Focused Notion's answer

I've tried many productivity apps, and while they've mostly been helpful, they often fall short because they only focus on a single niche. For example task management apps, they won't guide you on whether the tasks you are completing are really moving you towards your goals, or they won't help you to be organized, or even help you avoid burnout. They just get you to do more tasks, which is limiting and why many people don't end up finding long-term success. The same applies to time tracking, note-taking, or habit tracking apps, they're great in their specific area but not for overall success.

The only way to use apps effectively for long-term success is to spend a lot of time working out what works for you, which apps suit your system and then configuring each app for that system. This is very time consuming, complicated and expensive, especially as you will need to try many apps before you find the ones that suit you best.

Focused solves this. It's an all-in-one system designed to work across all aspects of your life, especially in productivity, knowledge, and tracking. It aims for long-term, sustainable success, not just short-term fixes. Built on Notion, Focused offers unparalleled customization. You can adjust everything to fit your needs, from the homepage layout to adding new views or templates. This is something that just isn't possible with an app, customizations are often very limited if any.

Focused offers significant advantages over traditional apps. In addition to the above, there's no subscription fee, your data remains private and secure, and you have complete productivity system that works holistically across your life to help you achieve success.

Focused Notion's answer

I have been obsessed with productivity and organization for many years, since I my early 20s. Mainly due to necessity as I first was doing a dual degree while working in IT full-time, then I moved to working full-time and running my own side business with my wife + a fairly successful blog; and now full-time work and Focused + the side business.

So out of that, I have spent many, many hours reading books, learning different techniques and implementing them in my life to see how they work. I also got onboard with Notion very early on (moved from Evernote), so I built many of the very early iterations of Focused for myself before I even thought I could create something for others.

I think that is why I feel Focused is different from other productivity apps and even Notion templates (although I don't consider myself as a template at all, more of a productivity system). The value I add is the experience and the trials and tribulations of learning, implementing and using all of these different systems. So I know the pitfalls, I know what works and what doesn't.

So Focused is not just a tool, it also has all of the documentation and life coaching to go along with it. Tips, tricks, ideas to help people overcome the pitfalls I did. The biggest one which is common for the majority of people and which is a common thread throughout my documentation is that of overcoming guilt about not doing enough, because although that can be a short-term productivity booster it certainly isn't a long-term one. It is actually a productivity killer. Which why a lot of people start with a productivity tool or framework and get a short-term boost in productivity but ultimately don't keep it going so they never actually achieve what they are trying to achieve. This is the main reason I built Focused - for those people.

The other reason is because due to my 9-5 and the stress at work, especially during COVID, I ended up with a breakdown and burnout. I had to take time of work and the effects of that stress and burnout still haunt me today at times. It has been a massive journey of learning that productivity isn't just about doing more, it is about consistency. It is about processing emotions, having a healthy lifestyle and about learning when to work and when to rest. Just do do do isn't the answer. As a result of this, I major heavily on this in Focused, because the biggest killer of productivity is stress, anxiety and burnout. All things that can be avoided if the right tools and techniques are in place. I wouldn't want anyone to go through what I did, and so that is the other major reason why I built Focused.

Focused Notion's answer

Notion, plus the following productivity frameworks:

• The One Thing
• Getting Things Done
• Building a Second Brain
• Atomic Habits
• Essentialism
• Daily Journaling
• Productive Gaming
• Gamify
• Personal SWOT Analysis
• GEM

Focused is designed around my many years of experience using and applying many of the world's leading productivity frameworks. It isn’t just something that has been cobbled together, its based on actual real-life experience FIRST, making Focused a productivity system that actually works.