Experiencing midlife brain fog? These apps can help
by Donna Pittman
Ilustration by Katie Crawford
Savannah Clark, an elementary school speech therapist turning forty-five this month, is concerned about recent lapses in memory. “If I don’t put an event in my calendar as soon as it’s planned, it will not happen. I write everything down because nine times out of ten, I’ll get it wrong if I just rely on my memory.”
Ellen Law, a 51-year-old account specialist, also started noticing brain issues starting around the age of forty-five, especially involving concentration. She says, “These days, nothing keeps my attention very long. I flutter between tasks, never truly accomplishing anything.” These women are certainly not alone.
Menopause specialist Julie Fryman, MD, from Peachtree Women’s Clinic confirms that brain fog “is a common complaint in perimenopause and menopause. It’s easy to explain away brain fog as a consequence of other symptoms like fatigue or lack of sleep. However, brain fog is its own symptom.” And it’s an extremely common one.
What is brain fog and why does it occur in midlife?
Katie Crawford
Climacteric, the journal of the International Menopause Society defines menopause brain fog as “cognitive symptoms experienced by women around menopause [including] difficulty encoding and recalling words, names, stories, or numbers, difficulty maintaining a train of thought, distractibility, forgetting intentions (reason for coming into a specific room), and difficulty switching between tasks.”
Why does brain fog occur? Experts agree that it is difficult to pinpoint a single cause. For those navigating the fluctuations of the female reproductive system, declining estrogen may be one factor. Estrogen influences brain function, including the ability to learn and recall new information. As ovarian estrogen begins to decline during perimenopause, women start to experience deficits in memory and concentration.
Developmental psychologist John Woodman, PhD, points out there are a host of other challenges during this stage of life as well. “For example, many women will find they are managing a schedule not just for themselves, but also that of others like children and/or parents. The working memory system can only balance so many tasks at once, and stress further inhibits memory.”
The good news is that brain fog in midlife, while challenging, is often temporary. In this study, women aged 40 to 65 underwent brain imaging and cognitive testing. The results showed that changes in estrogen and estrogen receptors during perimenopause caused a slight decline in cognitive function. However, in the postmenopausal group, the brain had compensated for the loss of estrogen, and cognitive ability returned to normal, pre-menopausal levels. The postmenopausal period also tends to coincide with an empty nest and fewer familial responsibilities.
So, how can people struggling with brain fog — whether due to midlife circumstances, menopause, or something else entirely — regain focus, remember appointments, and stay organized? With the help of apps!
There’s an app for that
Katie Crawford
If you are struggling with memory issues or even concerned about your brain health, a variety of desktop and mobile phone applications are available to help with organization, time management, focus, and overall productivity. Let’s take a look at a few.
Time-management apps
Time-management and time-tracker apps are designed to keep you on task for a specified period of time. Popular ones include the following:
RescueTime does a bit of everything. RescueTime runs in the background of your computer and blocks distracting websites like Facebook and Instagram, tracks your work time, and sends you a daily productivity report. RescueTime has over two million users. The time-management app offers a two-week free trial, then plans start at $6.50 per month.
Forest is a mobile app that taps into nature to improve your focus. When you need to concentrate on a task, you plant a tree. As you work, the tree grows. If you leave the app early to answer a text or watch a TikTok, your tree will die. Some reviewers called this app “life changing.” Users love the visual representation of time spent working and report that it helps them avoid procrastination. The app costs $3.99 to purchase.
Katie Crawford
Pomodoro technique timers
The Pomodoro Technique is a time-management system developed in 1987 by Francesco Cirillo. Fun fact: the word “pomodoro” means tomato in Italian and refers to the tomato-shaped timer Cirillo uses. The pomodoro technique breaks your work or focus time into 25-minute blocks of deep focus. After one block, you can take a five-minute break.
Pomofocus and Pomodor are both free web-based pomodoro timers. With these timers, you can set your own time periods for work. You might work for 45 minutes and then take a 15-minute break or use the traditional pomodoro 25-minute time blocks. They are web based, so you’ll need to keep your browser open.
Audio apps for concentration
Some people use background music to attain a deep focus, or “flow” state. A flow state means you are fully focused on the task at hand. This state of hyperfocus is often accompanied by a sense of calm and contentment.
Focus@Will was created by neuroscientists as a tool to remove distractions and intentionally cultivate a flow state, so you can complete deep work. The app offers a variety of music so you can find what works best for you. Options include classical piano, orchestra, spa-like soundscapes, and even electronic beats. Focus@Will also provides users with a productivity tracker and timer. You can try the app for free for a week, then the cost is $52.49 per year, or roughly $1 per week. It is available for use on mobile or desktop.
Brain.fm is another audio app backed by science. Brain.fm patented their process for creating functional music for a multitude of tasks including focusing on work, relaxing, working out, and sleeping. They offer a free trial, and then the subscription costs $6.99/month or $49.99/year.
Organization apps
Since we sometimes forget appointments or tasks, many of us are extremely reliant on the calendars on our phones, desktop, or even elaborate daily planners. These two apps go a step further in helping you organize your work and your personal life.
Evernote helps you manage your schedule, notes, and tasks in one central location. You can set up to-do lists, add reminders, scan important documents and receipts, clip web pages, and more. It syncs to all of your devices, so you have access at all times. Evernote offers a free plan or an upgraded personal plan for $7.99 per month.
Todoist has over 300,000 five-star reviews on the App Store and Google Play. This software provides a hub where you can create to-do lists, prioritize tasks, share lists with others, delegate tasks, and set reminders. It integrates with your email and calendar. Users receive a weekly and monthly productivity report. It is available as a mobile app as well as a web-based task manager. There is a one-week free trial, and then the Pro version is $4 per month.
Brain-training apps
We know the importance of exercising our bodies, but these apps provide a workout for your brain.
Elevate is a brain-training app that uses over forty games to improve your abilities in math, writing, reading, and recall. You can track your improvement over time. There is a free trial and then annual membership is $39.99.
CogniFit Brain Training offers personalized brain games that track over twenty cognitive skills. It provides you with reports that detail your cognitive strengths, areas that need improvement, and how your abilities increase over time. The basic plan is $19.99 each month and they offer baseline assessments for $49.99 a piece.
With a few modifications, we don’t have to go through midlife unfocused, forgetful, and disorganized. These apps can help you work smarter, remember important events, and live a more productive life.