FocusMinny vs Ember

You know what you need to do. You just keep not starting. FocusMinny is a focus timer and planner for study, work, personal projects, and daily habits. It helps you turn “I should do this” into a real plan: choose one task, give it a time and a length, then start it. No huge list. No gold stars for opening an app. Just one clear promise and an honest record of what happened. MAKE ONE CLEAR PROMISE What are you doing? When will you do it? How long will you give it? FocusMinny helps you make that decision before the moment you need to start. When the time comes, your task is waiting. Start a focus session with one tap instead of spending ten minutes deciding what to do. If you miss it, it does not quietly disappear. Move it to another time, mark it done, or say what got in the way. Your plans should tell the truth about your day. A FOCUS TIMER WITH A REASON A timer is useful when you know exactly what you are doing. FocusMinny keeps the task in front of you while the timer runs, so you are not just watching minutes go by. Use a short session to get started. Take a break when you need one. Choose silence or brown noise to cover the room. When time is up, say whether the work is actually done or whether you need more time. START SMALL. KEEP GOING. You do not need a perfect morning or a five-hour study plan. Start with 15 minutes. Make a promise you can keep. If the work takes longer, make a new plan with what you now know instead of pretending you will do everything at once. FOR THE WORK YOU KEEP PUTTING OFF FocusMinny is made for the task that keeps moving to tomorrow: • Study for an exam or finish coursework • Write the first draft, not just the outline • Start the coding task or design work you keep avoiding • Make progress on a side project • Read, practise, or build a daily routine • Protect a block of deep work from a busy day It works for students, professionals, creators, and anyone who wants to stop making plans they do not follow. WHAT YOU GET FREE • Write and schedule promises for the work you need to do • Get reminders when a promise is due • Start 15-minute, 30-minute, or 1-hour focus sessions • Move unfinished promises instead of losing them • Get a short daily message based on your own plans • See what is due today • Use brown noise while you work FOCUSMINNY PRO Pro is for when you want more help before, during, and after a focus session. PLAN WITH MINNY Tell Minny what is on your plate. She helps you work out what to do next and gives you a plan you can change before you commit to it. Take a photo of a handwritten list, notebook page, or whiteboard instead of typing everything out. When you have too much to do, Minny helps turn it into a few realistic promises instead of a packed plan you will never use. Change, remove, or keep every suggestion before it is added to your day. GET HELP WHILE YOU WORK Minny can check in during a session. Ask for help when you are stuck, distracted, tempted to quit, or unsure what to do next. She is there to help you get back to the work, not keep you talking. SEE YOUR FULL RECORD See how often you keep your promises, how much focused time you put in, when you work best, where you usually stop, and what you have actually finished. Your record includes your recent weeks, your best hours, your usual quit points, and your session history. Use it to spot the simple things that make a difference: a time of day that works, a session that is too long, or the work you keep avoiding. Then make the next promise better. MAKE THE APP FIT YOUR DAY Choose any session length. Repeat promises for habits, weekdays, or specific days. Pick seven extra sounds: rain, ocean, forest, café, fireplace, library, and instrumental. THE DIFFERENCE Most focus apps count minutes. FocusMinny also asks whether you did the work you said you would do. That is the point. Make the promise. Start the timer. Keep your word—or be honest and make a better plan next time. Red pen, not gold stars.

Ember is a quiet mechanical timer that sits on your desk or rides in your pocket. It doesn’t gamify your focus or grade your productivity — it simply ticks, steadily, like a small machine keeping you company while you work. ◎ A companion that makes time visible If time tends to slip past unnoticed — as it does for many of us, especially those who are neurodivergent — Ember gives it a shape you can see and hear. The dial ticks every second, quiet yet alive, like a friend working alongside you. It’s body doubling in the form of a tool: a steady presence that keeps you anchored to the task at hand. ◎ Name the time you set aside Start a timer with a task — writing, laundry, one more chapter. The task menu keeps the ones you’ve used recently, so picking a familiar one takes a single tap, and a new one is a line of text away. The task stays on screen while the timer runs, on the widget, and on the Live Activity. ◎ A machine with your finish on it Choose the theme colors and the countdown font. Ember is built to be looked at for long stretches, so it should look the way you like. ◎ When time is up, you’ll know The alarm rings when the timer expires, and a snooze buys you a few more minutes when you need them. Prefer something gentler? Choose a notification instead. Alarms are available on iOS 26.1 and later. ◎ Works without being touched Start, pause, resume, or reset the timer from Shortcuts — ask Siri or press the Action Button, no unlocking required. On iOS 27, Siri understands Ember’s timer directly: “set a 25-minute timer in Ember”, “pause my timer”, no shortcut needed. You can also read the timer’s status from Shortcuts in plain, full sentences, and build automations around it. ◎ In view, wherever you are Keep the timer on your Home Screen with widgets, or set your iPhone down and watch it in large print in StandBy. Desk or pocket, Ember stays where you can see it.