Focus Modes - Background Wallpapers and more?

Software
#1

I’m attempting to make Focus modes work for me, yet again. Cue the laugh track. This time I will attempt to live with only three: Deep Focus (Reading, Writing etc); Communication (email et al) and Personal.

I’m hoping someone knows of deep example a few key things with focus modes:

  • Change the background wallpaper - the goal is to have a colour per focus mode
  • Maybe change spaces on MacOS
  • iOS/iPadOS change the focus mode when I open email or mastodon
    …

I’m sure there is more clever stuff I can do. Where is the best place to read more about focus modes?

Shortcuts Pinging on Apple Watch
#2

I tried to make focus modes work but in the end I kind of found them to be a distraction. It sounds like a good idea but at the end of the day it’s not your Phone or your Mac that’s stopping you from getting shit done and no amount of UI gymnastics is gonna work against procrastination. Focus just isn’t a software problem and it doesn’t have a software solution.

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#3

You might have to have another automation trigger both the space change and the focus mode activation, e.g., make a Siri Shortcut that sets focus and then triggers a KM/BTT/Terminal command to activate your Desktop 2 shortcut from Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control. You can hack it with a shell command as well. Spaces automation is awkward, and this isn’t something I do myself.

If you want to chain shortcuts off of focus mode activation on macOS, you’ll want the premium version of Shortery. Very reliable.

Unfortunately, there’s not much to focuses besides the options you see when you create them, so your deep diving would really be about mastering shortcuts.

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#4

Thanks I appreciate the comment, i understand the point. I still believe that there is value in running the experiment. I was rather in hoping someone would reply with a pointer to an article lays out many focus mode tips and tricks.

#5

Apologies for the misread. If you only want links, David’s tag here is good (better if subscribed to labs.) More focused on principles than specific suggestions.

https://www.macsparky.com/blog/tag/focus-mode/

There’s a lot of “my setup” inspo stuff out there, too; here’s one I recall that stood out.

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#6

I would suggest setting up one at a time, using it for a week or then setting up another, and try both of them before setting up a third.