How to use Focusly
Everything you need to get set up, plan your day, and stay in flow.
Getting started
Download Focusly
Head to focusly.app/download and grab the latest version. Open the .dmg, drag Focusly to Applications, and launch it.
Activate your trial
When Focusly opens for the first time you'll be prompted to enter your email. This unlocks a 7-day full-access trial — no credit card needed. Check your inbox for your trial key.
Grant permissions
macOS will ask for Calendar access and Notification permissions. Grant both so Focusly can display your events and fire alerts at the right time.
Focusly lives in your menubar
After launch, Focusly sits in your Mac's menubar. Click the icon at any time to open the main drawer. You'll see today's time blocks, your calendar events, and quick-action buttons.
Time blocking
A time block is a named task assigned to a specific slot in your day. Create as many as you need — Focusly tracks which block is active and alerts you when it ends.
Add a scheduled task
Click the pencil icon in the bottom-right of the drawer to open the new-task panel. Give it a name, pick an emoji and colour, then select a time slot from the grid. Hit Add Task to save it.
Edit or move a task
Tap the three-dots (⋯) menu on any task and choose Edit Task. You can also drag tasks to reorder them within the list.
Mark a task complete
Open the three-dots menu and choose Mark Complete, or use the checkmark button in the footer to enter edit mode and bulk-complete tasks.
Move to tomorrow
Didn't get to something? Three-dots → Move to Tomorrow reschedules it to the same time slot the next day.
Timer tasks
Timer tasks work like a countdown or stopwatch — you start them manually and Focusly tracks the elapsed time. Unlike scheduled tasks they don't sit at a fixed slot; they run until you stop them or time runs out.
Create a timer task
In the new-task panel, switch to the Timer tab. Choose a duration (5 min – 4 h), give the task a name, and tap Start Timer.
Add time mid-session
While the timer is running, the task row shows +15m and +30m buttons. Tap either to extend the current session without resetting the clock.
Finish early
Hit the orange Finish button to stop the timer immediately. The actual elapsed time is saved to your task history.
Switch display mode
Go to Settings → Notifications → Timer Display to toggle between Countdown (time remaining) and Stopwatch (time elapsed). The menubar icon reflects this mode too.
Calendar integration
Focusly reads events from Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook so your meetings appear inline with your time blocks.
Apple Calendar
Grant calendar access when prompted (or via System Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars). All Apple Calendar accounts (iCloud, Exchange, local) are read automatically.
Google Calendar
Go to Settings → Calendar → Connect Google Account and complete the OAuth flow. You can connect multiple Google accounts and choose which calendars to show.
Refresh events
Events sync on launch and periodically in the background. Tap the refresh button in the header to force an immediate sync.
Hide specific calendars
Long-press or right-click a calendar event to hide all events from that calendar. Useful for filtering out low-priority or personal calendars.
Templates & routines
Templates let you save a task configuration for quick reuse. Routines are collections of templates that auto-populate your day on a recurring schedule.
Save a template
Open the Templates panel from the footer (the grid icon). Tap New Template, fill in the details, and save. Templates can be dragged onto any day instantly.
Create a routine
In the Templates panel, switch to Routines and tap New Routine. Add the templates you want to run, set the days of the week, and enable it. Focusly will auto-create those tasks each morning.
Edit or delete
Long-press a template or routine to rename, duplicate, or delete it.
Integrations
Focusly connects to the tools you already use. All integrations are optional and configured per-task or globally in Settings.
Slack
Post to a channel when a task starts, ends, or is updated. Attach Slack messages to tasks.
Notion
Create and update Notion pages when tasks are created or completed.
Jira
Link a Jira issue key to a task for quick reference and status updates.
GitHub / GitLab
Attach a PR or MR URL to a task. Focusly can post code review status updates.
Asana
Link an Asana task GID to sync completion status.
Todoist
Import and link Todoist tasks directly from Focusly.
AI Delegation
Hand off a task to Claude (Anthropic) or ChatGPT (OpenAI). The response is saved to your task history.
Transcription
Record audio or import a file. Apple's on-device Speech framework transcribes it and attaches the text to the task.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open / close Focusly | Global shortcut (set in Settings) |
| New task | ⌘ N |
| Search tasks | ⌘ F |
| Toggle edit mode | ⌘ E |
| Switch to list view | ⌘ 1 |
| Switch to grid view | ⌘ 2 |
| Close current panel | Esc |
| Complete selected tasks | Space (in edit mode) |