BeFocused 1.0

A focus timer for the macOS menu bar. Pick a focus length and a break length, press play — no account, no cloud, no tasks to manage.

Install: download the DMG below and drag BeFocused to Applications. The app is ad-hoc signed, so macOS blocks the first launch. Clear the quarantine flag once and it opens from then on:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/BeFocused.app

This works even where Privacy settings are locked by policy. DISTRIBUTION.md covers the alternatives, including signing with a Developer ID.

What's in it

• Countdown in the menu bar, or just the icon if you would rather not watch it
• Focus and break lengths from one minute up, edited without disturbing a running interval
• Start, pause, reset and skip from the popover, the right-click menu, or a global shortcut
• A system sound when an interval ends, previewed in settings, with separate toggles for focus and break
• Do Not Disturb for the length of every focus interval, off again the moment you pause
• Auto-continue into the next interval, or let each one wait for you
• Launch at login
• An interval that expires while the Mac is asleep ends on wake and plays its sound, but the next one waits, because you were away

Do Not Disturb

macOS has no public setting for Focus, so the app runs two Shortcuts you make once. The Focus tab in Settings explains how and reports whether it found them. Everything else works without them.

Requirements

macOS 14 or later.

SHA-256  a58918781556e6cabd706c0233558b3ad28d731802e9dbe42932dd903918e9a2