Stop losing hours
to context switching

"By the end of the day, my brain feels like it never fully focused on anything."

If you do any creative work, you know that context switching destroys focus. The mind has to put in a lot of effort to get back on track. One small interruption can cost an hour of work. Drowning in interruptions on a daily basis leads to burnout and mental fatigue.

"Am I the only one with this problem?"

Inability to stay focused is an ongoing epidemic. There’s an entire industry built around stealing our attention. Huge corporations spend millions on it. They make us restless and unable to concentrate. The focus muscle has to be purposefully trained.

"Should I use Pomodoro and block social media?"

Maybe... but the problem is that creative work doesn't blend well with restrictions and rigid rules. You just got into the flow, and Pomodoro tells you to stop and take a break. The tool that’s supposed to help becomes yet another source of interruption.

"So what's the solution?"

One Thing is my shot at solving this problem.

It's a personal work journal that helps you get better at focusing over time without imposing rigid rules or limitations on your attention.

• One Thing is based around projects. Every project has a persistent state in a form of markdown that you can edit however you want. Think of it as all of your todo.md files gathered in one place. Context switching takes you 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes.
• You can start a work session for any project. Every session has a timer, but it’s a stopwatch, not a countdown. Stop when you feel like it, not when the tool tells you to. The timer helps you track your focus habits and improve your attention over time, but you are always in control.
• All your sessions are saved into your personal journal. You can export your entire history to the clipboard with one shortcut. If you want you can paste it into your favorite AI chat and ask any questions about your work. There are a few prompts available for copying out of the box.
• All your data is stored offline on your device. You choose which tools, if any, you want to share it with.

Alex Sidorenko