Be Focused – Deep Focus Timer

Edit: my 5 star review from 6 months ago, below, is out of date. App is still a 5 star app but even better. Love how the developers continue to actively improve this ALL THE TIME. They added the time into the Mac menu bar and added the ability to kick off using shortcuts!! Seriously beyond impressed. For the price of 2 cups of coffee, you could increase your productivity forever. Love love love this app. (Now if only they let you use seconds or fractions of minutes as a unit of measure. Sometimes you really want a break to be 30 seconds because: reasons) But for real. Incredible app. Original review early 2025: I love this app — or rather, I really want to love it. I’ve found that it comes the closest to most timer / Pomodoro apps out there to being exactly what I need. The biggest complaint I have? It lives on its own island. Using it on the iPad? No ability to do split screen or otherwise quickly peek at how much time is left. Using it on the Mac? No ability to see the time remaining in the menu bar without clicking up there. (And no easy way to call the app from Shortcuts to write your own workaround to assign hotkeys / macros). It helpfully shows time in the iPhone Dynamic island and helpfully sends notifications to your Apple Watch. Again, nearly perfect and well thought through: certainly the best at what it does and easily worth the price. But when you become a power user, you’ll find yourself wishing it could do just a LITTLE more…

I have ADHD and this app really helps me control it. It allows my brain to see that I only need to focus on whatever I’m doing for a set amount of time and then I can take a break for a set amount of time. Without this app my breaks end up taking longer than my study time, so I basically just take breaks to study and then go back to doing whatever else I’d rather do and am actually able to focus on. It also helps remind me that I can’t procrastinate because I am being timed. Therefore, this app is especially helpful on days when I don’t just have 1 or 2 assignments to get done, but I actually have 4 assignments due that day and 2 I need to do from the day before and then 2 others that I should have gotten done A WHILE ago but I didn’t have the motivation, energy, or focus in order to do so. In conclusion, IF YOU HAVE ADHD THEN YOU SHOULD GET THIS APP. And if you get it, then don’t be like me and USE IT OFTEN. ADHD doesn’t have to define you. It can be a superpower when used correctly. YOU GOT THIS! YOU ARE CAPABLE, SMART, MOTIVATED, FOCUSED, BRAVE, AND CREATIVE! Also if you are like me and have been labeled as “slow” your whole life, then here is an important reminder: YOU ARE NOT SLOW! YOUR BRAIN JUST WORKS DIFFERENTLY. YOU JUST HAVE DIFFERENT SUPER POWERS AND STRENGTHS! The hard part is remembering that and learning how to use and control them in order to be our best selves.

I have been using this app for over a year and I can’t put into words the amount of satisfaction it brings me. Everything is just the way I would want and imagine to make if I were to design the app; simple and rather minimalistic (compared to most other apps) but contains all of the features I would need to be completely happy (the last of which was added very recently — deadline button). No clutter and very user friendly. It was very addictive to me; so be careful. I bought the paid version too to be able to synchronize my data and have it in all of my devices. However, the only sad part about this is that (at the moment) I don’t think I will be able to transfer the data I have been collecting for over a year from my unpaid version to my paid version to be able to keep and display it as well. So for now I keep using the unpaid version until I either find a different way of transferring it, or the developer adds a feature like that, or I get enough courage to say “goodbye” to my lovely and diligently collected large data set. Despite remaining an unpaid version used while having the paid version, I have no regrets at all for my purchase and I hope the developer gets many more people discovering his apps and becoming as happy as I am with it/them. THANK YOU!