Focus mode is a timed working session attached to real work. You name what you're focusing on, choose how long, and — before you start — decide what break you'll take afterwards. Onward then runs the timer, hides the rest of the app if you want it to, and collects a short check-in at the end.
Start it from Focus Mode in the header on desktop.
Setting up a session
The setup modal asks "What do you want to focus on?" and takes four things:
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Projects | One of projects or tasks | Pick the project you're working in |
| Tasks (optional, up to 5) | One of projects or tasks | Narrows the session to specific work |
| Focus interval | Yes | 30 min, 60 min, 90 min, or Custom (5–1440 minutes) |
| What break will you take? | Yes | Free text, up to 200 characters |
Start focus stays disabled until you've picked at least one project or task and written a break.
Why the break is required
Deciding on the break before you start is the whole trick. If you leave it until the timer ends, the most likely outcome is that you don't take one — you roll straight into the next thing and arrive at the end of the day without having recovered once. Writing "walk outside" or "make tea" up front turns the break into part of the session rather than an interruption to it.
A concrete break beats a vague one. Good answers look like: walk outside, stretch, read fiction, make tea or coffee, clean one small zone, sit with no phone, listen to music, play with a pet, journal.
Choosing an interval
30, 60, and 90 minutes are presets because they map to how sustained attention actually behaves. As Onward notes when you schedule a session, 90 minutes is a strong upper limit for most deep work sessions. Custom accepts anything from 5 minutes to 24 hours, but longer isn't better — two 60-minute sessions with a real break between them will almost always beat one 120-minute block.
While the timer runs
The header shows Focus Time with the countdown, plus a session strip listing what you're Working on. You can:
- Pause and resume the timer.
- End early — Onward asks to confirm, then offers Log & finish (keeps the session) or discard this session.
- Toggle the immersive view. Immersive hides the rest of the app so only your session is on screen; the toggle switches between Use full app while focus timer runs and Return to immersive focus view.
Immersive is the default posture. Use the full app when the work itself needs other parts of Onward — otherwise the point is to not see them.
The check-in and break
When the timer completes, Onward runs a short two-part flow.
1. Reflection. Under "Nice work. How did it go?" you can record:
- Notes from the session (optional)
- Mood and Energy, on a 1–5 scale from Low to Strong
- Did you complete what you intended? — Yes / Partly / No
- What got in the way? (optional)
All of it is optional — Skip check-in — go to break takes you straight through. It's worth a few seconds, though: this is the data behind your focus trends in Your Wellness.
2. The break. Onward shows "Time to: {your break}" — the thing you committed to at setup. When you come back, I'm back — check in asks how the break landed, relative to before it:
- Mood: Worse / The Same / Better
- Energy: Less Energy / Same Energy / More Energy
Then Back to work. Over time this is what tells you which breaks actually restore you and which ones don't.
Scheduling focus ahead of time
From the Calendar you can block focus time in advance with Schedule focus. It takes the same projects, tasks, and interval as a live session, with two differences:
- The break field is optional when scheduling.
- Open focus setup at start time will play a cue and open the focus flow automatically when the block begins.
Scheduled focus blocks appear on your Onward calendar alongside meetings read in from Google. They are not written back to Google.
Seeing your focus history
Your Wellness includes a Focus snapshot card with your Blocks (7d), Avg length, and Post-break mood. That last number is the one to watch — it's the direct measure of whether your breaks are working.
Focus mode and the adaptive interface
The two are complementary. Adaptive interface changes how much of your task list you see based on capacity; focus mode changes how much of the app you see for a fixed window. On a Rest day, a short 30-minute session with a gentle break is a perfectly good target.
Common questions
Can I extend a running session?
No. Sessions run to the interval you set. If you want more time, let the session complete, take the break, and start another — that's the healthier pattern anyway.
What happens if I end a session early?
Onward asks whether to Log & finish, which keeps the partial session and its check-in, or discard it entirely. Discarding leaves no record.
Is focus mode a Pomodoro timer?
It's similar in spirit but not fixed to 25/5. You choose the interval, the break is something you name rather than a countdown, and Onward records how the break affected your mood and energy.
Do I need a task to start a session?
No — a project alone is enough. Tasks are optional and capped at five, for the same reason Plan My Day caps at five.
Does focus mode block notifications or websites?
No. Onward's immersive view hides the rest of Onward, but it doesn't control your operating system, browser tabs, or other apps.
Can my team see when I'm in focus mode?
Focus sessions feed your own wellness data. What, if anything, is aggregated for Team Health is controlled by your sharing level in Settings → Privacy.