Focus Drift

1. Adding a Task

You can add tasks from the Plan tab or from the Calendar view. There are two ways to add a task: a quick flow for speed, and a detailed flow when you need to capture more information.

Quick Add

1. Tap the text field at the top of the Plan tab. On workdays it reads "What needs to happen today?" and on personal days it reads "What do you want to do?"
2. Type your task name and press Enter or tap the checkmark button.
3. A duration slider appears. Drag it to set your time estimate (5 minutes to 8 hours, in 5-minute increments). The default is 60 minutes.
4. Choose Importance (Low, Medium, or High) and Urgency (Low, Medium, or High).
5. Tap Add Task to save it immediately with these basic details.

That's it, your task is on today's list.

Detailed Add (More Info)

If you need to capture more than just a title, duration, and priority, tap More Info instead of Add Task at step 5. This opens the full Task Detail Sheet where you can set everything about the task.

Task Detail Sheet. All Available Options

When you open a task's detail sheet (either via More Info during creation, or by tapping any existing task), you have access to these sections:

Task Info

• Title. Edit the task name. A voice input button is available for hands-free entry.
• Date. Change which day this task belongs to.
• Multi-day toggle. Switch between "Single-day Task" (completes in one day) and "Multi-day Task" (continues across multiple days). More on this in the Multi-Day Tasks section.

Duration

• Estimated time. A slider from 5 to 480 minutes in 5-minute steps. Shows the time in a readable format (e.g. "1h 30m").

Priority

• Importance. How significant is this task? Low, Medium, or High.
• Urgency. How time-sensitive is it? Low, Medium, or High.

Focus Drift uses both dimensions together to sort and prioritize your task list. A task can be high importance but low urgency (important but not time-sensitive), or low importance but high urgency (not critical but needs doing now).

Schedule

• Start Time. Set a specific time to begin this task. Useful if you have a fixed meeting or time block.
• Reminder. Only available when a start time is set. Choose when to be reminded:
• At start time, 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, or 30 min before
• 1, 2, or 3 hours before
• 1 day, 2 days, or 1 week before
• A compact picker shows the 6 most common options, with a "More options" button for the full list.
• A preview shows the exact notification time (e.g. "Will remind at 9:45 AM").

Due Date

• Set a deadline for the task. Quick presets let you pick Today, Tomorrow, This Friday, or Next Monday with one tap, or choose any date from the calendar picker.
• Due dates are color-coded throughout the app: red if overdue, orange if due today, yellow if due within 3 days, and teal if due later.

Subtasks

• Break a task into smaller steps. Tap the "Add item..." field, type a subtask, and tap the plus button.
• Each subtask has a checkbox you can tap to mark it done (with strikethrough styling).
• Subtasks can be reordered by dragging and deleted individually.

Notes

• A text field for any additional context, details, or instructions. Supports voice input.

Audio Recordings

• Tap Record Audio to capture a voice memo attached to the task.
• A timer shows recording duration. Tap stop when done.
• After recording, automatic transcription runs and you can toggle "Show transcription" to read the text.
• Each recording can be renamed, played back with a progress bar, or deleted.

File Attachments

• Tap Add Attachment to choose from:
• Take Photo. Open the camera
• Photo Library. Pick from your photos
• Choose File. Browse for PDFs, documents, or other files
• Attached files show a thumbnail (or icon), filename, type, and size. You can rename or delete each attachment.

Location

• Search for a location by typing in the "Search for a location..." field. Results come from Apple Maps.
• Recent locations appear below the search field for quick reuse.
• Use Current Location grabs your GPS position.
• When a location is set, a map snapshot appears with a pin and a Directions button that opens Apple Maps.

2. Logging Unplanned Work

The Log tab is where you track everything that wasn't part of your morning plan, interruptions, urgent requests, ad-hoc conversations, and unexpected tasks.

At the top of the Log tab, two stat cards show your running totals:

• Today's Impact. Total time consumed by unplanned work
• Logged. Number of items logged today

Quick Add

1. Tap the text field: "What unplanned work came up?"
2. Type a description and press Enter or tap the checkmark.
3. A duration slider appears. Set how long this took (5–480 minutes).
4. Tap Quick Add to save immediately.

This takes about 15 seconds and is designed for logging in the moment without losing focus on your current work.

