A focus block is a named block of time on your calendar reserved for a whole goal, life area, Smart List, or tag rather than for one specific task. It's how you say "this hour belongs to Work & Career" or "this evening is for my Deep Work list" without deciding up front which task you'll actually pick up.

Think of a focus block as a reservation on your day. The time is spoken for, and you choose the work once you're in it.

Focus blocks live on the calendar: the Today screen's calendar column and the Upcoming screen in Calendar view on Desktop, and the Calendar tab on iOS.

Creating Focus Blocks

Every focus block starts with a dragged span of time. The span sets the day, start time, and duration of the block, so you never have to type them in.

To create a focus block:

1. Open a calendar: the Today calendar column, Upcoming in Calendar view, or the Calendar tab on iOS.

2. Drag across an empty span of time. On iOS, press, hold, and then drag.

3. In the create menu that appears, pick one of the three focus block options: Goal or Life area, Smart list, or Tag.

4. Choose the goal, subgoal, life area, Smart List, or tag you want the block to point at.

5. The block appears on the calendar, carrying that item's name and color.

The Create Menu

Dragging a time span opens a small menu at that span instead of jumping straight into the create-task dialog. It has five options. The first two create something other than a focus block; the last three sit under a Focus block group header.

Whichever option you pick inherits the day, start time, and duration you dragged.

Goals and life areas share a single menu option because you pick both from the same picker. New calendar event needs a connected Google or Outlook calendar and a premium plan, see Calendar Events.

Desktop Shortcuts

Two shortcuts speed the menu up on Desktop:

• Hold Alt while dragging → skips the menu and opens the create-task dialog directly.

• Press 1 to 5 while the menu is open → picks that option immediately.

The number for each option is shown on the right of its row in the menu. Both shortcuts are Desktop only. On iOS the create menu is always shown.

If you time-block individual tasks all day, Alt takes you straight to the create-task dialog every time.

Dragging a Goal Header From the Task Panel

The Upcoming screen has a second path for goal and life area focus blocks that uses the right-side task panel:

1. Open Upcoming on Desktop and switch to Calendar view.

2. Make sure the right-side task panel is visible.

3. Set the panel's grouping to Goal or Life area, so header rows appear above their tasks.

4. Drag a header row (the row carrying the goal's name rather than an individual task) onto a time slot.

This path covers goals and life areas only. Smart List and tag blocks are always created from the create menu.

Available Targets

A focus block points at exactly one thing, and takes that item's name and color accent.

Those four targets are the reason for the name. Focus blocks were previously called goal timeblocks and life area timeblocks. When Smart Lists and tags became valid targets, the old name only described half of them, so the feature is called a focus block everywhere in Griply. Older help content and release notes may still say timeblock; it's the same feature.

Where Focus Blocks Can Be Created

• Today calendar column, Desktop → create menu

• Upcoming in Calendar view, Desktop → create menu and the goal header drag

• Calendar tab, iOS → create menu, opened with press, hold, and drag

Once a block exists it shows on every Griply calendar for that day, no matter which screen you made it on. A block created on Today is on Upcoming and on the iOS Calendar tab as well.

Using Focus Blocks

How a Focus Block Renders

A focus block covers its full time range on the calendar and shows:

• The name of the goal, life area, Smart List, or tag

• The time range

• An icon for the target type

• The target's color accent

Anything falling inside the same time range renders visually nested inside the block: Google and Outlook calendar events, Griply tasks, and habits. A "Work & Career" life area block from 12:00 to 13:00 can render with your "Stand-up" and "Lunch" events inside its bounds.

The nesting is visual only. A focus block reserves the time and never moves, hides, or reschedules the work that falls inside it.

Opening a Focus Block

Tapping (mobile) / clicking (desktop) a focus block opens the detail screen of whatever the block points at:

• A goal or subgoal opens its goal detail screen

• A life area opens its life area detail screen

• A Smart List opens its Smart List detail screen

• A tag opens its tag detail screen

That turns the block into a jump-off point. When the block starts, you open it and land straight on the list of work it covers, then pick your first task from there.

Completing a Focus Block

A focus block carries an inline checkbox, the same as a task or habit block on the calendar. Checking it records that you did the block.

Completing a focus block never completes the goal, life area, Smart List, or tag it points at, and it never touches the tasks that fall inside its time range. Nothing else changes. If you want the tasks inside marked off, complete them individually.

