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main screen appstore screenshot
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showcases focus task appstore screenshot
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widgets editor screenshot
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themes appstore screenshot
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App Icon
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add tasks easily
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task list and quick add tasks
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focus timers that stay on as live activities for the user
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widgets for the user
Inspiration
Most modern productivity tools have evolved into complex project management platforms burdened by cognitive friction, excessive menus, and endless configuration knobs. Instead of feeling focused and calm, opening a task manager often induces decision paralysis and anxiety.
We built TimesOut out of a desire for intentional simplicity: a minimalist daily planner designed to restore calm and protect deep work. The goal was to build an aesthetic, deeply integrated iOS app that unifies schedule planning, calendar context, and real-time focus sessions without any clutter.
What it does
TimesOut combines task organization, daily scheduling, and focused time-blocking into a single, cohesive workflow:
- Minimalist Task Planning: Add, categorize, and complete tasks with zero visual noise or unnecessary steps.
- Unified Schedule & Calendar View: Integrates directly with Apple Calendar to display daily to-dos and scheduled events together in one place.
- Focus Tasks & Sessions: Dedicate distraction-free blocks of time to priority items with a clean, ambient timer.
- Glanceable System Features: Supports Lock Screen and Home Screen interactive widgets along with Live Activities and Dynamic Island tracking for active focus sessions.
- Multi-Device Sync & Accessibility: Keeps data synchronized across Apple devices via iCloud while providing comprehensive support for VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, and high-contrast modes.
How we built it
TimesOut is built natively for the Apple ecosystem with performance, system harmony, and accessibility at its foundation:
- SwiftUI: Drives the complete front-end user experience, following Apple's Human Interface Guidelines with fine-tuned typography and fluid micro-interactions.
- Local Persistence & CloudKit: Serves as a lightweight, reliable data layer ensuring low-latency reads and writes on-device alongside background iCloud sync.
- EventKit: Pulls device calendar items natively without sending personal schedule data to third-party servers.
- WidgetKit & ActivityKit: Powers glanceable Home Screen interactions, interactive Lock Screen toggles, and live countdown timers in the Dynamic Island.
- RevenueCat SDK: Handles paywall configuration, subscription life cycles, customer entitlement management, and seamless StoreKit purchase validation.
Challenges we ran into
Cross-Extension State Synchronization:
Coordinating state updates between the main application, interactive widgets, and active Live Activities was complex. Background EventKit updates and local database transactions required a shared App Group container and an asynchronous publisher pipeline to eliminate race conditions and avoid stale widget displays.Timer Accuracy in Background States:
Relying on standard tick-based timers (Timer.publish) introduces drift when iOS suspends apps or enters low-power modes. To maintain absolute temporal accuracy for focus sessions and live indicators, we decoupled rendering from clock ticks and calculated duration dynamically against system timestamps.Contextual Monetization Boundaries:
Crafting a respectful freemium tier meant avoiding intrusive paywalls for foundational planning. Using RevenueCat's remote offerings, we established clean entitlement gates around advanced visual themes and unlimited recurring focus sessions while keeping core daily planning frictionless.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Achieving a seamless, native feel where animations, haptics, and system controls operate like first-party Apple software.
- Building a reliable Live Activity and Dynamic Island pipeline that remains synchronized and battery-efficient throughout long focus blocks.
- Maintaining full accessibility support (Dynamic Type and VoiceOver) across custom views, interactive widgets, and session controls.
- Integrating RevenueCat to launch a production-ready subscription architecture with remote paywall testing in days rather than weeks.
What we learned
- Simplicity Requires Strict Discipline: Eliminating bloat and stripping an interface down to essential actions demands more architectural care than adding endless features.
- Decouple Logic from UI State: Isolating session calculation engines from UI rendering layers is critical when data must surface across app views, home widgets, and system activity presentations simultaneously.
- Third-Party Infrastructure Leverage: Offloading receipt validation and subscription state machines to RevenueCat frees up engineering bandwidth to focus exclusively on product polish, user delight, and performance.
What's next for TimesOut
- Natural Language Task Entry: Smart parsing for dates, times, and focus tags directly from a single quick-add input line.
- watchOS Companion: A lightweight Apple Watch app tailored for initiating focus sessions and checking off to-dos directly from the wrist.
- Interactive Historical Analytics: Visual breakdowns of focus trends, completed task volumes, and daily energy cycles powered by Swift Charts.
- Mac & iPad Adaptations: Native layouts utilizing sidebar navigation and keyboard shortcuts optimized for multi-window iPadOS and macOS workflows.
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