FocusList Review: A Minimalist, Pomodoro To-Do App

Through testing productivity apps like Doo and Time, my to-do preferences have changed; while I was once a fan of feature-rich task managers, I’ve learned to appreciate the simplicity of apps that just focus on helping me get stuff done.

FocusList is a great example of that sort of minimalism in action, an unadorned display of your tasks, their estimated completion time, and, on occasion, a timer. Its content is driven by your list of tasks, but no more – its one goal is to focus you on your work.

Complimenting your task list are a couple of handy features: the project duration and a Pomodoro timer. For each task, you can assign an estimate for the time you anticipate to spend on the project, with swipes left or right raising and lowering the total by 30 minutes. And to help you complete the tasks, FocusList will use the Pomodoro technique – 25 minutes of work followed by 5 minutes of rest – displaying a timer above your task list.

To review how your performance, a stats view can be opened in the app’s hamburger menu. By peeking at your stats, you can see how and when you worked, as well as how accurate your estimates were.

FocusList syncs across your iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac using iCloud. Once you log in, your data will be available on each of your devices and backed up to iCloud.

All in all, FocusList is an efficient and easy-to-use to-do app that will find favor with those looking for a simple productivity tool. For routine tasks, FocusList is a stellar app.

You can pick up FocusList in the iOS App Store here and in the Mac App Store here for $4.99 each.