber.

But the user interface needs work. It slows me down. Please invest in a user interface expert. A few examples:
- The tour won’t seem to go away permanently. Why?
- Alarms interrupt the tune. If I’m using my session as a timer, restarting interrupts the flow since I now have to set a different alarm to get to my meeting on time.
- Please let me pause without changing the tune. I promise not to abuse it.
- I never want to be asked about productivity. I just want it to let me go again. If I don’t like the tune, I will skip it.
- Picking a channel is confusing. On the channel picker page (not sure the official name), aren't Labs channels? Aren't Favorites channels?I suggest renaming the Channels tab to something like Regular (or Proven or Official or Popular or Standard or Normal or Live).
- Picking a channel takes too long to get back to music. Need to be able to quickly get back to Player from the channel picker screen. Or, just add a Play arrow to the channel picker screen.
- On the channel picker page, please put the Favorites tab first.
- Why can't I change the energy level from the player screen?
- Why is there still an Oct Beta Test in April? Where is the beta for Nov? Dec? Jan? Feb? Mar?

#JustSharing

I measured my productivity with focus@will vs playing other music in background. F@W is hands down winner. It is better than pomadoro apps because the music is geared toward work and constantly changing so it does not become familiar. Better than just background music because no fiddling around looking for what I want to hear. I don’t really “hear” F@W per se, it just plays and masks distractions.

Why four stars vs five? I play it on iPad linked via Bluetooth to a nice stereo system. There is no volume control on the iPad user interface so a conversation with a client causes me to go fumbling around for volume button on edge of iPad. Also - it would be extremely useful to know how many complete sessions I have accomplished during the day. For example, a number displayed on the UI saying 9 would tell me I got in 9 sessions so far today.

I’ve been using F@W for about a month and bought the annual subscription. When I’m using it, I do find that the time goes by and I see that I’ve stayed on task almost without fail. As an independent consultant on billable hours, productivity is essential. I recently went off Adderall bc of related health concerns and have needed an alternative. I’m a life-long musician but don’t usually listen to music while working. The guide for selecting a channel steered me to Alpha and that seems to be just interesting enough to keep that part of my brain active but just uninteresting enough not to be a distraction. Now to get it to turn itself on!

One challenge - it sometimes gets stuck and won’t do another round of timed focus. A simple restart works but I don’t know why it’s failing. Otherwise 5 stars and worth the investment.

I’ve been the type of person that listens to music to help focus for a long time. Research on the affect of music by neuroscientist like Dr. Daniel J. Livitin has fascinated me and had a huge impact on my life. I remember one of his studies talking about how music in the trance realm helps people get into and stay in a state of flow. However, for me, listening to the same music over and over can either lose its affect or become encoded with memories over time that can be distracting. FocusWill is the perfect fix to that. I’m a huge fan of the Alpha Chill channel. But, I’m looking forward to exploring more of the options. Sometimes I prefer classical music or acoustic guitar and it even has stations for that. I would highly recommend FocusWill/service to anyone.

6 weeks using F@W and FocusWill . I’m not 100% sold that “the music “ works, but I’m less of a skeptic then when I first signed up. On a few occasions I’m definitely more productive/ focused but can’t tell if it’s the music or not? I don’t see any improvement in creativity or the creative mindset. I contacted support about this they said it takes time. I’m willing to give it a few more weeks or even months before I make my final decision.
That sad FocusWill needs some work, it’s a bit glitchy, especially when hooked up to another device ( car doc). Hooked up via Bluetooth in my car it cuts off when my screen shuts off, sooo basically completely useless if not hooked up with a cable. Not 100% sure it’s FocusWill but on some Devices I have trouble linking FocusWill threw Bluetooth. In a nut shell developers need to fix Bluetooth issues for the mobile app

Focus@will helps me focus while I’m studying. It might take a few tries to find the right channel/mood to fit your workflow, but it’s worth it to keep trying to find something you like. I think the productivity tracker is a great idea but it could be improved. Instead of only adding a percentage to rate your productivity, it would be helpful to have the option to add a note next to your session. That way you could record what you were working on, how much you got done, and/or any distractions that got in your way. It’d be a lot more useful to look back on later than just the percentages. Thanks for the great study tool!

I have been using F@W for several years and am now working on my PhD, and despite having other music subscriptions which also contain focus-themed playlists, FocusWill has still come out on top for ‘flattening out’ distractions and getting me in the zone when I have to slowly differentiate the details and integrate the big picture on challenging science/mathematical topics. In particular I have enjoyed the Ambient, Focus Spa and Alpha Chill channels, listed in order of preference for study subject difficulty (ambient for very abstract, ‘high resolution’ thinking). It has also been great to wake up and get the gears spinning to Focus Spa. I just subscribed for another year — highly recommended!

Recently diagnosed with inattentive ADHD (formerly ADD) and FocusWill has been one of the most helpful tools for increasing focus and reducing distractions. The paid subscription is worth it. I listen over my noise canceling headphones and it helps so much. Thank you creating FocusWill.