Detailed Add (More Info)

Tap More Info instead of Quick Add to open the full form with additional fields:

• Schedule. Optionally record when this happened (start time + reminder for follow-up).
• Source. Who or what caused this interruption.
• Type. What kind of work it was.
• Subtasks. Break the work into steps if needed.
• Notes. Add context or details, with voice input available.
• Location. Where this work happened.
• Due Date. If this unplanned work has its own deadline.
• Privacy. Toggle to hide this item from shared reports.

Tap Log Work to save with full details.

Why Tag Source and Type

Tagging where interruptions come from and what kind of work they involve is one of the most valuable habits you can build in Focus Drift. Here's why:

Source tracks who or what channel caused the interruption. You can create custom sources or use suggestions like: Slack, Email, Meeting, Phone Call, Teams, In-person, Text Message, Colleague, or Manager.

Type tracks what kind of work the interruption was. Suggestions include: Question, Bug, Request, Discussion, Urgent, Follow-up, Code Review, or Planning.

When you consistently tag your unplanned work, Focus Drift can surface insights like:

• "Slack is your biggest source of interruptions this week (3 hours)". So you can batch Slack time or set focus hours.
• "Bug reports consumed 40% of your unplanned work". So you can advocate for better QA processes.
• "Manager interruptions are up 60% vs. last week". So you can suggest a regular check-in to batch questions.
• "70% of your interruptions could have been deferred". So you know you're over-responding to non-urgent requests.

Without tags, you just know how much time was lost. With tags, you know why, and you can actually do something about it.

You can create up to 20 custom sources and 20 custom types. Manage them from the Log tab's options menu.

Reviewing Unplanned Work

Each logged item appears as a card showing:

• Title and duration
• Source and type tags (e.g. "Slack - Quick question")
• Timestamp of when it was logged
• Completion status (you can mark unplanned work as done)
• Subtask progress if applicable

Tap any card to open its full detail sheet for editing.

3. End-of-Day Reflection

The Reflect tab guides you through a structured end-of-day check-in. It adapts based on whether today is a workday or personal day.

Why Reflect?

The reflection takes about 2–3 minutes and serves three purposes:

1. Accuracy. Mark tasks you completed that you may have forgotten to check off during the day.
2. Awareness. Capture how you felt, your energy levels, and whether your time estimates were accurate. This data powers the insights in your reports.
3. Closure. Formally close your day so incomplete tasks are handled properly and your daily report is generated.

The Reflection Flow

Focus Score (workdays only)

A 0–100 score based on three factors: task completion rate (40% weight), interruption tax (30%), and high-priority completion rate (30%). Color-coded from green (Excellent) through yellow (Good), orange (Moderate), to red (Needs Improvement), with a trend indicator comparing to your 7-day average.

Today's Highlights

A summary showing tasks completed (e.g. "5/7"), focused work time, and a contextual comparison to your weekly average.

Quick Review

A list of all today's tasks. Tap the circle next to any task to mark it complete. This is your chance to update anything you forgot to check off during the day.

Multi-Day Tasks (if applicable)

For tasks that span multiple days, you choose how to continue each one tomorrow. See the Multi-Day Tasks section for details.

High Priority Needs Decision

Any incomplete HIGH-priority tasks are flagged here. You must choose:

• Reschedule to tomorrow. Move it to tomorrow's plan.
• Drop it. Remove the task entirely.

Lower-priority incomplete tasks auto-reschedule to tomorrow without requiring a decision.

Unplanned Work Review (workdays only)

Reviews significant interruptions (over 20 minutes). For each one, you rate whether it was:

• Provided value. This was necessary and worth the time.
• Could defer. This could have been batched or handled later.
• Could delegate. Someone else could have handled this.

This data feeds into your weekly insights about deferrable and delegable work.

Time Reality Check (workdays only)

How did your time estimates feel today?

• Pretty accurate
• Everything took longer (with follow-up: Got interrupted a lot / Tasks were bigger than expected / Low energy day)
• Finished faster than expected
• Honestly didn't track it

Energy Check

Rate your energy: High energy, Normal, Low energy, or Depleted.

How Was Today?

Rate your overall feeling: Productive, Got some things done, Struggled, or Just okay. You must select a feeling to close your day.

