Focus Sessions in Windows 11: Complete Setup Guide

Open the Clock app, choose the Focus sessions tab, set the minutes, then click Start focus session. Windows turns on Focus Assist, its Do Not Disturb control, for the length of that countdown. The tab ships with Windows 11, and LiquidFocus is a separate timer rather than this Clock screen.

You already have the tab if the PC is on Windows 11 version 22H2 or later. On an older build, Windows Update has to bring the PC up to that version before the tab exists. LiquidFocus is a separate 25-minute timer. The Clock tab is the countdown that ships with Windows.

A 45-minute client note is longer than the 25-minute starting point. The slider still includes it, up to 4 hours. Spotify on that tab is optional. A free account works the same as Premium, and the playlist pauses during the break at the volume you left. A Microsoft To Do title at the top of the countdown is optional too. The countdown, the break menu, and the notification mute still run if you attach neither Spotify nor a task.

Session time on screen

The tab is a countdown with a break, a task from Microsoft To Do, and a Spotify playlist. The duration slider starts at 25 minutes, then runs from 15 minutes to 4 hours, with a break menu of 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes. Microsoft recommends a 5-minute break for a session under 30 minutes, or 15 minutes for a longer session.

When the session starts, Windows turns on Do Not Disturb so badges and ordinary pings stay quiet, without a separate flip of that switch for each session. A progress mark on the taskbar shows the time left, so you can glance there without opening Clock over the document.

The path through Clock

The gear

Click the gear icon on the session tab when you want the countdown to behave differently tomorrow. The end-of-session sound can be a notification sound, a music fade, or silence. Auto-start on the break means the break clock begins as soon as the session ends; leave that off when you want to finish a sentence before you stand up. Keep timer on top pins the Clock window over other windows, a help on a second monitor and a nuisance on a single screen, so turn it on only if you keep losing the countdown behind the document.

Quiet notifications

The session turns on Priority only unless you change it. Alarms, plus the people or apps on your priority list, still come through. The other choices are Alarms only, which lets alarms through, then silences the rest, and Off, which leaves notifications alone. The list itself is in Settings, then System, then Focus, then the priority list. Teams, one mailbox, or a family contact are the usual additions, because a silent PC is wrong when a person you named is actually calling.

Streak and the daily goal

The tab counts consecutive days on which you finished at least one session, and you can set a daily focus goal in minutes. The same screen shows the current streak, the longest streak, and the total minutes this week, with no chart of older weeks and no comparison of this week with last week. The number is a streak plus a week, enough to notice a day you skipped and not enough to study a month.

Spotify

The tab can play Spotify during the session, then pause that audio on the break. Open the session tab, click Connect Spotify under the task picker, then sign in. A free Spotify login works the same as Premium. Pick a playlist from the lists Microsoft attached, or pick one you saved. You can turn on auto-play when the session starts and auto-pause during that rest.

The attached lists include "Deep Focus," "Peaceful Piano," "Lo-Fi Beats," and "Productive Morning." All of them are instrumental. After a break, playback resumes at the volume you left. The audio keeps playing if you pause the countdown or add time. Premium can download a playlist for a session with no connection. A playlist you already saved is available from the same picker, so you are not limited to those four names.

Tasks from Microsoft

Click Choose a task before you start if you want the session tied to one To Do item, from any list, including a shared list or a repeating task. During the session the title stays visible, and if you finish the task early you click it, then mark it complete without leaving Clock. Afterward, Clock records time against that task in To Do's Completed area, a rough history of which tasks got a session rather than a precise minutes-per-task ledger.

One task fits the screen better than a pile, so a parent task named for the inbox is the item to attach when the real job is clearing mail. The tab syncs with Microsoft To Do only. Todoist, TickTick, and other lists stay in their own windows.

Outside this tab

The countdown does not know whether you stayed on the document: a 25-minute session spent on a social site still counts as 25 minutes inside Clock, and there is no camera check on this tab. The reports stop at the current streak, the longest streak, and the minutes this week, with no month view. Spotify and Microsoft To Do are the connections; Apple Music, YouTube Music, Notion, and Todoist are not wired to this tab.

Do Not Disturb does not block a site, so you can start a session, then open a social site with no extra step. The tab also cannot queue the next session or repeat a row of sessions on a schedule, each one started by hand. The break is a countdown, not a list of stretches or a walk prompt.

A different timer

LiquidFocus is a separate app in the PeakFlow installer, not a replacement for this Clock tab. Its camera check stays off until you turn it on, looks for a face in the frame rather than following your eyes, then pauses a running timer after the face has been gone for the wait you set, 5 seconds by default. That pause resumes when the face returns. A pause you started yourself stays paused. During a LiquidFocus work block, a local helper tells the PeakFlow browser extension to block YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, Netflix, Twitter, and X, and only for that block. Todoist tasks can show there, with a completed task synced back. None of that happens inside Clock.

Beside the Clock app

FocusDim

You can leave Clock in charge of the countdown, then run FocusDim for the other windows. FocusDim dims the windows behind the one you are using, and in Active mode the front window stays bright at a default of 60 percent, on a slider from 10 percent to 90 percent. On two monitors, Clock can sit on one screen and the bright document on the other. FocusDim does not start or stop the Clock session.

MeetReady

MeetReady checks the camera and the microphone before a call, and with its switch on it can open itself 2 minutes before a meeting, the default hotkey Ctrl+Shift+M. It does not pause the Clock countdown when Teams or Zoom starts, so if a call is about to eat the session you end the session yourself.

Other site blockers

Because Clock does not block sites, people pair it with LeechBlock, Cold Turkey, or StayFocusd, then turn those on for the hours they choose. LiquidFocus can block the default list above, but only during its own work block and only through the browser extension. Clock's countdown and that extension block are not the same switch.

Across the day

Open Clock when you sit down, then start a session on the task that is not the inbox, then after lunch start another if you want a fixed length instead of an open afternoon, and before you close the day give the last task one more session as a stop time. On Friday, read the week's minutes and the streak on the same tab, the tab never queuing Monday for you.

Enough for this PC

Use the Clock tab when the PC is on Windows 11, version 22H2 or later, and you want a countdown without an install, especially if To Do or Spotify is already where your tasks and audio live. It does not fit when you need the timer to pause for an empty chair, to show a Todoist project, or to block a site for the length of the block. Those are LiquidFocus, or another app such as the ones on the Be Focused alternatives page. Start on the Clock tab if you have never used a countdown, then move to LiquidFocus when you need one of those three.