# Your focus, drawn round the day

> Reassign draws a Pomodoro rhythm on its 24-hour dial: focus and break intervals inside the block you already planned, tracked in reflection and Insights.

Published: 2026-07-21. Canonical: https://reassign.ai/blog/focus-drawn-round-the-day

The tomato timer has always lived somewhere else. In another tab, another app, a little widget you start by hand once you've finally sat down. Your plan says *deep work, 9 to 11*. The timer knows nothing about that block, and the block knows nothing about the timer. You keep two pictures of the same two hours, and the day pays the tax of holding both.

But a working block already knows how long it is. If the plan says two hours, the rhythm of work and rest inside those two hours isn't a separate thing to configure. It's just a way of reading the block you already drew.

So the dial draws it there. Reassign puts a Pomodoro timer on the calendar itself: focus and break intervals, drawn inside a working block on the 24-hour dial.

## Split a block into focus and rest

Open a block you mean to work through and turn on **focus intervals**. Set how long you want to focus and how long to rest, and the block fills with the rhythm: solid **focus beads**, one after another, joined by a muted **recharge** texture for the breaks between them. It's the Pomodoro idea, the twenty-five-on, five-off pulse that gives shapeless effort a heartbeat, except it isn't off in a timer app. It's on the ring, inside the block, in the same place you planned the day.

  
  *Split a working block into focus intervals: the beads and the recharge breaks draw right on the dial, and reflow as you resize.*

## The rhythm is drawn from the block, not stored beside it

The breaks aren't events. Nothing about the block splits into pieces. Reassign keeps only the two numbers you set, the focus minutes and the break minutes, and works the rest out from the block's live length every time it draws. Twenty-five and five inside a two-hour block is four focus stretches with rests between them, ending on focus. Stretch the block to three hours and the beads reflow to fill it, no redrawing, no re-counting by hand.

That matters because it keeps the block *one thing*. A [block on the dial](https://reassign.ai/blog/why-a-day-is-round) is a single entity: you select it, drag it, resize it, set it repeating, sync it to Google or Outlook, all as one. Focus intervals ride on top of that as a rendering, never a structural split, so none of it breaks. The block stays as easy to move at 4pm as it was to draw at nine.

  
  *The focus stretches and the recharge breaks between them, all drawn inside one block, with a single label and leader line.*

## Set the cadence once, keep the ones you use

Fifty-two and seventeen, the split the productivity forums swear by. Twenty-five and five, the classic Pomodoro. Ninety and twenty for one long, deep stretch. Reassign gives you steppers to dial the two numbers, quick-pick chips for the common cadences, and it remembers the last few you set and offers them first. The rhythm you actually work to is one tap away the next time, not a preference you re-enter every day.

  
  *Set the focus and break minutes with the steppers, or tap a preset. The last few cadences you use come back as chips.*

## It counts what you finished

A timer that rings and forgets teaches you nothing. Because the intervals live on the block, and the block lives on a day you can [reflect on](https://reassign.ai/blog/the-other-half-of-planning), the ones you complete are counted. They roll into the day's reflection and into a focus panel in [Time Insights](https://reassign.ai/blog/the-dial-keeps-count), so the question stops being "did I focus today" and becomes something you can actually see across the week: how many intervals you planned, how many you kept, where in the day they landed.

## Claude can set the rhythm too

Because it's just two numbers on an event, it travels over [MCP](https://reassign.ai/mcp). Claude can read a block's rhythm, how long the focus and break run and how many intervals are planned, and set or clear it when it builds your day. Ask it to make the morning's deep-work block a ninety, twenty rhythm and watch the beads draw on the dial in the chat, on the same ring you'd have drawn them on yourself.

## The half that's still coming

Focus is one of two things people reach for when they're trying to stay on a task. The other is company: someone in the room, or on a call, doing their own work beside you, so starting is easier and drifting off is harder. Adults with ADHD name **body doubling** as the single most-reported focus strategy of all, [ahead of every timer and playlist](https://reassign.ai/blog/adhd-working-from-home).

Focus intervals are the timer half, drawn where your plan already is. Body doubling, sharing your day so a friend, or Claude, can sit with you through a block, is the half we're building next. It's on the [roadmap](https://reassign.ai/roadmap), labelled `Soon`, because it isn't here yet. The rhythm is.

Focus intervals are part of Reassign Pro. [Draw one round your next deep-work block.](https://reassign.app)

## FAQ

### Does Reassign have a Pomodoro timer?

Yes. Open any working block and split it into focus intervals: you set the focus and break minutes, and Reassign draws the rhythm on the dial as focus beads joined by a muted recharge texture for the breaks. It is the Pomodoro idea, drawn inside the block you already planned, instead of a separate timer app you have to remember to start.

### How do focus intervals work on the dial?

The rhythm is derived from the block's live duration. Set it to 25 minutes of focus and 5 of break and Reassign fills the block with as many focus beads as fit, with the recharge texture between them, ending on a focus stretch. Resize the block and the beads reflow to match, so a longer block simply holds more intervals. Nothing is split into separate events.

### Is a block with focus intervals still one event?

Yes, and this is the point. The intervals are only a way of drawing and counting the block, never a structural split, so the event still selects, drags, resizes, repeats, and syncs to your calendar as a single thing. Only { focus minutes, break minutes } is stored on it; the breaks are worked out from the length each time.

### Can I save the focus and break lengths I like?

Yes. Alongside the steppers there are quick-pick chips for common cadences, and your last few are kept as presets and offered first, so the rhythm you actually use is one tap away the next time. A changed cadence is only remembered once you save the block.

### Does Reassign track the intervals I complete?

Yes. Completed intervals fold into your day's reflection and into a focus panel in Time Insights, so the rhythm you planned becomes something you can look back on across the week, not just a timer that vanishes when it rings.

### Are focus intervals free?

Focus intervals are part of Reassign Pro. If you drop from Pro, a block keeps drawing any rhythm it already carries and you can still remove it; setting a new one is a Pro feature.

### Can Claude set focus intervals for me?

Yes. Over MCP, Claude can read a block's focus rhythm (the focus and break minutes and how many intervals are planned) and set or clear it when it creates or edits an event, so you can ask it to make your deep-work block a 90/20 rhythm and see it draw on the dial.

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More from Reassign, a 24-hour circular day planner: https://reassign.ai/llms.txt