Tomorrow's Preview

Shows how many tasks are carrying forward and lists them. If you have more than 5 carry-overs, you'll see a note suggesting you plan fewer new tasks tomorrow.

Any Last Additions?

A final prompt asking if you forgot to capture any tasks or unplanned work. Quick buttons take you to the Plan or Log tab to add them.

Close Day

Tap to finalize. This saves all your reflection data, auto-reschedules incomplete low-priority tasks to tomorrow, creates multi-day continuations, generates your daily report, and marks the day as closed.

4. What Happens to Unfinished Tasks

When you close your day, incomplete tasks are handled based on their priority:

• High-priority tasks. You must make an explicit decision during reflection: reschedule to tomorrow or drop them.
• All other incomplete tasks. Automatically reschedule to tomorrow. Their reschedule count increments so you can see how many times a task has been pushed.
• Multi-day tasks. Follow their own continuation flow (see below).

Tasks that reschedule appear as carry-over items in tomorrow's Plan tab.

5. Multi-Day Tasks

Some work naturally spans more than one day, a design project, a research deep-dive, a long document. Multi-day tasks let you track this kind of work intentionally instead of having it pile up in your carry-over list.

Creating a Multi-Day Task

When adding or editing a task, toggle "Multi-day Task" in the Task Info section. The task will be labeled as "-pt1" (part 1).

How Continuation Works

At the end of each day, during reflection, multi-day tasks get their own section. For each one, you choose:

• Start fresh. A new part is created for tomorrow with a clean slate (no subtasks or notes carried over). Good when each day's work is distinct.
• Copy forward. A new part is created with all your subtasks (unchecked) and notes preserved. Good when you're continuing the same checklist across days.
• All done, project complete. No continuation is created. The task is finished.

If you choose Start fresh or Copy forward, a new task appears tomorrow titled with the next part number (e.g. "Design mockups -pt2", then "-pt3", and so on).

Example

• Day 1: "Write proposal -pt1". You outline sections and write the intro. At reflection, choose Copy forward.
• Day 2: "Write proposal -pt2" appears with your subtasks unchecked. You complete more sections. Choose Copy forward again.
• Day 3: "Write proposal -pt3" appears. You finish the proposal and choose All done, project complete.

This keeps large projects visible and intentional without cluttering your carry-over list.

6. Carry-Over Items

Carry-over items are incomplete tasks from previous days that appear at the top of your Plan tab each morning.

How They Appear

Carry-over tasks show in a dedicated section above your regular daily tasks, sorted by:

1. Overdue tasks first. Items past their due date
2. By due date. Earliest deadline next
3. By priority. Higher importance/urgency before lower
4. By creation date. Oldest tasks last

Each carry-over card displays:

• The task title and duration estimate
• "from [date]". Showing when the task was originally created or last scheduled (e.g. "from Monday" or "from 9/3/2026")
• Priority and urgency indicators
• An Add to today button to bring it into your current plan
• A Defer button to push it to a later date
• A Delete button to remove it entirely

Managing Your Backlog

If carry-overs keep accumulating, Focus Drift will surface this during reflection:

• "Your backlog is growing: 8 tasks vs. 4 weekly average. Time to be more selective."
• "You're clearing your backlog! Down to 2 from 5 average."

Tips for managing carry-overs:

• If a task keeps getting deferred, consider whether it still matters. Delete it or break it into smaller pieces.
• Use the Defer button to reschedule to a specific future date rather than having it appear every morning.
• Review carry-overs first thing, decide immediately whether each one belongs in today's plan.

7. Daily Report Insights

Your daily report is generated after you close your day via reflection (or can be viewed anytime from the Reports hub). It surfaces these insights:

Your Day in Focus (Overview)

• Tasks Completed. How many tasks you finished out of your total
• Focus Time. Total productive minutes tracked
• Interruptions. Number of unplanned work items logged
• The Split. A visual breakdown of your time: completed work vs. incomplete work vs. interruption time
• Completion Rate. Percentage with a message: "Strong follow-through" (90%+), "Mostly on track" (75%+), "Partial completion" (50%+), or "Below target"
• Priority Breakdown. Completion rates for High, Medium, and Low priority tasks separately
• Timeline. The first 5 completed tasks with their times, showing the flow of your day
• Today's Wins. Your top 3 completed tasks

