Stick To Your Habits with Focus Sounds for Different Tasks

Why Matching Focus Sounds to Tasks Matters

In the New Year, you made new resolutions and felt ready to implement new habits: morning workouts, evening meditations, and an hour of writing your book each day. But at this point in the year, you may find yourself struggling to stick to those habits and slipping back into old ones. 

But don’t give up hope yet! There’s a few strategies you can use to help stick to those habits by structuring your days with the help of sounds. By optimizing your auditory environments, you can reduce distractions, stimulate your mood for the required activity, and offer a sense of personalization to your space. Here’s how sound can support your habits.

The Science Behind Habit

No matter how much you’d like to incorporate new habits, you’ll need more than willpower to make them stick. Stanford neuroscience professor Andrew Huberman, host of the productivity podcast Huberman Lab, suggests habit formation is best implemented by taking advantage of the body’s natural hormonal dips and rises throughout the day. He recommends splitting the day into three 8-hour phases. 

Phase 1

The first eight hours are the best time to get your most difficult habits out of the way. To support an alert and focused state, Huberman suggests you should prime your brain to take on these actions by engaging in “habit-framing” protocols like sunlight exposure, vigorous physical activity, cold exposure, caffeine ingestion, and a breakfast high in tyrosine. 

Phase 2

During the second eight hours of the day, you’ve likely finished working, so this time is best for engaging with habits that feel easy or “mellow,” like journaling, painting, or yoga. It’s easier to overcome mental resistance in this phase, ideal for incorporating and consolidating new habits. According to Huberman, some great habit-framing protocols this time of day include hot saunas or showers, tapered light exposure, and meditation.

Phase 3 

The last eight hours, you’re sleeping to improve your brain’s neuroplasticity for habit incorporation, just to do it all over again the next day. 

Combining Sound and Freedom

When you want to stick with your good habits and stay away from distracting digital habits like social media or show streaming, there’s an app for that! Freedom is a productivity software that blocks your list of distracting sites and apps for any period of time you schedule. You get to customize everything from the blocklist to the time of day and length of time you want your sessions to run. 

Better yet, Freedom comes equipped with Focus Sounds, a list of multiple audio tracks that you can choose to play whenever you like, even when your block sessions aren’t running. Head to the Freedom dashboard on your laptop or tablet and select the track of your choice under “Focus Sounds,” or tap the music note symbol at the bottom of the app layout on your cell phone. 

Studies suggest that particular sounds can influence brain activity in different ways. According to Huberman, sound can modulate brainwave activity, priming the brain for enhanced concentration relaxation, depending on its frequency and composition. With a primed brain, we can engage in protocols that assist with habit execution. But what does this look like? 

Matching Sounds to Habits and Phases

Phase 1: Morning and Early Afternoon

Stimulating your brain in the morning will prepare you for creative brainstorming and deep work with the help of Freedom Focus Sounds set for 25-minute Pomodoro sessions. When you’re in your afternoon slump, aim for binaural beats supplemented by Brain FM to combat fatigue and maintain cognitive performance.

Creative Thinking & Brainstorming

Best Freedom Focus Sounds: Sonoma Nature, Dulcis Pomodoro, Zero Gravity from Brain FM, London Coffee Shop
Examples: Writing fiction, graphic design, problem-solving
Why? Nature sounds like birdsong activates the brain’s default mode network, which is linked to creative thinking. Low-key instrumental music can provide a stimulating yet non-intrusive background.

Deep Work & Intense Focus Tasks

Best Freedom Focus Sounds: Claritas Pomodoro, Gloucester Garden Nature, Apex Amplitude from Brain FM, Santiago Coffee Shop
Examples: Writing, coding, research
Why? Gentle rain backgrounds and cafe ambience stimulate the brain as “White noise,” while binaural beats help block distractions and enhance sustained attention. 

Phase 2: Late Afternoon and Evening

As you transition out of deep focus work mode and into a more relaxed state, it may be more tempting than ever to fall back into old habits and digital distractions. But before you find yourself wasting an hour scrolling through Instagram or an evening binging a new series, you can use Freedom to block the usual suspects and softer ambient Focus Sounds to anchor you into fulfilling and relaxing habits. 

Repetitive or Manual Tasks

Best Sounds: Moon Cycles from Brain FM, Aurea
Examples: Household chores, cooking, gardening, organizing
Why? Rhythmic beats can make monotonous tasks feel more engaging, helping maintain energy and motivation.

Reading & Absorbing Information

Best Sounds: Taos Nature, Sky, Pando from Brain FM, Beach Haven Nature
Examples: Studying, reading a book, learning a new skill
Why? Subtle nature sounds and relaxing music can provide a non-distracting background that supports comprehension.

Phase 3: Relaxing into Deep Sleep

Ideally, you’ll be sleeping during this phase; Instead of scrolling until you fall asleep, you can ease into rest by omitting blue light and opting for sounds that activate your parasympathetic nervous system. 

Relaxation & Wind-Down

Best Sounds: Gem Lake Nature, Sky, Lux
Examples: Stretching, sleeping
Why? Slow-tempo music triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, helping to shift into relaxation mode.

Making Focus Sounds a Habit

The secret to success is not to create extremely high expectations for yourself, but rather to implement micro-habits, small but intentional adjustments to our daily routines, that are necessary for building up productivity and focus over time. 

To maximize the benefits of focus sounds, integrate them into your daily routine using micro-habits.  Whether you cycle between your favorite Pomodoro Focus Sounds while you engage with deep work, or you play the same Nature Sound whenever you journal, you can begin training your mind to associate sounds with certain tasks. 

As you experiment with different background noises, you’ll soon discover the right match for your tasks and environment with Freedom’s Focus Sounds. Try now and transform your work sessions with tailored auditory experiences!

Written by Lorena Bally