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New iOS app tells you when you’re productive

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Coffee, lack of sleep, and a healthy diet can all have positive or negative effects on our mood, which may directly affect our productivity at work. Moo-Q is a new app that wants to document that behavior, so you become more aware of the impact mood has on your life. It does this with a daily quiz, that tries to narrow down when you are most productive, and what correlation that has to mood.

Available for free in the iTunes App Store, Moo-Q starts off with a few simple questions about how you’re feeling. You adjust the sliders accordingly, based on whether you’re stressed, relaxed, or irritable. Once the sliders are out of the way, Moo-Q will run through a series of quick tests designed to give your brain a boost. Memorizing numbers is the main gist of the test and Moo-Q adds even harder tasks the deeper you go.

Related: 3 underground alternatives to Spotify and Apple Music for music lovers

At first, it’s incredibly frustrating. Moo-Q only allows a few seconds to memorize the numbers before moving onto the answer page. For those just waking up, this is a difficult challenge. In our first attempt, we managed to write down less than two numbers for every memory task, getting worse as the test ramped up in difficulty.

Once finished, Moo-Q stores the data away, and doesn’t let you see any results until multiple tests have been completed throughout the day. Hungry Mind Lab, the UK team responsible for Moo-Q, advise using the app at different times of the day for the best results.

After five tests, a personal chart is created showing your mood-to-brain power levels. The idea is, this information can be used to figure out times when you’re most efficient and most productive. Hungry Mind Lab will be using the data collected by Moo-Q for ongoing research into cognitive behavior at London’s Goldman University. There is no way to opt-out of this data collection, although it will all be anonymous.

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