Focus Mode
One task at a time, a stopwatch, and a queue Tidywell builds for you.
The list is the problem. Focus hides it.
Focus Mode takes your Today list and shows you one task at a time, full screen, with a timer on it.
Before it starts, it asks how much energy you have and narrows the queue to tasks that match.
It's built for days when the list itself is the problem.
Focus Mode is free. The only paid parts are the AI breakdown allowance and 12 of the 15 lo-fi tracks.
How to get there
- 1
Open the Today tab and tap ✨ Start focused cleaning at the bottom. It appears only when you're looking at today, and today has at least one task on it.
- 2
From the Home tab, you can also tap the 🎯 Focus tile in the quick actions row.
- 3
From a room, tap Start focused cleaning under the room card. Worth knowing: this doesn't limit Focus to that room, you'll get the same Today queue.
- 4
After you finish any task, the celebration card offers Let's do it for the next one, which opens Focus already sitting on that task.
- 5
Tapping a Tidywell home-screen widget opens Focus on the task the widget was showing.
Routes 1 to 3 open the energy question first. Routes 4 and 5 skip it and go straight to the task they named.
Two screens: the energy question, then the task
The energy question
Illustration of the energy question. Labels are the app's own; layout is simplified.
- Low 🌱 Quick & easy tasks onlythe lightest tasks only
- Medium 🌿 Light and medium tasksnothing deep
- High 🌳 Bring on the deep cleanseverything
- Not sure — just pick for mealso everything, if you'd rather not decide
- Group by roomsfinishes one room's tasks before moving on, and is on unless you turn it off
- ×, top leftleaves Focus
The task screen
Illustration of the task screen with the app's real button labels. Not a screenshot.
- Room emoji tile, then the task namewhat you're doing and where
- Three pillshow heavy the task is, its estimated minutes, and the coins it pays
- LET'S GOstarts the stopwatch
- The dark timer cardelapsed time out of the estimate, with pause and resume
- ✨ Done!appears once the timer has started, and completes the task
- ✨ Break it downasks for smaller steps
- ⤴ Skip this onemoves to the next task
- Spin the wheelshown when at least two tasks are left
- I need a breakpauses and opens a breathing screen
- The bottom line"3 tasks left — done by 9:05", the tasks left and the time you'd finish at
Using it
- 1
Pick an energy level. Focus filters the queue and shows you the first task.
- 2
Tap LET'S GO. The stopwatch counts up from zero towards the task's own estimate.
- 3
If the task feels too big, tap ✨ Break it down, set how fine you want the steps on the simple to micro dial, then tap 🔨 Break it down.
- 4
Tick steps off as you go. Each tick pops the coin counter and throws a little confetti.
- 5
Tap Pause whenever you like; the number freezes, and resuming picks up from the same place.
- 6
Tap I need a break for the BREATHE · 4-7-8 screen: 4 seconds in, 7 holding, 8 out. The timer pauses, and starts again by itself when you come back.
- 7
Not this one? ⤴ Skip this one moves you along without recording anything.
- 8
Can't choose? Spin the wheel picks one and brings it to the front.
- 9
When the job's done, tap ✨ Done!. If you ticked off every step, that button becomes ✨ Mark task done, which does the same thing.
What happens when you tap Done
Your stopwatch reading is saved with the completion, capped at the task's estimate.
That saved time is what Insights and Weekly Wrapped count as real minutes; tasks ticked off elsewhere fall back to their estimate.
Coins come from effort, not from time: 3 coins for a light task, 5 for a medium one, 10 for a deep one.
Finish another task within ten minutes and momentum pays a bonus on top, 2 extra coins for the second and 5 for the third onwards.
The completion also feeds your streak, your challenges, and your achievement counters, including the under-ten-minutes one that only Focus can earn.
A celebration then shows NEXT UP with the next task's name: Let's do it carries you into it, Back to tasks leaves Focus.
If the wheel picked the task you just finished and two or more are still waiting, you get Spin again? instead.
Offline or without an account, the completion saves on your device and syncs to your household when you're back online.
Focus or Sprint?
| Focus Mode | Sprint | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it's for | Always solo | Solo, or the whole household |
| Price | Free | Household sprints are Premium |
| The clock | The task's own estimate, counting up | You pick 15, 25 or 45 minutes for the session |
| What you see | One task at a time | The whole queue, tick in any order |
| Choosing tasks | Built for you | A solo Sprint has a Choose tasks screen |
| Energy filter | Yes, at the start | None |
| Break it down | Yes | No |
| Breathing break | I need a break | None |
| Daily budget | Sticks to the capped Today list | Ignores the cap, can pull extra tasks in |
Both play the same lo-fi player, and both record coins, streaks, approvals and challenges the same way.
Read the Sprints guide, including Choose tasksGood to know
- You can't hand-pick what's in a Focus session. The queue is built from Today's capped list plus your open "Whenever" tasks, and nothing on screen lets you tick tasks in or out. To choose, start a solo Sprint and use its Choose tasks screen.
- Tasks sitting in Today's Got more time? overflow don't come into Focus, with one exception: a task you arrived on from the wheel, a widget or a celebration always starts, wherever it was.
- There's no duration picker. The timer is always the task's own estimate.
- The timer never completes anything by itself. When it reaches the estimate it just stops and waits for you to tap ✨ Done!.
- Focus records full completions only. There's no "Good enough" or "Started" here.
- Skipping records nothing at all: no completion, no deferral, no change to the task. And on the last task in the queue, ⤴ Skip this one does nothing and says nothing.
- Anything a housemate already finished today is out of your queue before you begin. If someone finishes your current task while your phone is in your pocket, you'll come back to a Task no longer here card with Continue.
- Group by rooms can only be changed on the energy screen.
- There's no before/after photo link in the Focus celebration, unlike the one on Today and Room Detail.
Music
Break it down
Kid mode
A child's Focus queue holds only their own tasks, plus unassigned ones unless a grown-up has turned that off.
If their profile needs approval, the completion is saved as pending, and coins, achievements, challenge progress and the streak all wait until a parent approves it. The celebration says so instead of showing coins.
Children can start Focus from Today's ✨ Start focused cleaning button, but not from the spin wheel, where their only options are Mark complete and Spin again. If a child taps something that needs Premium, they get a friendly That's a grown-up setting note rather than a paywall.