Mind Focus

I decided to take a leap with my first product, Mind Focus, a mobile app for Android that helps to concentrate fast and reclaim the ravaged attention that we all have nowadays.

And, from what I can see, it seems that I've decided to go in the opposite direction. Backwards in time, even, since I created an old-school app that you only pay once and it's yours, without ads, tracking, or subscriptions.

It's ok, it's a side passion project, a tool that I've used myself and I think can help others, and I'm curious about its possibilities and reach, so this is more an exploration than a business.

In Mind Focus I've combined the two things that have worked best for me and that the data also corroborates:

• The Pomodoro technique (and time-boxing in general as a task management approach).

• Isochronic tones (along with other sounds and soundscapes like pink or brown noise) to sync the brain with focused states of mind.

Personally, isochronic tones worked much better for concentration than other options like binaural beats and the emerging science also seems to show a greater effectiveness (yes, I'm a data nerd, here's an article about the science behind the app).

The main innovation is that the tones used are not looped mp3s, but generated on the fly, with an adaptive ramp system to naturally accustom the brain to the right focus state.

Likewise, that tone generation takes into account the time of day (and people's natural ultradian rhythms) to generate the optimal frequency.

I also gradually gathered what has worked best for me to tame my anxiety (for example, breathing techniques like the physiological sigh) or recover an attention wrecked by the tyranny of the algorithm.

I'm old(ish). I lived without the Internet and then with it, so I hate the endless scam of paying all the time and owning nothing, so there's a very cheap PRO version, but no subscriptions of any kind.

Although, honestly, the free part of the app is very generous for most people.

There are also no ads of any kind in that free version, it also doesn't collect statistics of any kind (not even anonymous ones) and the app works 100% offline.

I could keep writing, but what for? Mind Focus can be downloaded for free from the Play Store and everyone can check for themselves whether it works for them or not.

I plan to log here my journey trying to bring Mind Focus to an audience. I know that in these times of noise, options and AI, it's more difficult than ever, but at least it will be a learning experience.

The first step will be doing things that don't scale, as Paul Graham wrote many moons ago. 

We'll see if there is room for the past in this present.