September 8, 2024

Eliminate Distractions

Posted August 13, 2009 at 8:53am by iClarified · 3932 views
roobasoft has released Concentrate 1.0, their new productively enhancement tool for Mac OS X. Perfect for students, writers, developers, and designers alike, Concentrate is a unique solution to help anyone work and study more productively, by setting up their Mac so they can get things done. Fewer Distractions. More Productivity.

In Concentrate, users can create and name an activity, choose the appropriate actions they wish to run, and Concentrate sets up their computer for them. Launch or quit applications, open or even block websites, open documents, set chat status, speak a message, play a sound, or even run scripts. Additionally, Concentrate natively supports Growl notifications to help users stay on track.

"Concentrate was developed out of necessity" said Brian Cooke, founder of roobasoft. "I would constantly catch myself procrastinating the work I had to do by visiting unimportant websites or constantly checking my email. I needed something to keep me focused on what I should be doing. Allocating a chunk of time to stay 100% focused on an activity was born from my interest in the Pomodoro Technique, and that's where the original idea for Concentrate came from."

Actions that can be run include:
* Launch Applications: Choose apps needed to complete any activity
* Quit Applications: Quit any distracting or unnecessary apps
* Open Websites: Open any sites needed for the current activity
* Block Websites: Avoid distracting sites like Twitter or Facebook
* Open Documents: Open any pertinent documents in their default applications
* Set Chat Status: Set iChat, Adium or Skype status to away
* Speak a Message: Set up spoken messages to act as alerts to help stay on task
* Play a Sound: Add a sound alert to notify progress along the way
* Run Scripts: Run scripts to remove any unique distractions not already eliminated
* Growl: Stay on track with Growl notifications

When Concentrate is launched, users first create and name their new Activity, and then Drag & Drop the available Actions into their activity list. Actions are triggered sequentially; they may be ordered in any way to alter which one triggers first. Additionally, Concentrate includes a handy timer for to facilitate concentrating on specific activities. It also doubles as a countdown timer letting users know how many more minutes they have allocated for given activity. This makes Concentrate a wonderful addition to anyone's GTD toolkit and a perfect complement to Apple's iLife Suite. Concentrate ships with an example Activity Set so that users can get started right away.

Pricing and Availability:
Concentrate 1.0 is priced at only $29.00 (USD). 60 Day Money-Back Guarantee. A full-featured demo is available for download and provides 60 hours of concentration free.


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