Focus sessions
A timer that survives sleep, crashes and restarts.
A focus session is a timed block against a task, or against nothing in particular.
Starting
Choose Focus 25 min on the current task, press your focus shortcut, or use the command palette (Ctrl + K, then Start focus…). In the dialog pick a task, a length (5, 15, 25, 45, 60, 90 minutes or any custom value from 1 to 720), and optionally the distractions to watch for.
Only one session can be active. Starting another asks you to:
- Continue existing focus
- End current and start new
- Cancel
During a session
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pause / Resume | Stops and restarts the clock. Paused time is not counted. |
| +5 min | Extends the session. The new end time is saved. |
| Complete task | Finishes the task and closes the session together. |
| End | Stops the session. The task stays open. |
Complete task vs End
Complete task is one atomic change: the session is saved as completed with the time you actually focused, and the current task is cleared. End only cancels the session; it never completes the task. The time already focused is kept in History either way.
Why the timer stays right
TaskDock stores timestamps, not a ticking counter. A running session stores when it started and when it should end; a paused session stores the time already elapsed. Remaining time is always computed from the clock.
That means it stays correct when:
- the window is hidden for hours,
- the PC sleeps or hibernates,
- the app is closed or crashes and is reopened,
- the clock display is not being drawn at all.
The session is written to the database before the interface changes. If you reopen TaskDock after a session should have ended, it is completed at its true end time, not when you noticed.
When a session ends
You get a notification and optionally a soft chime. The completion dialog offers Mark task complete, Start another, or Dismiss. A native notification fires even when the window is hidden.
History
Every session appears in History with its task, planned length and actual time. The Focus and Analytics pages are computed from these real records: tasks completed and focus minutes per day over 7 or 30 days, and session totals. If there is no data, they say so rather than showing invented numbers.