Productivity Insights

• Key Metrics Grid:
• Completion percentage
• Focus Time (total minutes on completed work)
• Efficiency percentage (focus time vs. total time)
• Peak Hour (your most productive hour of the day)
• Top Opportunity. A headline insight if you had significant interruptions (e.g. "3 interruptions from Slack consumed 2 hours")
• Interruption Patterns. Your top 3 interruption sources with count and percentage
• Time Management Breakdown. How many interruptions were a good call, could have been deferred, or could have been delegated

AI Insights (when available)

If your device supports on-device AI, you'll also see:

• An AI-generated summary of your day
• A key insight with a confidence score
• Pattern analysis combining your completion data with your reflection answers (energy, mood, time estimates)

8. Weekly Report Insights

Access the weekly report from the Reports hub (in the More tab) or by tapping "Weekly Report". Navigate between weeks using the arrow buttons.

Weekly Overview

• Three progress rings:
• Tasks Complete (count and percentage)
• Focus Score (composite metric)
• Per Day Average (tasks per day, benchmarked against a 5/day target)
• At a Glance:
• Most Productive Day (which day and how many tasks)
• Trend (comparison to previous week)
• Interruptions per Day (average)
• Total Focus Time

Interruption Analysis

• Total Interruptions for the week
• Average per day
• Most Common Sources. Your top 5 interruption sources ranked by frequency with percentage bars
• Weekly Opportunities:
• How many interruptions could have been deferred
• How many could have been delegated
• Total reclaimable time in hours and minutes

Task Patterns

• Overall Completion Rate with visual indicator
• Work Characteristics:
• Average task duration
• Unplanned work count and percentage of total
• Tasks that originated from interruptions
• Week-Over-Week Trends (compared to previous week):
• Tasks Completed (change amount)
• Completion Rate (percentage change)
• Unplanned Work (percentage change)
• Focus Time (hours/minutes change)
• Planning Opportunity. If 30%+ of your work was unplanned, you'll see a suggestion to try time-blocking

Completed Tasks Detail

A full list of everything you completed, grouped by day. Each task shows:

• Title
• Time estimate
• Importance and urgency levels
• Whether it was unplanned (UNPLANNED badge)
• Notes indicator

This list spans multiple pages if you completed more than 15 tasks.

AI Weekly Insights (when available)

• Week in Review. An honest AI-generated assessment of your week
• Next Week Strategy. One specific, actionable recommendation for improving next week
• Uses your reflection data (energy levels, daily feelings, time estimate accuracy) for personalized advice

9. Sharing and Exporting Reports

Every report (daily, weekly, or custom range) can be shared as images or a PDF.

How to Share

Open any report and tap the Share button. You'll see options to:

• Share. Opens the iOS share sheet so you can send via email, messages, AirDrop, or save to any app
• Save to Photos. Saves all report pages as images to your photo library
• Copy. Copy individual report images

Share Configuration Presets

Before sharing, you can choose what level of detail to include:

Full Detail

• Includes task titles, notes, interruption titles, interruption notes, reflection text
• Shows timeline, time distribution, stats, priority breakdown, completion rate
• AI insights included
• Best for personal review or trusted colleagues

Professional

• Includes task titles but no notes
• Hides interruption titles and notes for a cleaner look
• Hides timeline, shows stats and priority breakdown
• Filters out items marked as private
• AI insights included
• Best for manager check-ins or team stand-ups

Metrics Only

• No task or interruption names (shows generic labels like "Task (1h 30m)")
• No notes, reflection, or timeline
• Shows only the time distribution chart, stats, and completion rate
• AI insights hidden
• Best for sharing productivity data without revealing specific work content

Privacy Controls

You can customize any preset with granular toggles:

• Include/exclude task titles and notes
• Include/exclude interruption titles and notes
• Include/exclude reflection text
• Filter out items marked as private
• Include or exclude personal days
• Show or hide AI-generated insights

Export Quality

Reports export at high resolution (3x). Each page is a crisp image suitable for presentations or printing.

10. Custom Range Reports

From the Reports hub (More tab), tap Custom Date Range under Custom Reports.

