Questions

One calm Windows app for a working day: time slots with reminders, a focus timer, focus mode that closes distracting apps and blocks websites, a journal, trackers, and time tracking with timesheets and invoices.

A PC with Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). A Mac version, the iPhone app and the Android app are on the way.

Yes. Today, Schedule, every kind of slot, the focus timer and the floating timer, the journal (write, search, export), this week's Insights, and backup and restore are free on your PC, for good. Shoji Pro adds the rest, and you can try it free for 14 days without a card.

No. Install it and start. You only sign in if you want Shoji sync between your devices.

Shoji isn't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn you the first time. Click More info, then Run anyway. If you like, check the download against the SHA-256 checksum on the download page first.

It opens when you sign in and waits in the tray, one click away. Turn that off in Settings, or in Task Manager under Startup.

English only for now. More languages are coming.

When a focus round starts, Shoji closes the apps on your block list, and closes them again if they're reopened. The sites on your list show a quiet “Focus time” page until you stop the timer, breaks included. The apps you work in stay open.

Part of Shoji Pro, free for 14 days.

Only the ones you pick. Focus mode starts from a list of the usual distractions (video, social and games), and you can remove any of them or add your own.

Shoji asks the app to close normally first, and only makes it close if it's still open a few seconds later. Save your work in any app on your block list before a round starts.

Apps aren't closed in breaks, so you can open anything you like. Sites stay blocked for the whole session, until you stop the timer.

Shoji uses Windows' own internet settings, which Chrome, Edge and Firefox follow by default. A browser set up with its own separate proxy settings may not show the blocked page.

Usually not. If Windows' internet settings can't be used, Shoji falls back to the hosts file, and Windows asks for your permission at the start and end of the session. Say no and the sites simply aren't blocked that time.

Blocking is removed when the session ends, when Shoji quits, or the next time it starts after a crash. Nothing stays blocked by mistake.

Yes: stop the timer. Shoji is help you chose, not a lock. Most of the time, not having to decide is enough.

A focus round counts toward the slot or tracker item it's for. You can also press Track on any item, or add time by hand.

Yes. Send to client gives you a spreadsheet, a table, or an invoice saved as a PDF, at the hourly rate you set on the tracker, with your currency and tax.

Part of Shoji Pro, free for 14 days.

Save a spreadsheet of your time entries, or connect Google once and Shoji keeps a “Shoji time tracking” sheet in your Google Drive up to date for them.

Yes, today's events from any calendar app that gives you a private calendar link (Google, Outlook, iCloud and others). Shoji reads it; it doesn't change your calendar.

In one file on your PC, in your own folder. You can encrypt it with Windows' own protection. Shoji also makes a backup once a week and keeps the newest eight.

Only what you switch on: a connector fetching what you connected it to, or sync, which sends a copy locked on your device first. There's no analytics or tracking, in the app or on this site.

Yes. Export the journal as Markdown or plain text, your history, trackers and timesheets as spreadsheets, and a full backup you can protect with a password. A forgotten backup password can't be recovered, so keep it somewhere safe.

Nothing is deleted. The Pro features stop, and you can always read your own data.

Turn on Shoji sync in Settings, under Data, with an email and a sync password. Your data is locked with that password on your device before it leaves, so the server only ever sees the locked copy.

Part of Shoji Pro, free for 14 days.

Yes, as part of Pro. The iPhone app is finished and coming to the App Store, and the Android app is being built now. Both sync privately with your computer.

It's on the way. Leave your email on the main page and I'll tell you when it's ready.

US$8.99 a month, or US$69.99 a year. Try every Pro feature free for 14 days; no card needed.

Focus mode (closing the apps you picked, blocking sites, the focus screen); trackers, time tracking, work summaries and invoices; connectors; weekly, monthly and year reviews with your history; and the account, private sync, the live timer and the iPhone app when it arrives.

Me, Dan. I built Shoji to run my own working day from home, and I use it every day.

Write to [email protected]. Say what you were doing and what happened; a screenshot helps.