Why FocusNod exists
Nobody sits down and decides to waste the afternoon. The task turns hard or boring, the hand reaches for a new tab, and nothing says a word until forty minutes are gone. That isn't a willpower problem. It's a missing feedback loop: nothing compares what you meant to do with what's on your screen, while getting back is still easy.
Blockers act on access, and the same site is work one minute and a detour the next, so the list gets switched off. Timers don't know what's on screen. Trackers tell you tonight where the day went. FocusNod does the one thing none of them do: it notices the drift as it happens, and only speaks up when it's sure.
How it's built
- A native Swift and SwiftUI menu-bar app for macOS 14 and later, light enough to forget it's running.
- A small server that holds the AI key, so you never need your own, and stores no window titles.
- A fast AI model that returns a calibrated probability, so “unsure” means silence, not a nudge.
- Paid once through Polar. No accounts, no subscription.
Principles
- Kind words only: “Still on ‘Fix menu bar bug’?”, never “You're distracted!”
- One job, done well. No journals, badges or streaks.
- It's for you. No remote dashboards, no watching other people.
- Honest about limits. FocusNod is a nudge, not a wall. If you want hard locks, a blocker is a better fit.
Say hello
Email [email protected], follow @focusnod or the maker at @hi_drish on X, or see the rest of the studio's work at drishlabs.com. Want the launch email? Join the waitlist.