Xavier’s Attempt to Make You Chronically Offline: Fluid Focus

By Rory McNelley, Education and Enrichment Coordinator

Xavier’s Health and Wellness Services received a grant to fund a new resource for students, an app called Fluid Focus. 

Using their Xavier email, students can unlock the premium version of the app for free. It is available to undergraduate and graduate students alike. 

“I’ve been using it every time I have my computer open whether it’s school, research, or even just planning trips,” senior biomedical sciences major Meg Calumpang said. 

The main feature of the app is its focus sessions. In the home screen of the app a student can start a focus session ranging anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. A focus session limits all phone usage and locks the user to the app home screen. If you leave, the focus session ends prematurely and all coins are lost. 

Users earn coins during their focus sessions which the app states are, “fictitious in-app currency that are earned by completing focus sessions. They can then be used to access wellness discounts, enter into the weekly Focus Fortune or to donate to charity,” as stated on the app.

The app also features science backed study music, provided by Myndstream, available to all users. During a focus session, users can choose from six music options to add a layer of focus. 

“The music is a main feature that I enjoy using. It’s a game changer in a way that I’m only given a few options of music sounds rather than feeling like I need to find the perfect pop playlist,” Calumpang said. 

The app also features a mood tracker and links to mental health support resources Xavier’s Office of Health and Wellness hopes it can aide students in limiting phone usage to improve academic performance and mental health. 

“Students consistently tell us they recognize that their screen use is affecting their ability to sustain focus, and they want support and solutions that help them regain control of their time and attention,” Assistant Vice President of Health and Wellness Jamie Baxter said. “While several apps address this challenge, this platform aligns especially well with Xavier’s health and wellbeing offerings: encouraging positive, goal-oriented behaviors and creating meaningful opportunities for students to convert earned coins into charitable donations.”

The app allows students to regain their time not only for personal benefit, but with the motivation of redeeming coins for charity and entering raffles for items from top brands like Nike and Lululemon. 

On a Zoom call, the app’s founders expressed their own need for incentivized screen time control.

 “It was becoming more difficult to hold attention in the workplace and for me, after COVID-19 and working from home, I was feeling myself picking up my phone every couple of minutes,” co-founder Connor Mason said. 

“We are so excited to offer an additional resource to our Xavier students as we approach the busiest part of the semester. Our hope is that this will help reduce digital overload, reclaim valuable time, boost productivity and thrive academically and personally when it matters most,” Baxter said.