I’ve always had a hard time focusing for long periods of time. I like to imagine this makes me a great multi-tasker, but in reality, I often miss important details, spend way too much time working with not a lot to show for it, and start one item on my to-do list only to come back to it an hour later realizing that I got distracted before I actually finished. I never really thought much about it until recently, when I noticed one of my children was having the same struggles–and I decided to come up with an action plan.
When I first started seeing the words “easily distracted”, “difficulty focusing” and “lack of attention” on teacher notes, I knew I needed to help. I scoured the web for ideas and it’s daunting. But there was one product that stood out to me–the RE-vibe anti-distraction wristwear by Fokus Labs. The RE-vibe is like a Fit-Bit for focus. Worn on the wrist, it will give a few taps on your wrist periodically as a reminder to refocus. The RE-vibe helps its wearer use metacognition (thinking about your own thoughts) so you can use the gentle nudge of the vibration on your wrist to remind yourself to stay focused.
The RE-vibe is the brainchild of a school psychologist specializing in autism and ADHD with the goal of empowering kids to have the ability to refocus themselves without feeling singled out by teachers. The RE-vibe has been tested and retested by teachers and students to come up with an algorithm for the frequency of “taps” needed to keep kids from drifting off. The vibration signals are randomized so the wearer does not become desensitized to the same using data and research and have four different frequency modes depending on your needs. The RE-Vibe gives off ultra-quiet vibrations that can help the child wearing it refocus without others even noticing.
I decided to test out the RE-vibe myself and give you some of my thoughts. When I am “at work” on a post for the blog, I typically get distracted every few minutes (I think I need coffee. Did I remember to pack a snack for the kids? Anything exciting on social media today?) I would consider myself moderately off-task. Some days are better than others, but I can always use a gentle nudge to stay on task. I found that the randomized taps really did help me stay focused. Similar to a teacher touching my shoulder or saying my name, the taps gently reminded me to stay on task. I love feeling like I have a little bit of control over my distraction!
There’s so much more detail I could go into here, but head over to watch the RE-vibe video on the Fokus Labs website to get a better idea of the technology that went into creating this anti-distraction watch! Who in your family could benefit from the RE-vibe?