This article was published on November 15, 2010

Try This: Focusizer. Pomodoro comes to the iPhone to help you focus on tasks.


Try This: Focusizer. Pomodoro comes to the iPhone to help you focus on tasks.

TNW Quick Hit

Focusizer is a new app for the iPhone and iPod touch created to facilitate task completion using The Pomodoro Technique.

Hits: Extremely simple to use and well-designed user-interface.  Works quite well to help one identify distractions and hone focus.

Misses: Would like to see some tips on productivity added to Focusizer.  The app’s price could be off-putting for some.

Overall: 3.5/5

The Details:

To a certain degree most of us are procrastinators.  Some of us, myself included, often wait until the very last-minute before completing a task.  It isn’t a mantle worn proudly despite  the methods used to justify one’s proclivity for procrastination.  It simply means that you are either lazy, encounter too many distractions, or have some form of A.D.D.

Focusizer ($1.99) for iPhone and iPod touch aims to help any one who finds themselves lacking focus. Focusizer does this by employing The Pomodoro Technique, which is:

“A way to get the most out of time management. Turn time into a valuable ally to accomplish what we want to do and chart continuous improvement in the way we do it.  Francesco Cirillo created the Pomodoro Technique in 1992. It is now practiced by professional teams and individuals around the world.”

The app is straightforward and easy to use.  The best part?  It works!  Focusizer helps to get you on task and make its users more efficient.

After one launches the app, four 25-minute intervals called ‘pomodoros’  separated by breaks present themselves:

After hitting “Start” the countdown to the first break begins.  During each 25-minute interval the user hits “Distraction” anytime one experiences something that distracts them from completing a task.

Should one need to pause the timer, hit “Pause” and return to using Focusizer when ready to complete a designated task.

According to the developer of the app, Not So Original, there are five steps to implementing The Pomodoro Technique, used by Focusizer:

1. decide the task to be done
2. start Focusizer
2. work until Focusizer chimes
4. take a break until Focusizer alerts you
5. get things done

Focusizer’s simplicity is what makes it grand.  The technique used by Focusizer works.

While $1.99 is a little steep for the app in my opinion, as one who experiences tremendous difficulty staying on task, Focusizer is an app I am glad to have at my disposal.

Check out a video of the app in action, below, and if you too have trouble limiting distractions and getting things done, give Focusizer a try.  It really will help.

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with


Published
Back to top