Focus To-Do: Focus Timer&Tasks

The app name tells you you should be able to do two things: use a timer and keep track of tasks. The first one is ironically hard to do on the Apple Watch, and the second one is hard to do on either AW or iPhone... On the phone, it tries to do too much, or is at least not intuitive at what it does. Basically there's no home screen outside of the timer, and different functions are hidden in a menu that looks like a sidebar but works like a website with hyperlinks. The timer settings hidden under your profile, the graphs are hidden behind an icon on the top right, and the calendars you have to switch between by going back and forth to the menu. And really it's not a menu because your projects or for some reason listed there too. The timer works, but the live activity widget seems to use a lot of battery and cannot be paused/resumed without unlocking your phone. On the AW, it doesn't do enough. You can't start a task if you didn't already set it on another device, and it takes some time to sync those. You could start an unlabeled pomodoro, but you'd later have to label your sessions on another device. You can also only see the today menu so can only look at and do those tasks. All that said, I think the biggest con is that the actual timer itself doesn't give you an alert on your watch (!!!) I don't know if Apple is making this difficult for developers but for some reason there is not AW app that does pomodoro well, which you'd think would be the perfect device for it!

I found out about the Pomodoro Technique recently and this has been so helpful by even sorting task importance. Really helpful for my adhd and preventing task burnout. I’ve gotten so much done. It’s also helped me realize how long tasks actually take

His app is not designed well, and I regret paying for a lifetime subscription. For one thing, it seems at times to stop counting down, particularly when I switch to my podcast app. Also it is beyond stupid that when I switch to this app it stops playing my podcast or music, with no evident way to disable that. What genius thought of that? I’m glad it has an Apple Watch component, but what’s the point if it’s not counting down properly?

So I loved the app at first. A non distracting timer really helps with setting uninterrupted time to focus and then another time set for whatever length break you want to use. I used it mostly for studying. Now that I just started a new job and I’m trying to plow through modules I started using the app again, but now there’s a subscription. It’s still usable, but the custom timer looks to be locked behind a paywall, locked at 25min. The only way I found to get around would be using an old task I set up back then. If it was a one time app purchase I’d be alright with it, but for a simple app to lock basic features like repeating, time adjustments, etc, behind a paywall, it’s just a no from me.

It’s helpful

Grateful for this focusing method and this particular tool

This is the only task app that will not allow me to add a task from my watch. I love this app- like I really LOVE this app- but, this issue is causing me to think about changing back to Things or Todoist. Please, can this be updated?? THANKS SO MUCH.

i have a lifetime subscription and i still can't get my phone and my laptop to sink. each morning i update my tasks on my mac and i'll end up with a random assortment of tasks that were completed days before show up as overdue for today without my new tasks populating the fields. i have uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times on my phone but it does not update even though it claims it has just "synced" across all devices. there are multiple complaints of this across the reviews. i would love it if the app developer responded or better yet fixed this issue. it's a good enough app with great promises of functionality. i really can only use it on my computer because it will not sync properly on my phone. annoying.

Does exactly what I wanted. Nice integration with the Lock Screen. Only thing I’d like is an Apple Watch complication so I can look at my watch instead of the phone.

I have been using this app for many years and finally decided to come review it. I have tried several other apps, but this one is the one that works the best for my needs. I like that I can keep track of several tasks for different projects and set an estimated time for completion of each one. The free version is phenomenal, but I decided to purchased the lifetime access giving how much I use it and to have some of the premium features included.