Work in intervals. Take the breaks.

Focus Cadence is a Pomodoro-style interval timer for macOS. Set a cadence of work and break phases, or plan a whole day around fixed times, and let a single field of colour tell you which phase you are in. It lives in the menu bar with a live countdown, and it can pause itself when you lock the screen or walk away.

It also has a nudge. Sit still long enough and your chat app decides you have left, whatever you are actually doing. Once you have gone still, the nudge asks you to touch the keyboard or mouse, so your status stays green while you are still at your desk. The ask is quiet by default, a flash of the window and a word in the menu bar, with a sound or the full-screen moment if you want them. It only ever asks. It never moves anything on your behalf.

It stores nothing outside your Mac and connects to nothing. What you do with your time is your business.

Get it

Focus Cadence is coming to the Mac App Store. Download is free, and most of what the app does is yours to adjust: how long work and breaks run, where the long breaks fall, which of the four alerts announce a phase change, from a sound to the full-screen moment, a wash of colour across the whole screen for a couple of seconds with nothing to click away, how long you can be idle before it pauses for you, and which of the built-in themes colours the window.

A single one-time purchase unlocks three more: the nudge, planned days, and custom colours.

Support

Questions or trouble? Write to support@focuscadence.work. See the support page for the short answers first.