I chose this app of all the Pomodoro timers because it had both a community and a planning element. The features include some great ways to improve your writing process.
Using Your Time Wisely
Writers are strapped for time. Most of us have another job, career, family stuff that competes with writing for our time. This app allows you to see how much time you spend writing. It lets you accurately track long each task takes. I’m guilty to an infinite degree about not knowing how long tasks take. With the app, I’ve timed my editing process to understand how long each job takes, and then the project in general.
Grab a project that you need a better sense of timing on—editing, drafting, social media. Use the Focus To-Do each time you do the task. Adjust your pomodoros and breaks accordingly. If you are a sprinter, use the regular twenty-five-minute timer. If you have sporadic work sessions, reset the timer to ten or five minutes. Now work through and complete the task, marking each pomodoro as you go. Don’t worry about how many it takes, just get a baseline. When finished, analyze your data. How long did it take? What size pomodoro worked for you? Were breaks long/short enough? In the end, you’ll have a true understanding of how you work at that task.
Now use the data. Do you need more time? Less? You can share with crit partners, writing partners, or editors accurate information about how long you need to edit, draft, etc.. Knowing your process and how long tasks take is essential to making the most of your writing time. There was an older app called Writerometer that my friend loved. It measured your working time for planned projects and gave you a finish date. Focus To-Do won’t give a finishing date, but you can speculate from your average work pace how long it will take to finish.
Plan Projects
I’ve mentioned a few project planers in my blog—Trello, Aeon Timeline (kinda), Scapple. But Focus To-Do allows planning with practicality. It combines sprinting, measuring work time, and planning. It’s Trello with a timer. I love that Focus To-Do allows the user to add as many details and sub projects as needed. Every writer I’ve ever met has multiple projects ongoing. You can plan your book release, editing book two, and drafting book three on the app and ensure you’re giving time to each one. The simplicity of the format of the app makes it easy to juggle all your projects, add and remove details, and accurately set time goals for each.
Team up
Though the community option is a premium feature, that doesn’t mean you can use the app solo with others. Use Focus To-Do with others to create a writing community. We are all stuck at home during this pandemic. But that shouldn’t stop you from doing sprints with friends online. Use twitter, messenger, texts, or whatever communication app along with Focus To-Do to create sprint runs and work toward your goals.
If you use the premium version of the app, you can connect with other writers, make new friends, and writing partners. There’s nothing like peer-pressure to get you motivated to complete a task.
Consider Focus To-Do as a medium for NaNoWriMo this year. Officially, the National Write A Novel Month organization will not be holding in-person write-ins. Through this app, you can organize and complete virtual write-ins and get that 50k goal.
Hopefully, you now have a few good ideas for this useful app. Happy Writing
