App tracking tells you where your time goes. Focus tracking tells you how well you spent it. The difference matters. You can spend 6 hours in VS Code and still accomplish nothing if you context-switch every 5 minutes.
What Focus Tracking Measures
The new focus dashboard in xeve tracks three key metrics:
- Deep work streaks — the longest uninterrupted period you spent in productive apps. No app switches, no distractions. This is your real productive output, not just "time in editor."
- App switches per hour — a direct measure of context switching. Lower is better. The average developer switches 20+ times per hour. Getting below 10 is exceptional focus.
- Distraction ratio — the percentage of your active time spent in apps categorized as unproductive (social media, news, entertainment). This is not a judgment — it is data.
Distraction Nudges
The macOS app now includes optional distraction nudges. When you have been in a non-productive app for more than a configurable threshold (default: 5 minutes), a subtle notification reminds you to get back on track.
These nudges are not aggressive pop-ups or app blockers. They are gentle reminders that respect your autonomy. Sometimes you need to browse Twitter for 20 minutes. The nudge just makes sure it is a conscious choice, not an unconscious drift.
The Pomodoro Timer
The menu bar now includes a built-in Pomodoro timer. Start a 25-minute focus session and xeve tracks your focus metrics during that window separately. After the session, you get a quick summary: how many app switches, what your longest streak was, and what percentage was deep work.
The Pomodoro timer integrates with focus tracking automatically — you do not need to configure anything. Start the timer, work, and the data is captured.
App Blocklist
New in v0.3.0: you can mark specific apps as "blocked." Blocked apps are still tracked locally for your own reference, but they are never synced to the cloud. This is useful for apps you want to monitor without storing the data permanently — think private messaging apps or anything you would rather keep off the server.
The blocked apps tab in the windowed Mac app makes it easy to manage your blocklist without digging through settings.
What I Learned
After two weeks of focus tracking, three things stood out:
- My best focus window is 9-11 AM. App switches drop to single digits per hour. After lunch, they triple.
- Slack is my biggest distraction. Not Twitter, not YouTube — Slack. The constant stream of messages pulls me out of deep work more than anything else.
- The Pomodoro timer works for me. Not because of the 25-minute structure, but because the act of starting a timer creates commitment. I context-switch 40% less during Pomodoro sessions.
Try focus tracking in the latest macOS update. The dashboard is at xeve.io/dashboard/focus.