A Powerful Tool—With One (Minor) Flaw
As productivity tools go—especially for those who use Toggl and want to integrate time-tracking—Focused Work is probably the strongest. Add to that the ability to integrate Shortcuts and it becomes a powerful tool with a lot of flexibility and potential.
However, although it boasts many strengths, it does still have one (admittedly, superficial/minor) flaw: The emojis are non-negotiable. For all its flexibility, not having the option to opt out of using emojis—especially when they’re displayed so prominently—is incredibly distracting, and incentivizes me to hide what is otherwise a clean interface with crisp Live Activities.
That’s not suggesting adding an alternative like SF Symbols; just that I wish the emojis themselves were optional, so I’m not required to use them or forced to decide which garish emoji best fits the custom focus session I want to create. PLEASE make these optional.
However, although it boasts many strengths, it does still have one (admittedly, superficial/minor) flaw: The emojis are non-negotiable. For all its flexibility, not having the option to opt out of using emojis—especially when they’re displayed so prominently—is incredibly distracting, and incentivizes me to hide what is otherwise a clean interface with crisp Live Activities.
That’s not suggesting adding an alternative like SF Symbols; just that I wish the emojis themselves were optional, so I’m not required to use them or forced to decide which garish emoji best fits the custom focus session I want to create. PLEASE make these optional.
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Super app!
The killer feature for me is the shortcuts integration and being able to automatically turn on and off focus modes so I don’t even think about interactions.
Plus I am a great fan of doing things from the menu bar, being able to manage all the stages and timers, and the gentle sound effects.
Plus I am a great fan of doing things from the menu bar, being able to manage all the stages and timers, and the gentle sound effects.
Response from developer
Thank you for the super kind review! 🙌 It's great to hear that you really appreciate automation support, amongst the other features you mentioned. Being able to automatically turn a Focus on when a focus session begins is definitely helpful for staying on task. Enjoy!
Great app, but annoying
I spent a lot of time searching for an app with a flexible Pomodoro timer that includes a count-up clock and tracks my sessions. I love that Focused Work offers a Flowmodoro option, a flexible timer, and the traditional Pomodoro. The Toggl integration is also very convenient. This app has really boosted my productivity.
I knocked off one star because there are some features that I find extremely annoying. So much so that every now and then, I stop using the app, try to find something similar, but never find it, so I come back. The main issue is the notifications. I didn’t like them, so I turned them off. Now I get reminders to turn on notifications so that I can get reminders! It really makes no sense. Then there are the reminders to rate and review, which I guess worked. I also wish we could complete the session without having to pause it and that it had better sync between iPhone and MacBook
I knocked off one star because there are some features that I find extremely annoying. So much so that every now and then, I stop using the app, try to find something similar, but never find it, so I come back. The main issue is the notifications. I didn’t like them, so I turned them off. Now I get reminders to turn on notifications so that I can get reminders! It really makes no sense. Then there are the reminders to rate and review, which I guess worked. I also wish we could complete the session without having to pause it and that it had better sync between iPhone and MacBook
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