Struggling to put away their phones and work, teens today have a new solution, an app called Focus Friend that helps them concentrate on various tasks.
Designed by Hank Green and available on Android and iOS, Focus Friend helps users concentrate on tasks and reduce phone distractions by providing users with a game-like timer for a session and a bean.
A customizable bean is given to each user of the app. When a user’s timer is up, the bean finishes its knitting project, and the user can then ‘sell’ the bean’s work for credits that can be used to buy furniture and decorations for the bean’s house. The bean skin itself is also customizable, but that requires a user to pay with actual money.
“It kind of guilt-trips you into focusing, because otherwise your little digital bean loses its knitting [and becomes sad],” sophomore Sabrina Perng said.
The reason app usage persists, even when users incur consequences for using their phones and interrupting the bean, is because of the presence of the reward.
“It feels like a mini reward. I first put in a lot of effort, then I learn how many socks my bean has knitted, and lastly I get to buy something cute. This makes me look forward to the next time I study, because I enjoy the feeling of completing something, and in this case, this feeling comes from completely decorating my bean’s room,” Lin said.
While the app is primarily used for studying, it also has other uses.
“I try to remember to use [Focus Friend] every time I need to sit down and focus on working on something. That could be practicing violin, doing homework, any of that,” Perng said. “[Just] last night I was working through my chemistry homework. I have texts coming in, messages, DMs, all sorts of stuff. It’s good to have a reason in my head to just push those to the side, and Focus Friend helps me stay on track with that,” Perng said.
Other apps used for studying and focus exist, but Lin believes Focus Friend is the best.
“I’ve used other study apps before, all super similar to Focus Friend. The other apps, for some reason, felt more like a chore. With Focus Friend, I like how it is so interactive. Now, whenever I study, I have a fun goal for myself to buy a certain piece of furniture,” Lin said.
Focus Friend is more than a timer; it uses a game-like system that rewards focus sessions with virtual items to customize a user’s digital bean’s house, creating positive, accountability-based motivation.
“I would definitely recommend [Focus Friend]. It’s just so cute and charming,” Lin said. “There’s not much that can go wrong with a bean that just wants to knit,” Lin said. “But I will say, if you are someone who does get distracted easily, maybe you could put your phone somewhere else, because you can have [the app] on a setting where you are allowed to go on your phone, so just be wary. But for me, I would definitely recommend [it].”
