Explaining the idea behind Focus one and differences to other existing task manager.
Before building Focus one, I primarily used OmniFocus. Over the years, I also tried several other task managers, including Things, Todoist, and Apple Reminders.
OmniFocus is incredibly powerful - but for me, it eventually became too powerful and complex for my actual needs. Things, on the other hand, never really fit the way I think and work long-term. Todoist didn’t match my workflow at all.
What I was missing wasn’t another feature-rich task manager, but something more fundamental:
Because I couldn’t find a tool that solved these problems in a way that felt right to me, I started building my own task manager. After more than two years of development, the result is Focus one.
The app is still evolving and there are features not implemented yet (for example, calendar integration). At this stage, my main interest is feedback from real users who face similar challenges.
In Focus one, Areas are a fundamental building block. Even if you don’t actively manage them, everything in the app is structured around Areas.
When you switch to a specific Area, you only see:
This creates much stronger separation and focus.
In many other apps, Areas are mainly a lightweight way to group projects. In Focus one, they directly shape your day-to-day view.
Areas are also flexible. They can represent classic areas of responsibility like Work or Home, but they can just as well act as containers for larger initiatives or collections of related projects.
The default lists in Focus one are aligned with task states, not just dates.
That’s why lists like Waiting For or Focus play an important role. Tasks move between lists based on their current status, not only on when they are scheduled.
This makes it easier to reflect how work actually progresses, rather than forcing everything into a calendar-driven system.
Each project can have its own review interval, whether that’s days, weeks, or months.
When a review is due, the project is clearly marked. After reviewing it, you simply mark it as reviewed and the next interval starts.
This keeps projects alive and intentional without adding unnecessary complexity — especially helpful if you manage many ongoing projects.
Focus one uses iCloud for syncing.
This means:
There are no accounts to create, no external backend, and no tracking.
Focus one includes a dedicated Focus list.
You can mark one or more tasks as “Focus”, and they appear in this list — either:
This makes it easy to define your true priorities, such as the top three tasks you want to focus on today, without relying solely on due dates.
You can also focus on a single project.
When you do, all lists automatically adapt and show only the tasks belonging to that project. This is especially useful for deep work sessions or complex projects where context switching becomes a distraction.
Focus one is available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
You can choose between: