FocusNow is designed to disappear: you set it up once, and it quietly builds your focus picture in the background. Here is the full setup, step by step.

1. Download and install

Get the app from the download page. On a Mac, open the .dmg file and drag FocusNow into your Applications folder — Apple Silicon and Intel are both supported. On Windows, FocusNow installs through the Microsoft Store — one click, updates handled for you.

2. Sign in

Open FocusNow and sign in with your Google or Microsoft account. Your account keeps your data synced — encrypted in transit and at rest — so a new computer or a reinstall never means starting over.

3. Walk through the first-run setup

FocusNow asks you three things on first launch, and it's honest about each:

Enable tracking. On a Mac this opens the Accessibility permission prompt. This step scares people, so let's be exact about what it does: FocusNow reads only the name of the active app, the window title, and for browsers the site you're on. It never takes screenshots. It never records keystrokes. Never. Without this permission, macOS simply doesn't tell any app what's in the foreground — so tracking can't work. Windows doesn't need a permission step.

What kind of work do you do? Pick your role — developer, designer, student, or type your own. This tunes your AI daily reports to your kind of work. You can change it anytime in Settings → Account.

Usage reports. An optional, opt-in choice about sharing anonymous usage statistics. Say no and nothing changes.

Every step is skippable — but tracking is the one the whole app depends on.

4. Let it run

That's the whole setup. FocusNow now records how you spend your screen time, about once every two seconds, entirely on its own. Close the window if you like; it keeps working in the background. The Dashboard shows a short checklist — enable tracking, start your first session — and the rest happens automatically.

5. Check your Dashboard

After half an hour of normal work, open the Dashboard. The Focus Score ring shows your day at a glance, next to a color-coded timeline: green is focus, blue is neutral, yellow is personal, red is distraction.

Curious what those colors and scores actually mean? That's the next guide: How Your Focus Score Works.

If something looks wrong

Timeline is empty: on a Mac, re-check the Accessibility permission — it's the cause almost every time.

An app is in the wrong category: open Activities, find the app card, and use the ⋯ menu → Change category.

Something private you don't want tracked: Settings → Privacy lets you exclude any app or website from tracking entirely.