A completed focus block keeps its slot on the calendar and renders in a completed state rather than disappearing, so your calendar stays an accurate record of the time you actually spent. Unchecking the box returns the block to its normal state.

Completing blocks works on Desktop and iOS.

Moving, Resizing, Duplicating, and Deleting

Focus blocks have no detail sheet of their own. Everything except the target is edited on the calendar itself.

• Move → drag the block to another time or another day.

• Resize → drag the top or bottom edge to change the duration.

• Duplicate → right-click the block on Desktop and choose Duplicate.

• Delete → right-click the block on Desktop and choose Delete.

A duplicated block keeps the same target and lands on the same day and time as the original, so drag the copy to its new slot from there. This saves going back through the create menu and the target picker when you block the same hour for the same goal week after week.

Duplicate and Delete sit next to each other in that right-click menu, which is Desktop only.

Syncing Focus Blocks to Google or Outlook

Focus blocks push out to a connected Google or Outlook calendar the same way tasks and habits do. Which sync connection carries a block depends on its target.

A goal or life area block goes out under the connection set up for that goal or life area, and under an All tasks connection if you have one.

Smart List and tag blocks fall under All tasks only. A sync connection's source is All tasks, a life area, or a goal, so there is no Smart List or tag connection for them to map to. Set up an All tasks connection and they sync with everything else.

Note: Syncing Griply's own items out to an external calendar is a premium feature and is currently in beta. Focus blocks on Griply's calendar work without it.

Focus Block Ideas

Focus blocks work best when you know what the time is for but not yet which task you'll start with. These are patterns worth copying.

🎯 Strategic Focus

• "Goal power hour": Give one goal protected time before the day fills up.

  • Target: Goal: Write my first eBook

  • When: Weekday mornings, 60 min

• "Subgoal sprint": Push a single milestone forward in one sitting.

  • Target: Subgoal: Complete research

  • When: Monday and Thursday, 90 min

• "Revenue block": Keep the goal you'd otherwise skip on the calendar.

  • Target: Goal: Do $200k revenue in 2026

  • When: Tuesday 09:00-11:00

⚡ Daily Execution

• "Deep work": Long tasks that need a proper run at them.

  • Target: Smart List: Deep Work Block

  • When: Tuesday and Thursday, 09:00-11:00

• "Quick wins": Clear the short tasks in one pass instead of all day.

  • Target: Smart List: Quick Wins

  • When: Daily 16:00, 45 min

• "Call block": Batch every call into one stretch of the afternoon.

  • Target: Tag: calls

  • When: Wednesday 14:00-15:30

⏰ Deadlines and Triage

• "Overdue cleanup": A standing slot for the backlog you keep carrying.

  • Target: Smart List: Overdue

  • When: Friday 15:00, 30 min

• "Weekly review": Process what's unlinked before planning next week.

  • Target: Smart List: Inbox & Unlinked

  • When: Friday 16:00, 60 min

• "Deadline radar": Look at the next two weeks before they arrive.

  • Target: Smart List: Upcoming Deadlines

  • When: Monday 08:30, 30 min

🌱 Life Balance

• "Health evening": Reserve the slot, decide the workout later.

  • Target: Life area: Sport & Health

  • When: Tuesday and Saturday, 18:00-19:30

• "Money admin": One block for everything financial.

  • Target: Life area: Money & Finance

  • When: First Monday of the month, 60 min

• "Learning block": Protect the work that gets deprioritised first.

  • Target: Tag: learning

  • When: Sunday 10:00-11:00

🔁 Blocks You Repeat

Focus blocks don't repeat on a schedule. For a block you want every week, make the first one, then right-click it on Desktop and choose Duplicate. The copy lands on the same day and time, and you drag it to next week from there. Blocking the same Tuesday morning for the same goal takes two actions instead of a full trip through the create menu.

Best Practices

• Block themes, plan tasks → use focus blocks for a theme and tasks for single actions.

• Open the block to start → you land on its detail screen and pick a task.

• Give blocks room → an hour or two leaves space to choose; 15 minutes doesn't.

• Point blocks at Smart Lists → the work is already filtered when the block starts.

• Duplicate the ones you repeat → faster than rebuilding the same block from the create menu.

• Check them off honestly → your calendar then shows where the time actually went.

• Combine with daily and weekly planning → reserve the themes first, then drop tasks in.