Windows 11 ‘Focus Sessions’ is a better way to manage your to-do lists – with a little help from Spotify

Microsoft will include Spotify in a new task-managing Windows 11 feature. That’s according to several reports, which today (August 6) covered Microsoft's teasing of a new 'Focus Sessions' productivity tool with added Spotify integration. 

Situated within Windows' Clock app, the new feature encourages users to set a timer and then "get stuff done" from their growing to-do lists. Meanwhile, all of this is soundtracked thanks to your Spotify account.

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First reported by The Verge, 'Focus Sessions' includes Spotify integration, helping users to assign time for their tasks in conjunction with Spotify. Users can get in the zone by way of the Windows focus timer, breezing through tasks with Spotify music purring away in the background.

Microsoft’s head of Windows and Devices, Panos Panay, teased the Windows 11 feature on Twitter earlier this week. But more notable, perhaps, is that this is the first time in a long while that Microsoft has added significant Spotify integration to Windows, ever since Microsoft retired its Groove Music service in 2017.

The new Windows feature channels what's known as the Pomodoro Technique. The idea of which is simple: condense heavy workloads into manageable bite-size chunks, set timers, work until it runs out, and then take a 5-minute break. Rinse and repeat. It's a saturated market, occupied by apps such as Marinara Timer and Forest, which purport to help you utilize the technique properly. After a while at least, these apps tend to blur into one, aping each others' main features and offering an eerily similar final product.

Microsoft’s Spotify-fuelled take on the Pomodoro Technique could be a way to differentiate itself from rivals, while also offering an ultra-convenient way to indulge in a proven task-managing method from the comfort of your computer. Otherwise, Microsoft has been busy tinkering away on its product suite. Windows 11 is set to boast an impressive array of features, not least in its native support for Android Apps, but also in the heaps of other innovative new features that are bound to keep Microsoft loyalists happy – and attract new customers along the way.