Choosing a Date Range

Pick any start and end date, or use a quick preset:

• Last 7 Days
• Last 30 Days
• This Week
• Last Week
• This Month
• Last Month

What's Included

Custom range reports include the same depth of analysis as weekly reports, scaled to your chosen period:

• Overview with progress rings and at-a-glance stats
• Interruption analysis with source breakdown and reclaimable time
• Task patterns with completion rates and work characteristics
• Period-over-period trends (compared to the equivalent previous period)
• Completed tasks list grouped by day
• Unplanned work analysis with planned vs. unplanned split
• AI insights if available

The report labels adapt to your date range, a 1-day range shows "Day" comparisons, a 7-day range shows "Week", a 30-day range shows "Month", and so on.

Preview

Before generating the full report, you see a preview showing:

• Tasks completed (X out of Y)
• Total interruptions
• Focus Drift percentage (interruption time relative to total work time)
• Color-coded indicator: green if under 15%, yellow if 15–30%, red if over 30%

11. Calendar View and Forward Planning

Open the Calendar by tapping the calendar icon in the top header bar.

Month View

The calendar shows a standard month grid with navigation arrows to move between months. Today is highlighted. Each date cell may show small indicators for:

• Tasks scheduled (teal dot)
• Unplanned work logged (orange dot)
• Calendar events synced from your device calendar
• Capacity usage (how full that day is)

Day Detail

Tap any date to see its details below the calendar:

• Date header. Shows the date with a "Today" label if applicable
• Daily Capacity. A card showing how much of your work capacity is used (e.g. "2h 30m of 8h") with a progress bar that goes from green to yellow to red as it fills. A Work Day / Personal Day toggle lets you switch modes, and an Edit link lets you adjust that day's capacity.
• Add Task field, "What needs to happen?" lets you add a task directly for that date. This uses the same progressive flow as the Plan tab (title, duration, priority, More Info).
• Tasks section. All tasks for that date with completion status, duration, and priority indicators.
• Unplanned Work section. All logged interruptions for that date.

Forward Planning

The Calendar is the best place to plan ahead:

1. Navigate to a future date.
2. Check the capacity card to see how much time is available.
3. Add tasks directly for that date using the add-task field.
4. If you need to move an existing task to a different day, use the Move to Date action, tap and hold a task, select Move, then tap the destination date on the calendar. If you move a task past its due date, the deadline adjusts automatically.

Calendar Sync

If you connected your device calendar during setup:

• Pull down to refresh. Manually sync events from your calendar app.
• Calendar events appear alongside your Focus Drift tasks so you can see your real availability.
• Tap a day to see its calendar events. Each event has an Import button to convert it into a Focus Drift task.
• An Import All button lets you import all events for a day at once.
• Sync status and last sync time are shown at the top.

Focus Drift uses read-only access, it never adds or changes anything in your calendar.

12. Search

Tap the search icon (magnifying glass) in the Calendar view header to open search.

Searching

Type in the search field to find tasks and unplanned work across your entire history. Search matches against titles and notes, and results are grouped into Tasks and Unplanned Work sections with a result count.

Browsing

When the search field is empty, you can browse by toggling between two views:

• Upcoming. Shows the next 7 days with all tasks and unplanned work for each day, grouped by date. Each day shows a completion counter (e.g. "2/4" meaning 2 of 4 items completed).
• Recent. Shows the last 7 days with the same layout.

This gives you a quick at-a-glance view of your upcoming workload and recent activity without navigating the calendar day by day.

13. Deadlines

Tap the Deadlines button in the Calendar view to see all items that have a due date set.

Setting a Deadline

In any task's detail sheet, set a Due Date using the date picker or quick presets (Today, Tomorrow, This Friday, Next Monday). The same applies to unplanned work items.

Deadlines View

The Deadlines view groups all items with due dates into three sections:

• Overdue. Items past their due date, shown with red indicators. These need your attention first.
• This Week. Items due within the next 7 days.
• Later. Items due more than 7 days from now.

Each item shows its title, due date (color-coded by urgency), duration, priority indicators, and subtask progress. You can:

• Tap the completion circle to mark an item done
• Tap the title to open its full detail sheet
• Expand subtasks inline to check off individual steps
• Delete items to trash

If you have no deadlines set, you'll see: "No deadlines set. Add due dates to your tasks to track them here."

