"By the end of the day, my brain feels like it never fully focused on anything."
If you do any sort of creative work, you already know that context switching destroys focus. The mind has to put in a lot of effort to get back on track. One small interruption can cost an hour of work. Drowning in interruptions on a daily basis leads to burnout and mental fatigue.
"Is it just me?"
Nope. Inability to focus is an ongoing epidemic. There’s an entire industry built around stealing our attention. Huge corporations spend millions on it. They make us restless and unable to concentrate. The focus muscle has to be purposefully trained, and attention must be guarded.
"Should I use Pomodoro and block social media?"
Maybe... but the problem is that creative people don’t do very well with restrictions and rigid rules. You just got into flow, and Pomodoro tells you to stop and take a break. The tool that’s supposed to help becomes yet another source of interruption.
"So what's the solution?"
One Thing is my shot at solving this problem.
It’s a tool that helps you build your focus muscle without imposing rigid rules or limitations on your attention.
- It has a timer, but it’s a stopwatch, not a countdown. Stop when you feel like it, not when the tool tells you to. The timer helps you track your focus habits and improve your attention over time, but you are always in control.
- It’s also your personal work journal. Switching back to a task you worked on two weeks ago? Your entire journal is just one shortcut away. Drop it into your favorite AI chat and get a quick summary of what you did. Context switching takes you 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.
- It’s offline and private. All your notes live only on your device. You choose which tools, if any, you want to share them with.
Alex Sidorenko