How To Use 'Take-a-break' To Learn Faster and Focus Better
If you desire to learn faster, improve your relationships, or to be special at just anything you do, Stay Focused’s ‘Take-a-break’ feature will be a life-changing tool for you.
You’re trying to study that paper and suddenly the email alert pops up and your attention gets divided.
You're speaking to your partner and suddenly hear the notification for a new WhatsApp message and your attention gets divided.
You cannot achieve your best this way!
An award-winning book, Deep Work, was published just to prove that how successful you are at learning fast and producing special work, is determined majorly by how much deep work you can do: i.e how much you can focus deeply without thinking of other things.
In today’s world, that is almost a luxury .
So Whats the solution? Take A Break.
The Take-a-break feature ensures that you can focus completely on what matters for the specific amount of time you choose, without the usual interruption of your phone.
What’s more beautiful? It allows you to work on your phone without the interruption of your phone.
How? The feature allows you to set specific apps you want to use for a certain amount of time, and then it blocks access to all other apps.
For example, if you want to read a book on your phone, then you only select your reading app and it will block access to all other distracting apps until your time is over.
So How Do You Take a break ?
Step 1: Click on ‘Take a break’ in the homepage of the app’s interface.
When you launch your Stay Focused app, you will be greeted by a screen similar to the one in the picture above. Click on the “take a break” section as highlighted by the orange arrow in the image .
Step 2: Choose how long you want to take a break for
When you click on the take-a-break section, the first thing you see is a timer select as shown in the orange box in the image above.
Use that timer to set how long you want to take a break for. For example, select 2hours if you plan to study for two hours without interruption.
Step 3: Choose whether to hide pause button
The next thing is to choose whether or not to hide the 'pause button'.
The pause button makes it possible for you to force-stop your break and be able to access all the distracting apps again, even before your time runs out.
The best thing , if you are struggling with personal discipline, is to disable the pause button so that no matter how tempted you are, you will not be able to force-stop the break until your time is up.
Note that this feature (hiding the pause button) is only available for pro users.
Step 4: Choose whether to block notifications
It does not really make much sense to take a break without blocking notifications because notifications are actually your biggest source of distraction.
So you should block notifications by clicking on the toggle button as shown in the orange box in the image above.
Step 5: Select the apps that you need
Now the last thing is to select the apps you need during your focus period. Of course, these should be only the apps you need for your work, and not the apps that distract you.
So click on the plus icon as shown by the orange arrow in the picture above to add the necessary apps.
That takes you to the final screen.
Now, you can select the few apps you want to use and click 'done ' after selecting them.
Step 6: Confirm Your Selections
After selecting the apps you want on the whitelist, you will be taken back to the previous screen, but now with a list of the apps you have selected showing at the bottom.
if you are satisfied with your options, click on 'Start Break'
Precautions
- Select Emergency Apps
Apart from the apps you actually want to use in the course of working, there are some basic apps you should remember to include in your whitelist. This could include your call, messaging, dictionary or bank apps, or any app that could be needed in an emergency.
- If you are taking a break for the first time, take a break for five minutes first. This will allow you figure out if you have missed any important or necessary apps, and to correct your mistake.
And with that, you can take a break from distractions and focus on what matters.