Suggestion for future update: I’d love an option to show the countdown in an analog clock rather than number of minutes left. I have the time blindness, and my brain seems to process a clock image as time passing better than the numbers. I have to switch over to an analog clock app after starting music in focus@will, but I would love to be able to stay in the focus@will app.

I’m starting to wonder if this is a real app. I created an acct and selected a subscription but it keeps showing an error. When I try to reselect a subscription, it says I’m already subscribed. When I login, it says my subscription is not completed and I’m back to the subscription selection screen. I verified my email. I deleted and redownloaded. I made a new acct. I got an email saying I must have gotten distracted and not finished completing my subscription....?!?! WELL NOT FOR LACK PF TRYING. But I gave it a shot and clicked the link and it wanted me to select ANOTHER subscription from a different list with lower prices only instead of subscribing through my Apple ID, this one requires a credit card. WTH?! At this rate, I can only hope it isn’t charging me every time it sends me on another subscription selection Wild goose chase for the ever elusive focus that I’ve yet to find. Thanks for nothing, I guess. Super bummed.

I am use FocusWill to help me concentrate and focus on the tasks I need to get done everyday. It’s especially helpful because I have REALLY bad Adult ADHD (the inattentive type). It has several “channels” to pick from and you can also choose what tempo (low, medium and high) of each channel you’d like to listen to, depending on what time of day it is or how well you’re focusing. It then asks you each time you change the channel or change your task, how productive had you been and it keeps a record so you can see when and what you were listening to during your most documented focused time periods...For me, it’s worth paying for the subscription!

While I enjoy streaming the chill music to focus while working on my desktop AND via the mobile app, the iOS app will reset the whole session/song anytime there is an interruption in playback: my AirPod pops out, you get a call, etc. Their support people just say that is by design and you should start a brand new season with ANY interruption. Give me a break - let ME be the judge of how I work best and let me continue my “flow” if I want - this happens all the time: 1. great music playing 2. Phone call comes in 3. New song starts completely different tempo and ruins my flow! This is the first time I’ve found a company arrogant enough to flat out admit the won’t put in an easy feature since they know better. Well, food luck with that attitude!

FocusWill was fantastic! Loved the Focus Spa and also the classical music option and I truly feel that it helped me to focus and therefore assisted in increasing my productivity. It was GREAT! I have recommended it to others. Now that the focus spa has been removed along with the classical music option and it now has channels titled, “Hypnotic Dance”, “Trance” and “Propeller Drone”, I don’t care for any of the channels. Even the names seem “cultish” or at best like it’s striving to hypnotize its listeners. I no longer feel focused while using it and I find the random noises included to be more distracting than helpful. I loved FocusWill for a long time and now I’m no longer a fan of FocusWill and have cancelled my subscription.

I’ve been using focus@will for a few years now and find it indispensable when I need to focus. I’m easily distracted and find it hard to focus unless I’m blocking out the world with noise canceling head set and focus@will. I used to listen to a “Mozart makes you smarter” CD and other focus downloads in nursing school and at work when I needed to focus, but found some of the scores to be distracting. Once I got focus@will honestly I never looked back, had a few streaming issues a while back but the program and app have been working flawlessly the last year.... Worth every penny!!!

I love FocusWill overall. It’s incredibly helpful for when I need to focus and has a variety of soundtracks to suit my mood and productivity goals. The one thing that kills me is the volume of the ding before a new track plays. When I have headphones in, I cringe whenever it plays because it’s so loud it hurts (compared to the volume of the track that begins right after)

I was just starting to get the feel for FocusWill and then I made the mistake of trying to use a timed session. Once you make this choice you can’t move back to an untimed session. Oh sure, you can try. The help states “If you would like to do an un-timed session, you click the timer button once to return it the to clock icon (no numbers will be displayed)” but that just doesn’t work. Tapping the timer button once just let’s you change the duration of the timer. Very frustrating user experience.

Given the price of FocusWill, and having just found a fairly significant bug, why would I even consider moving beyond a trial two week subscription??

I love using FocusWill at work. It really does help me focus. But with the last few updates I no longer can get the off-line music to work anymore. I do not have unlimited data on my phone. I just can’t afford it. And I cannot access Wi-Fi at work. So I must rely on downloading an amount of the music at home and then listen to it at work. In the last few months after I get to work, even if I left FocusWill open since I’ve downloaded the music, it will not play. I just get an audio loading error please try again message.
Please, please fix this!

Whenever I find myself distracted, either with wandering thoughts or distractions around me, I plug in my headphones and turn on Focus@Will. After about 5-10 minutes, I’m focused on what needs to get done. Whenever I feel like it’s taking too long to get into focus, or sometimes before I begin using Focus@Will, I will use their channel recommender, which consists of a couple of simple question. Then, I receive the perfect recommendation of a channel for that moment and I get back to work.