Concentrate is a Mac only app. It lets you do a number of things like block web sites, launch apps, play sounds, etc. Combinations of these things can be configured to go on for varying amounts of time. I use it for the Pomodoro Technique when programming. Corey Haines introduced me to Tomatoist when I paired with him during one of his journeyman tours. While that site is awesome, I prefer using the Mac app to force eliminate distractions.

The Pomodoro Technique

The root of the idea is that you program for 25 minutes straight and then break for 5 minutes. This seems like a pretty simple idea but when you’re working by yourself things can happen. For example, maybe you want to send a quick email to someone but want to refer to something in their Facebook account you can’t quite remember. So then you look it up. While looking it up you notice something else interesting by another one of your friends and the distractions start. By the end of the distractions you’ve ordered enough parts for a fully functional robot suit off eBay. If you only had 5 minutes to do this stuff, maybe that wouldn’t have happened.

Setting Up Concentrate

Concentrate is actually a very simple application to use. Click on the “New Activity Button” and set your options. I called mine "Program Pomodoro." It’s set to block any site that could potentially distract me, Growl a message, and play a sound on completion. The typical Pomodoro technique lasts 25 minutes so drag the location slider over until you see 25 minutes. Boom, good to go. Now you can’t look at anyone’s Facebook account or respond to any threads on hacker news for a good 25 minutes. You’ll get to that during your break.

The next task you’ll want to set up is the break. This is the most rewarding task. I just have this one Growl a message ("Get back to work!") and play a sound when it’s done. The duration slider should be set to 5 minutes.

Get To It!

That’s about it. It’s simple software and well worth the $30 to eliminate distractions. I use it only for those two techniques listed above and have been very happy. Special thanks to Corey Haines for introducing me to the Pomodoro technique.

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Regardless, you can download it here.

Update: Apple has pulled the update for some unknown reason. The page linked above is leads to a 404 not found page.

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Most people experiencing the problem have been unplugging and then re-plugging the usb part of the cable. This works but is kind of annoying to do and doesn’t seem to work for a long time — you do have to reboot eventually. Keeping the USB part hooked up to an external (powered) usb hub seems to lessen the symptoms but not alleviate them entirely.

Another option that I’ve found works is to go in to System Preferences and then Display Preferences. Change your resolution to 1280×800 and then back to 2560×1600. That’s been consistently working for me for a few hours at a time.

Other than that I’ve had a good experience with the adapter. The regular MacBook drives the 30″ display just fine — exposé and spaces are both as zippy as when not hooked up to any external display at all. In case anyone is curious, I’m hooked up to a Dell 3007WFP-HC and having the extra screen real-estate is fantastic.

Update: Pressing Ctrl + Shift + Eject seems to work as well. This puts the displays to sleep. After sleeping you just move the mouse and everything wakes up and works. Your mileage may vary, but please let me know in the comments if it works for you.

Update 2: Some people are reporting that Apple is retroactively saying that the adapter is only compatible with the Apple 30″ cinema display. I find this pretty unlikely for the following reasons:

• It’s a standard.
• Apple hasn’t updated the MacBook page to reflect this.

Again I’m pretty sure that this can be fixed via a software update since the above two “fixes” seem to work. I’ll post again when Apple updates.

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