Start It, Focus It

The Problem with Long Lists

Task lists grow. Ten items, twenty, sometimes more. Somewhere in that list is the thing you’re actually doing right now. You scroll, scan, find it. Minor friction, but it adds up when you do it a dozen times a day.

Fecit has a focus feature. Focus a task and it pins to the top of the list, visually separated with a border and shadow. A clear signal: “This is what I’m working on.”

The problem was that focusing required a separate action. You start a task, then you focus it. Two steps for what is almost always one intention. Why?

Just Do It

Now, pressing the start button automatically focuses the task. The moment it enters the STARTED state, it rises to the focus slot. No extra taps.

There are conditions. If another task is already focused, auto focus doesn’t kick in — you’re already concentrating on something, and it shouldn’t be interrupted. Subtasks are excluded too. They live inside their parent; they don’t belong at the top of the main list.

When you complete the task, focus releases automatically. A finished task has no reason to stay pinned.

Asking vs. Acting

Initially, we showed a “Focus on this task?” modal. Giving users a choice seemed right.

In practice, it was friction. You tap start, a modal appears, you tap “Yes.” Almost every time. It wasn’t a meaningful choice — it was a tollbooth.

So we changed the default. Auto focus is on by default. If you don’t want it, turn it off in settings. With it off, the modal comes back. But even the modal is context-aware: it doesn’t appear when you start a task from the detail page. You’re already looking at that task; the focus decision can wait until you return to the list.

Presence

When auto focus activates, the user needs to notice. If the task silently slides to the top, it’s unclear what happened.

Three signals:

Entry animation. The focus slot appears with a subtle scale-up — slightly compressed, then expanding to full size. Not sliding, not popping. A quiet “here I am.”

Star dance. The star icon beside the task spins once while pulsing. 1.5 seconds. Just enough to catch the eye.

Background tint. The focused task’s background briefly glows blue, then fades. Same intensity as the highlight on newly created tasks. Noticeable, not aggressive.

The Pause After Completion

Completing a task doesn’t immediately release focus. There’s a 0.4-second delay.

At first, we released instantly. You tap complete, the task vanishes from the slot, the list shifts up. Functionally correct, but there was no sense of closure. It felt like the task was snatched away.

0.4 seconds. The completed task stays in the slot just long enough for you to register the checkmark, then the slot collapses. A small difference, but the feeling of “I finished this” became tangible.

Swipe Stays

We kept the existing swipe-to-focus gesture. Sometimes you want to focus a task before starting it. Sometimes you want to switch focus while another task is already pinned. Auto doesn’t cover every case.

The goal of automation isn’t to eliminate manual control. It’s to remove one step from “I almost always do the same thing.” When the exception comes, manual is still there.

The Weight of Defaults

Making a feature available is different from making it the default. The default is what most users experience. Few dig into settings.

Auto focus is on by default because “focus on what you’ve started” is how Fecit thinks about tasks. Not a list of things to do, but a space centered on what you’re doing right now. Auto focus is that philosophy, turned into behavior.