Focus Matrix – Task Manager for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By SwiftGaruda

  Stands apart from other Todo, GTD apps

  Been loving Focus Matrix because of the its Eisenhower Matrix prioritization technique, and haven't found any other apps that do it so well and across desktop and mobile. Here's a quick plug for the prioritization system! Try the Eisenhower Matrix if you... - Find yourself running around putting out fires all day (figuratively speaking) - Are busy but don’t feel like your work has a high impact - Have long-term goals but no time or energy to make progress on them - Have a hard time delegating and/or saying no - Want to be the president of the United States (hey, it worked for Eisenhower) Quick history: In a 1954 speech, Eisenhower quoted an unnamed university president who said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” Over 3 decades later in his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey repackaged Eisenhower’s insights into a simple tool to prioritize tasks, now known as the Eisenhower Matrix (also known as The Time Management Matrix, The Eisenhower Box, The Eisenhower Method, and The Urgent-Important Matrix). This framework for prioritization helps you combat the “mere-urgency” effect (more on that later), eliminate time-wasters in your life, and create more mental space to make progress on your goals. /endplug

  
  
• By RoccoCreates

  Best App for Eisenhower Matrix Task Method

  This app is nearly perfect in every way. It's a great cost for the amount of functionality you get out of it. The filter feature is especially useful for focused work while retaining a history of tasks. You can easily filter to only show tasks that are "done" or just show tasks that are not yet completed. I find this to be an especially useful feature for my task and project oriented work. Being able to pair the app along with the partner application "Be Focused" is one of my favorite features as it allows me to track my time for tasks in intervals according to the Pomodoro technique. You can even drill down and see a detailed report of time spent on tasks. The only reason I did not give this app 5 stars is for some lack of customization in the interface. I use the Eisenhower method but I have some variations for my personal workflow where I would like to rename the titles of each quadrant. If I could get this customization alone it would be worth 5 stars. I would add that it would be nice to support "dark mode" and be able to customize colors. However, the lack of these features does not stop me from using the application daily and the pros far out way those minor cons. Overall, this is an incredible productivity application that I thoroughly enjoy using and it makes my work day much easier. My thanks to the developer(s).

  
  
• By acadsci juggler

  Excellent for focusing on today’s must-do items

  I like the matrix approach to to-do items, which I first encountered in Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits…” book. This simple app lets me organize my to-do’s in a way that I can easily select the 4 tasks that must be done today (similar to Zen Habits). I put the first step as the title, and the next steps in the notes, so that complex tasks can be accomplished step by step, without losing track. I set up the next step before I delete a step that I’ve checked off. I gave this 5 stars, even though it lacks one feature that I miss; I can’t keep a record of accomplished tasks, for review of progress or other reasons. I decided it’s helping me to just focus on today, for now, and not spend too much time ruminating over what I actually was able to accomplish on a previous day.

  
  
• By StevieMasen

  Nice but has some flaws

  I have severe ADHD; Ritalin poster child here. A priority matrix and a task timer is much more than a necessity for me; it's life-essential. I have the Focus Matrix synced across my devices along with Be Focused Pro. I really like it but there are a couple things that annoy me. First, I can't control the duration of any task. I can set a due date/time, and a reminder of when the is due, but if I need to spend, say, 3 hours on a task, I have no way of setting that. I have to open my calendar, go to the task and change the duration there. I don't know yet how that will work with Be Focused as I just upgraded to Pro. There's also no drop-down for the due date/time, which means changing it manually each time. In short, the focus matrix is great for setting tasks and priorities, but not for setting a schedule on my calendar according to the tasks I must complete at work each day.

  
  

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