Focus · Core · Free
One block of deep work at a time, kept as a bead on the day.
A Pomodoro-style timer for deep work. Link a session to a task, goal or person, and see where your focused time goes.
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Say what it is forLink a session to a task, a goal or a person, or type a label. A finished session linked to a task adds a Pomodoro to it.
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Today as a threadEach session hangs under the timer as a bead sized by its minutes. Finished ones are solid, stopped ones are rings, and breaks are grey.
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A week you can see"Last 7 days" stacks each day's focus beads with its total, and counts your streak of days with a finished session.
Your first week in Focus
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Name the work
Tap "What are you working on?" and pick a task, or choose "Custom" and type a label such as "Draft chapter 3". Saved labels come back next time.
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Set the dial and start
"Focus" opens at 25 minutes. Drag round the dial to change it in five-minute steps, then tap play. Take "Short" or "Long" between sessions; breaks never count as focus.
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Read the week back
Scroll under the timer to "Last 7 days". Tap a day to see each session with its start and end, and open … → "Insights" once a few days have filled in.
Every step, in detail
- 1 Open Focus and tap "What are you working on?". Choose "Task", "Goal" or "Person" to link the session, or "Custom" to type a label.
- 2 Pick a mode with the chips. "Focus" is 25 minutes by default, "Short" and "Long" are breaks, and "Custom" asks for your own number of minutes. Drag round the dial to set the length in five-minute steps, from 5 to 60.
- 3 Tap the play button to start, and again to pause.
- 4 When the timer runs out, the session is saved as finished. Tap the check mark to finish early and still count it, or reset to stop. A session stopped after its first minute is kept as "Stopped early"; one stopped sooner is dropped.
Name it, set it, start
Before a session, the timer is a dial with an hour round its face. Drag the knob round the rim and the wedge follows in five-minute steps, from 5 to 60, with the length in the middle. This one works the same way.
Sample dial. Drag round it, or use the arrow keys.
What are you working on?
The tile above the dial names the session. Its menu:
If another timer is running elsewhere in the app, a line above the tile says so: “Also running:”.
How a session ends
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The time runs outSaved as finished, a solid bead.
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✓ Complete sessionFinished too, however early. A task it is linked to gains a Pomodoro.
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↺ Reset, after a minuteKept as “Stopped early”, a ring, with the minutes it ran.
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↺ Reset, inside a minuteNot kept at all.
Four modes, two kinds
Focus and Custom are work. Short and Long are breaks: they run on the same dial and join the day’s thread, but never count toward focused time. The chips lock once a session starts.
| Chip | Opens at | In Settings | Counts as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus“Pomodoro” in Settings | 25 min | 5–180 | Focus |
| Short | 15 min | 1–90 | Break |
| Long | 50 min | 10–240 | Break |
| Customasks for its minutes | 25 min | 1–240 | Focus |
- The dial sets the mode’s length for next time. A length over an hour, set in Settings, fills the whole face.
- “Default Mode” in Focus settings picks the chip Focus opens on, and “Restore defaults” puts every length back.
- “Show partial sessions” decides whether paused or stopped sessions appear in the Today page’s history.
Today, on a thread
Under the timer, today’s sessions hang on a thread in the order they ran, each bead sized by its minutes. Here is one morning, strung as the app strings it and laid on the clock beneath.
Sample · Tuesday, October 20
3 sessions · 1h 33m today
- Finished
- Stopped early
- Break
The line under the thread counts focus that has ended: the stopped session’s 18 minutes count, the breaks do not. Before anything has ended it reads “Under way”, and on an empty day “No focus yet today”.
The week, in stacks
Below today, “Last 7 days” stacks each day’s focus beads, the first at the bottom, with the day’s total underneath. The header adds up the week and, from two days on, your streak.
Sample · October 14 to 20
Last 7 days
9h 6m · 3-day streak
- 1h 40m
- 43m
- 2h 5m
- —
- 25m
- 2h 40m
- 1h 33m
Tap a day
Today
1h 33m · 3 sessions
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Break 11:07 AM – 11:22 AM · Break15m
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Draft chapter 3 10:15 AM – 11:05 AM50m
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Release notes 9:50 AM – 10:08 AM · Stopped early18m
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Break 9:32 AM – 9:47 AM · Break15m
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Release notes 9:05 AM – 9:30 AM25m
- The stacks hold focus only. Breaks appear in a day’s sheet and on today’s thread.
- A column keeps what fits. Monday’s last two sessions sit behind “+2”.
- The streak counts days with at least one session that ran its time. Today does not break it while it is still going.
Insights: where the time goes
“Insights”, in the … menu, reads every work session you have run. These are its cards for the same sample, seven weeks of it.
