Reclaim gives you multiple smart scheduling tools to make the most of your time. While Habits, Tasks, and Focus Time all help you carve out space on your calendar, each one is designed for a different kind of use case. This guide will help you understand when to use each.
Habits: For recurring routines and responsibilities
Use Habits when you want to regularly make time for consistent routines—personal or professional. Habits are flexible, auto-scheduling events that repeat on your calendar based on the frequency, duration, and time windows you set.
Best for:
Defending flexible, recurring time for responsibilities
Building consistency with routines
Supporting long-term personal and professional goals
Maintaining balance and structure in your weekly flow
Why use Habits?
They automatically find the best time for your routine within your preferred scheduling window, so you can stay consistent without micromanaging your calendar. Learn more about Habits.
Tasks: For one-time & deadline-driven work
Use Tasks when you have a specific piece of work to get done — either as a one-off to-do, or by a certain deadline. Tasks auto-schedule time on your calendar to complete the work before the due date, around your existing meetings and priorities.
Best for:
Managing deadline-driven work
Breaking big projects into manageable work sessions
Prioritizing tasks based on urgency and effort
Syncing to-dos from project management apps via integrations
Why use Tasks?
Tasks help you stay on track and avoid last-minute crunch by automatically blocking time for the work you need to do — based on priority, estimated work time, and your deadlines. Learn more about Tasks.
Focus Time: For defending time for heads-down work
Use Focus Time to defend time on your calendar for deep, uninterrupted work around meetings — but don’t have a specific task or deadline tied to it yet. Focus Time blocks are flexible holds that give you breathing room around meetings to work on whatever you need to get done.
Best for:
Proactively defending time for deep work
Preventing your calendar from getting overrun with meetings
Giving yourself open time for more flexible plans
Creating buffer space during intense workweeks
Why use Focus Time?
Focus helps to keep your calendar from becoming too fragmented. You can use Focus Time to proactively defend time for deep work and give yourself more flexibility without needing to schedule specific events. Learn more about Focus.
Quick comparison
Feature | Use case | Recurring? | Flexible? | Specific deadline? |
Habits | Regular work & personal routines | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
Tasks | Specific projects & to-dos with a deadline | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Focus Time | General deep work protection | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
Combine all three for maximum productivity
You don’t have to choose just one! You can also use Focus in tandem with Habits and Tasks to maximize your time every week:
Set a weekly Focus goal to ensure you have the time you need for heads-down work around meetings.
Set Habits for the recurring routines that help you stay on track.
Regularly create Tasks for projects and to-dos you want to specifically plan out on the calendar before deadlines.
Work Habits and Tasks will always be prioritized first, and will automatically count towards your weekly Focus goal. You can also manually tag any event with #focus to count it towards your goal.
Used together, they help you build a calendar that’s both flexible and intentional — so you can get more done, without burning out.