Why Use Deadlines

Deadlines give you a single view of everything that has a time constraint, across all your tasks and unplanned work. Instead of scanning through individual days on the calendar, the Deadlines view shows you exactly what's overdue and what's coming up, sorted by urgency so you always know what to tackle first.

14. Deadline Live Activities (iOS)

On iPhone, Focus Drift can display your upcoming deadlines as Live Activities on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, so you never lose sight of what's due.

Enabling Live Activities

1. Go to Settings in Focus Drift.
2. Under Deadlines, enable Live Activities.
3. Choose your alert window, how far in advance a deadline should appear: 2 hours, 4 hours, or 8 hours before the deadline.

What You See

When a deadline enters your alert window, a Live Activity appears showing:

• Task title and importance level (High, Medium, or Low)
• Time remaining until the deadline, updating in real time
• Additional deadlines, if multiple items are due soon, up to 3 additional tasks are shown
• Overdue indicator, if a deadline has passed, it's flagged as overdue

Managing Live Activities

• Live Activities update automatically as deadlines approach and pass
• You can end any Live Activity by swiping it away on the Lock Screen
• If you complete a task or remove its deadline, the Live Activity updates or ends automatically
• To disable entirely, turn off the toggle in Focus Drift Settings, or go to your device's Settings > Focus Drift > Live Activities

Privacy Note

Because Live Activities appear on the Lock Screen, task titles and importance levels are visible without unlocking your device. If you prefer to keep task details private, disable Live Activities in Settings.

15. AI Assistant Integration (MCP)

Focus Drift supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that lets compatible AI assistants, like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, read your schedule and add tasks on your behalf.

Requirements

• A Focus Drift account with sync enabled
• A compatible AI assistant that supports MCP
• You must sign in to your Focus Drift account through the AI assistant's MCP settings

What AI Assistants Can Do

Once connected, an AI assistant can:

• Read your today's tasks, titles, durations, importance, urgency, notes, start times, due dates, and completion status
• View your unplanned work, interruptions logged today with source and duration
• Check your capacity, how much time is available vs. allocated
• See your weekly overview, completion rates, focus scores, and interruption totals
• Search your recent tasks, find tasks from the last 30–90 days
• View carry-over tasks, incomplete items from previous days
• Check overdue items, tasks past their deadline
• Add new tasks, create tasks that appear in a review queue for your approval
• Log unplanned work, record interruptions on your behalf

Privacy Protection

• Private tasks are always excluded. Any task or interruption you mark as "private" is automatically hidden from all MCP queries
• Deleted items are excluded. Nothing in your trash is accessible
• AI-created items require your approval. Tasks added via MCP appear in a dedicated "New via MCP" banner at the top of your Plan tab. You can Add to today, Defer, or Delete each one

Connecting an AI Assistant

1. Make sure you have a Focus Drift account and sync is enabled
2. In your AI assistant's settings, look for MCP server configuration
3. Add the Focus Drift MCP server URL and sign in with your Focus Drift credentials
4. The AI assistant can now query your schedule and add tasks

Disconnecting

To revoke an AI assistant's access: sign out of your Focus Drift account in the AI assistant's MCP settings, or disable account sync entirely in Focus Drift Settings.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Focus Drift

Build the daily habit. Plan in the morning, log interruptions in real time, reflect in the evening. The more consistently you do this, the more accurate and useful your insights become.

Tag your interruptions. Source and type tags are what transform Focus Drift from a simple time tracker into a tool that helps you change how you work. Without them, you know how much time was lost. With them, you know why.

Review your weekly report. Daily data is useful in the moment. Weekly patterns are where the real insights live, which sources interrupt you most, whether your unplanned work percentage is growing, and how your completion rate is trending.

Use multi-day tasks for projects. Instead of carrying over the same task for a week, mark it as multi-day. Each part gets its own day, its own subtasks, and a clean continuation flow. Your carry-over list stays manageable.

Forward plan with the Calendar. Don't just plan today, use the Calendar view to drop tasks on future dates when you know they'll be relevant. Check capacity before loading up a day.

Close your day. The reflection flow is how Focus Drift learns about your real capacity, energy patterns, and estimation accuracy. Skipping it means missing out on the intelligence layer that makes the app smarter over time.