You can set a daily goal for how many Focus Sessions you want to complete, and the app reports your success in the form of a Streak, meaning how many consecutive days you reached your goal.įor a completely free included perk, the Focus Sessions feature is a welcome addition to Windows. The app tracks how many sessions you complete. Focus Sessions isn’t just a one-and-done activity. It might be nice, though, to see an automated prompt asking if you want to mark your task complete at the end of a session. The task isn’t automatically marked as completed when the session ends (which is good because working on a task doesn't mean you've finished it), but the option is right there in the app, so it’s easy enough to mark it complete. This way, you get a panel listing your tasks from that app, and when you hover the cursor over a task, you can choose to start a focus session. You can use Focus Sessions without signing into a Microsoft account (for those who freak out about having to sign into a Microsoft account (Opens in a new window)), but if you do sign in, you can integrate the app with Microsoft To Do. When your session ends, the music abruptly stops, letting you know you can carry on with your life outside the task.Ĭonnect Microsoft To Do App. ![]() You still have to open the Spotify app to navigate it fully, but you get buttons to stop and start from the Focus Sessions tile. When you connect Spotify to Focus Sessions, you get access to not only your own playlists, but also the service’s Deep Focus playlist and other appropriate ones. I like to work with a Spotify Daily playlist that I’ve honed for good work background music over the past couple years. Not everyone has a Spotify account, but a lot of people do, yours truly included. You can shrink the Alarms & Clock app to a small tile at the top right of the screen.Ĭonnect Spotify. ![]() A Stop button lets you interrupt your session. Start working! When you launch a focus session, the app starts counting down with a shrinking circle showing how much time is left. ![]() It should also disable specified apps, and maybe clear the desktop of distracting icons (which you can do by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting View > Show Desktop Icons, which I find very focusing). While this is a first version of the feature, Windows shouldn’t make you change your notifications for the system as a whole. You can't, for example, squelch notifications just for the Focus Session. The Settings also has an area for customizing notifications from other connected apps (more on connected apps in a moment) but I’m disappointed that selecting this option takes you out to the main Windows Settings where you adjust notifications permanently. You can also disable or change the sounds that mark the end of a session and end of each break. Here you can change the default focus period and break time lengths in case they don’t suit your needs. Open the app Settings page from the three-dot overflow menu at the top of the timer tile. The company was so pleased with the results that they made Focus Sessions the very top choice in the new app.Ĭustomize your Settings. Being a productivity and workplace vendor as well as just an OS vendor, Microsoft decided to include more than those basic functions. Clock apps have been around forever on both mobile and desktop operating systems and are usually no more than a clock face, alarm, timer, and stopwatch. Microsoft put a surprising amount of effort into something as seemingly mundane as a clock app. Introducing the All-New Alarms & Clock App Here’s an overview of the new Alarms & Clock app and instructions for how to get going with Focus Sessions. As you’ll see, however, there are some capabilities we’d like to see added. It’s excellent to see this type of feature included with an operating system, and this feature is off to a good start. Focus Sessions encourages you to set aside time for work that requires uninterrupted, deep focus. ![]() PCMag has long reviewed and recommended third-party productivity apps that help you focus on your work, and now Windows 11’s new Alarms & Clock app provides some of the same key functions in its Focus Sessions feature. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.
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