The focuswell methodology

A structured, intuitive, easy to use framework for getting things done. Hopefully.

Oct 05, 2025

I have always benefited from the methodologies and frameworks of others who attempted to dress the chaos and ambiguity of life and the world into something that appeared controllable.

I understand how absurd it is, but nevertheless, it does work!

Now I’m at the cross-roads where I haven’t found one that exactly works for me, in a modern fashion. So I have developed my own, in a modern fashion.

The central question it addresses is: how to do the things we set out to do?

This is a question that has plagued me for over a decade now, and I’ve finally decided to stop running away from it and face it head on. The outcome is the belief system laid below and the application layer described hereinafter. My mission can be simplified into the following statement: eliminate procrastination.

A Brief Note on Belief Systems

Behavior follows belief. I have learned that what the belief actually is almost trivial. As long as the belief appears reasonable, and the outcome of buying into that belief is a net positive in your life (and others), then it is satisfactory and sufficient. We need belief systems to operate. Without them, we become incapacitated and paralyzed. We are fortunate to live in a time period where we are not forced to adopt belief systems that don’t resonate with us and don’t serve us. But we would be mistaken if we didn’t then consciously construct or choose ones that serve us. This focuswell methodology is a belief system. If you choose to believe in it, then it will give you a basis for which to go about eliminating your procrastination and working towards achieving your goals. If it doesn’t resonate, you should continue your search.

The focuswell methodology

First, you have to see that everything you want to achieve in life will be determined by your ability to focus. What is focus anyway? I like the following definition:

Focus is the ability to give careful and concentrated attention to something.

That something is your objective. Let’s say you want to get into a good medical school. Your success in achieving that objective is directly proportionate to your ability to give it careful and sustained concentrated attention until you achieve it.

That is really it. That is the great secret to achieving the things you set out for yourself in life. The focuswell methodology asserts that the path to this optimal state of focus is: (1) building mental resilience, (2) seeing focus as a muscle, and (3) working from a smart task list. All of these parts come together to raise awareness — so that you know if what you’re doing on a daily basis is actually moving you closer to your goals or not.

Awareness is the greatest agent for change.

-Eckhart Tolle

Build Mental Resilience

Nowadays, most people assume that the culprit for our inability to focus is our phones and social media — external distractions. I strongly contest this. If this were the case, then simply turning off our devices should fix it. But the desire to turn it back on doesn’t come from a notification delivered from the sky, its a thought that enters the mind (oh this is ridiculous, I just want to check my messages!). I sympathize with the crowd that bemoans that we’ve simply become Pavlov’s salivating dogs and we’re powerless to the over resourced tech oligarchs. But… it’s not completely convincing. To accept that argument would be to underestimate the human mind. The mind is not so simple to be completely controlled by external forces. At the end of the day, we still retain independent will and freedom of thought. I’m not saying habit loops are not incredibly difficult to overcome, just that they are possible to overcome. We shouldn’t give up, and it’s not as difficult as we make it seem sometimes.

So if external triggers aren’t the enemies of focus, what is?

It is internal triggers. Internal triggers are negative and unhelpful thoughts that obstruct efforts to focus. This is actually what we try to get away from when we decide to scroll through social media. For example, if you’re studying for your MCAT and suddenly you have an internal trigger that goes: who are you kidding? You are never going to pass this. Well, then of course you’re going to reach for Tiktok! That is a very demotivating and painful thought. Social media gives you an escape from your internal world into the superficial world of others.

How do you deal with unhelpful internal triggers? Thankfully, there is a lot of science to back up an approach called cognitive behavioural therapy. At its essence, it disempowers negative thoughts by labelling them and then providing an alternative, rational response.

That is it.

You develop a habit of repeatedly disarming negative thoughts and your internal triggers begin to dissipate in number, and your focus is sustained! And those pesky external triggers behind to lose their power too.

See Focus As a Muscle

How do you get more focus? Simple: you treat it like a muscle that can be trained. You train it by stressing it (focused work), recovering (rest), and gradually increasing load (longer intervals). Lots of research points to the fact that our attention spans actually do expand with repeated, structured exertion like this.

The Pomodoro timer technique is one of the best ways to do this in practice. It gives you structured intervals of work and rest, both in the short-term and long-term. In the short term, it cycles through the length of one Pomodoro timer repeatedly with short breaks in between (e.g. 25 minutes / 5 minutes). In the long term, it gradually increases that Pomodoro time span (e.g. 50 minutes/ 5 minutes). Practicing like this consistently over weeks and months basically guarantees you build and strength your ability to focus.

The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will.

-William James

Work from a Smart Task List

In our culture, tasks lists go hand-in-hand with productivity. We are drawn to making lists for some illusory reasons (e.g. a sense of control), but there are also legitimate benefits to them! They provide:

Cognitive offloading: Freeing up important mental space for the brain to do other things besides carrying all that needs to be done in the head.
Clarity: Breaking down vague intentions (“work on project”) into concrete tasks reduces ambiguity and closes the gap from intention to accomplishment.
Anxiety reduction: Externalizing tasks reassures the mind they won’t be forgotten, quieting intrusive thoughts and lowering the cognitive tension of unfinished work.

You need a list. No matter how big or small your goal is, write it down.

- Richard Branson

However, I understand why lists get a bad rep. One is that list bloat quickly happens, where items are continuously added without being marked off in the same rate, creating an overwhelming backlog. Then the more overwhelmed people feel, the more items they add. Eventually all the benefits of a task list become stripped away, and at this point, people usually jump to a different app or format to start afresh with a task list of zero. Then the cycle repeats!

So in order for a task list to work, it needs to address this issue. It needs to not become overwhelming. It needs to induce checking things off at the same pace of adding them. It needs to have intelligent self-monitoring mechanisms. Some features of such a list would be:

Begin at Zero: At the beginning of every week, all tasks are moved out of the active task list to an archive. This means the active task list always begins at zero. To revive a task from the archive, you’re forced to rewrite it to be more clear and actionable.
Auto-Prioritization: The list auto-prioritizes tasks for you by comparing it to your overarching goals and attaching a label.
Feedback: AI assess your completed tasks and your inputted work logs to highlight whether what you’re working on is actively helping you move closer to your overarching goals, or simply busy work.

I wrote more in-depth about a mental decluttering formula used in focuswell in another article.

Awareness is Key

So many of our thoughts and behaviors on a daily basis are automatic and programmed. The key to changing them is raising awareness. The three-part system of focuswell come together to raise your awareness. The focuswell app gives you the necessary tools to change for the better.

A Focus Trainer

A self-adjusting Pomodoro Timer with comprehensive analytics to track your focus progress and growth over days, weeks, and months.