Focused Work - Pomodoro Timer 4+

I love this, I use it every day.
There is just one thing. When I am focused and doing the focused things - these infernal reminders to focus that require me to stop focusing to shut them off are no bueno. And there is no easy way to stop them. I turned them off on one of my devices, but struggling to figure out where to do it on the mac desktop. Please make that an optional thing - that someone has to select to use instead of being automatically set up. It's awful. I have ADD and superfocus when I can FINALLY get myself into the zone.. and it actually disrupts my ability to stay in that state.

Thank you for the kind review, really appreciated!

It's possible to turn off particular alerts on the Mac app via the Preferences screen. Once the Focused Work app is opened, in the top left corner of your screen click the "Focused Work" menu button, then "Preferences". A new screen will appear where you can turn off the Distraction Awareness alerts. If you have any other questions please feel free to reach out at focusedworkapp@michaeltigas.com.au. Cheers!

So I’ll give an honest review. This app is weird. Why do the default settings include a constant ticking sound, in-session popup notifications, and automatic transition between segments only logical for a robot? Is this intended to help a person focus? Customizing the sessions is nearly impossible, and even when you succeed, the app attempts to be persistent about sticking to the original template. I’m often finding that sessions get paused and never restarted, or new segments never start, and I don’t remember doing this myself. Excessive pause during a session, or excessively long break between segments? Those would be good times to alert a user that something is amiss. The concept is simple on its face, I’m not sure why I have yet to find a well made app that matches the ease of a timer with a few thoughtful features. Hoping this one improves on some good foundations, namely the design and the big bold view of the timer on the lock screen. Update: it appears a 10 minute pause notification has been put into the iOS version at least, which I learned because I guess I’ve spent 10 minutes writing this review. Would add 1/2 a star for that. Minus half a star for going back in the app only to find it’s still asking me to review.

Hi, thanks for the review! This kind of feedback is super helpful, appreciate you taking the time to write it out - lots of points noted. 🙏 

I've a few questions I'd love to pick your brain on, in particular about the initial configuration, alerts, and templates - if you're open to it? Always trying to optimise for the right balance with those. If so, shoot me an email at focusedworkapp@michaeltigas.com.au and I'll hit you up - cheers!

The app is gorgeous, I love the design. & the core functionality is only matched by two other apps that I know of. Creating custom sessions with URL schemes is super neat. The popover timer, too. There’s just a lot to live about this app. However, there are two things that cause it to lose a star.

1. I don’t understand the logic of being able to start a timer on one device but NOT having the option to mirror the timer on another device. I spent way too much time trying to start a timer on my phone & have it mirrored on my Mac, only to find out that the iCloud sync is limited to sessions & notifications. I think the option should be there.

2. The app uses shortcuts for blocking rather than Apple’s built-in screen time API. If I remember correctly, shortcuts was the way to go before developers could access the screen time API, it’s been out for ages now and is far easier to use from a UX perspective. But I’m not a developer, so I can’t speak to how challenging it would be to implement, I’m just sharing something that bothers me, personally.

I’d love to move away from a different app that I’m using, which is equally gorgeous, morris timers, and has a bonus watch app — but lacks the ability to set custom sessions. However, until the timer mirroring issue option is added, I just can’t do it. But, I don’t think that should deter anyone away from using this app, it’s really great & the developer has done a great job. He’s super innovative.

Thank you for the super kind review, and helpful feedback! 🙏 

r.e. #1, Focused Work was originally designed to work exclusively on-device rather than relying on an active internet connection, thus making it extremely cumbersome to link sessions between devices (which I've experimented with in the past). I'd love to add it some day though, and will add your vote for that feature! 

For #2, touche! It will be something I'll look into in the near future. 

If you're interested, I'd love for you to share some context why syncing timers is an important feature for you? Shoot me an email at focusedworkapp@michaeltigas.com.au

Cheers, and thanks again! 😀