Sample · September 1 to October 20
You’ve focused for 62h 15m.
Focus · 14 days
1h 33m focused today.
Focused minutes by day, with today at the far right.
- today
- 1h 33m
- this week
- 4h 38m
- this month
- 27h 31m
Weekly rhythm
You focus most on Fridays.
Focused minutes by day of week.
This week
Down on last week — 9h 6m vs 11h 28m.
- this week
- 9h 6m
- last week
- 11h 28m
- vs last
- -2h 22m
Both weeks are the last seven days and the seven before them, whatever day it is.
Sessions
You complete 92% of the focus sessions you start.
- started
- 128
- completed
- 118
- avg length
- 29m
Completed means it ran its time, or you tapped ✓.
Before your first session, Insights says “Nothing to show yet”.
Around the timer
A sound that follows the session, a widget that starts one, and a link that does the same from anywhere.
Ambient sound · how it follows a session
- StartFades in over three seconds, with any session, breaks included.
- PauseDrops to 30% of your volume, so the room stays quiet but not silent.
- ResumeComes back up in two seconds.
- EndFades out over eight seconds when the session ends, when you reset, or when you leave Focus.
Seven sounds
- Rain on window default
- Ocean waves
- Fireplace
- Forest — morning
- White noise
- Pink noise
- Brown noise
Off until you turn it on in the app’s Settings, under “Ambient Sound”. “Auto-start with timer” and “Stop when session ends” sit beside it, both on to begin with.
Focus Timer widget
A live countdown while a session runs; otherwise “Ready to focus” and today’s minutes. A tap starts a session of 25, 45 or 90 minutes, whichever you chose when you edited the widget.
Start from a link
Open this from Shortcuts, a reminder or a note, and Focus starts a Custom session of that many minutes, 1 to 99:
hourlife://focus/start?minutes=45
Tips
- Link a session to a task and each finished work session adds one to that task's Pomodoro count.
- "Show partial sessions" in Focus settings decides whether paused or stopped sessions appear in Today's history.
- The mode chips lock once a session exists. Reset first if you picked the wrong one.
- A link to hourlife://focus/start?minutes=45 starts a 45-minute Custom session. Shortcuts can open it, for any length from 1 to 99.
Questions
About Focus day to day.
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What are the default lengths?
Focus is 25 minutes, a short break 15, a long break 50, and Custom 25. Change any of them in Focus settings under "Session Lengths", and pick the mode Focus opens on under "Default Mode".
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Do breaks count toward my focused time?
No. Short and Long are breaks. They show on today's thread in grey, but the day's total, the week, the streak and Insights count focus sessions only.
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What happens if I stop a session early?
The check mark saves it as finished, so it counts. Reset stops it instead. A session that ran a minute or more is kept as "Stopped early" and drawn as a ring; one stopped in its first minute is dropped.
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How does the focus streak work?
It counts days in a row with at least one finished focus session. Today does not break it while it is still going, so a streak reaching yesterday holds until you focus today.
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Can it play sound while I work?
Yes, though it is off until you turn it on in the app's Settings, under "Ambient Sound". Pick rain on a window, ocean waves, a fireplace, a forest morning, or white, pink or brown noise. It fades in as the timer starts, drops low while you pause, and fades out when the session ends, when you reset, or when you leave Focus.
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Does Focus add Pomodoros to my tasks?
Yes. Each finished focus session linked to a task adds one to that task's Pomodoro count.
Works with
Where Focus hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Tasks
A finished session linked to a task adds a Pomodoro to that task.
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Goals
"Goal" under "What are you working on?" links the session to a goal.
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People
"Person" under "What are you working on?" links the session to someone in People.
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Today
In Today's Deep Work mode, "Begin session" opens Focus with the task you picked under "Current focus" already linked.
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Calendar
Each session appears on the Calendar timeline, and the day's chips count them.
Read and try
Books from the library that Focus puts into practice, and something to try on paper or in the browser.
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Deep Work Cal Newport Newport's case that undistracted concentration is rare and trainable. Focus counts the hours you give it.
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The Pomodoro Technique Francesco Cirillo Cirillo's 25-minute timer and short break, the method the Focus timer is built on.
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Indistractable Nir Eyal Eyal on timeboxing and the inner triggers that pull you away. Linking a session to a task names the box.
Already have HourLife?
Focus is under Core in the module list. Today's Deep Work mode opens it too, through "Begin session", with the task you picked already linked. Its … menu holds "Insights" and "Settings".
Focus is in the Library, under Core. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules.
What would you like to know?
Ask a question about this feature or tell us what’s missing.
