How to Use the FocusMe Scheduler

FocusMe can be set to start automatically whenever you turn your computer on. The same works with Focus plans – you can setup a schedule and enable a plan and never have to worry about forgetting to start them.

The first thing you do is either create a new plan or edit an existing one. To create a new plan, hit the “add plan” button on the upper right. To edit an existing plan, you can either right-click on the plan and select “Edit Plan” or hit the respective ellipsis on the right.

Type the name of the Focus plan (for editing existing plans, the name shows up here) then hit “Next”.

On the next page, click on the “Add Site” button.

You can select the website/s in the History tab,

Or manually input them in the Custom tab. Note: you can add more than one URL by hitting enter after each, as shown below:

Hit “Done” when done to add the item/s on the list. Then hit “Next”.

Do the same thing for the Applications tab (if you wish to block any applications) then hit “Next”.

You can set the Focus Type any way you want. But for this tutorial, select “Just Block” then click “Next”.

The goal of this tutorial is to show how to setup the Focus plan to run without having to start it up every time. You can do that by setting the Scheduling Mode to “Schedule”. Then hit “Next”.

Schedule Mode

Since version 7, the scheduling feature has been improved and made easier to setup.

Select the day/s you would like to set a schedule. Select multiple days to set the same schedule for all of them. Selecting all days will let you set the same schedule for the whole week.

– Days in gray are those that have no schedule yet.

– Click on a day to highlight it green, meaning it is selected. You can select multiple days to set their schedules at the same time.

– Check this box to select all days simultaneously. Uncheck to clear all days.

– If at least one day is set, this button will show up. click this button to set the schedule of the day/s highlighted in green. You will be directed to the “time” page:

  1. Click this arrow to go back to page 4/6 (Focus Type).
  2. This is where you see the day/s that are currently being scheduled.
  3. This is the Time Bar where you set the schedule.
  4. Click on this arrow to toggle between time slots, if there are more than one.
  5. This arrow denotes which time slot is currently selected.
  6. This is a time slot. Create one by clicking and dragging on the Time Bar.
  7. You can fine tune the schedule of the currently selected time slot.
  8. Clicking this will delete the currently selected time slot.
  9. Auto Enable Plan Daily – This option, when enabled, will check if the plan is stopped. It does the check either every 4AM daily or when FocusMe starts up. When it finds the plan is stopped, FocusMe will automatically start it up. Use this as a fail-safe way to keep your plans running.
  10. Back to Days – When you’re done setting the schedule, click on this button to return to the “days” page.
  11. Set End Date – You can set the end date of the plan here. Leaving this blank will let the plan run forever. Click on it to show the calendar:

The date in the red box is the current date. Click on the arrows beside the month to navigate and click on the preferred date. Once an end date is selected, it will be displayed like so:

– days highlighted in blue are those that have their schedules set. You can select them again to change/update the schedule. You can preview their schedules by selecting one of them:

Once the schedule has been set, click on “Next” to go to the next page.

You can set the protection whichever way you prefer. Now that your plan is saved, you can try it out. Feel free to go back to the schedules to tweak them until you’re satisfied with your Focus plan.

Settings

The General tab of the Settings page gives you some options useful for this tutorial

Start at logon – Lets you set the behavior of FocusMe whenever you turn your computer on.

None – FocusMe doesn’t do anything when you start up your computer.

Current User – FocusMe will automatically launch at startup. This only applies to the user account where this is set.

All users – FocusMe will automatically launch when your computer starts, regardless of which user account logs in.

Master Password – Lets you set a password that will be asked whenever you try to access FocusMe.

Disabled – No password is required to access FocusMe

Random Chars – A random password is generated when you try to access FocusMe. The length of the password can be set manually.

Password – Lets you input your own password.

Start Minimized – if enabled, FocusMe will run in the background whenever it is launched. You can access it by clicking on its icon in the System Tray. This is useful for some scenarios such as running a Focus plan on a schedule.

Note: If you cannot see the FocusMe icon in the System Tray, click on the arrow to show the hidden icons.

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