Buckets

Shortcuts

Let the Session start itself.

Buckets gives iPhone an action called Start a Focus Session. Pair it with an automation and the timer is already running by the time you notice: the car pulls out, you walk into the gym, the office Wi-Fi appears. Below are three ready to add — and further down, six that pause, resume, close and think for themselves.

Focus Recipes

Three that ride your Focus modes.

iOS keeps the making of a Focus automation to itself — no app is allowed to create one for you — so each recipe below is built once by hand in the Shortcuts app, and Buckets supplies the action it runs. The Focus Recipes screen in Settings carries these same three guides, with a status line under each one saying whether it still needs building, is set up and waiting for its Focus, or last ran at a named time.

Sleep

Two automations Sleep Focus turns on, run Going to Sleep. Sleep Focus turns off, run Good Morning.

  1. Open Shortcuts and tap Automation at the bottom.
  2. Tap the + in the corner, then Create Personal Automation, then Focus.
  3. Pick Sleep, When Turned On, then Run Immediately.
  4. Tap Add Action, search “Buckets”, and choose Going to Sleep.
  5. Make a second automation the same way for When Turned Off, and choose Good Morning as its action.
  6. Two automations in all. The first starts the night; the second knocks in the morning so you can confirm the Pour.

Going to Sleep starts the night against the Bucket you marked for sleep tracking, and Good Morning opens Buckets on that night's confirmation — it walks you to the question rather than past it. Nothing is credited while you sleep. If you would rather point the first automation at a ready-made shortcut, add the Wind Down for the Night shortcut, which makes the same start; the recipe works without it.

Work

One automation Work Focus turns on, run Start the due Block.

  1. Open Shortcuts and tap Automation at the bottom.
  2. Tap the + in the corner, then Create Personal Automation, then Focus.
  3. Pick Work, When Turned On, then Run Immediately.
  4. Tap Add Action, search “Buckets”, and choose Start the due Block.
  5. One automation. There is no off half: turning Work off leaves the Session running, and you finish it in the app.
  6. It depends on your Plan. It starts whichever Block is due now or within the next thirty minutes; with nothing due it starts nothing and tells you so in Shortcuts.

This is the one recipe that leans on something outside Shortcuts. An empty Plan is not a broken automation — it is a morning with no Block due, and the action says exactly that where you can read it.

Driving

Two automations Driving Focus turns on, run Pause or Resume Focus Session set to Pause. Driving Focus turns off, run Pause or Resume Focus Session set to Resume.

  1. Open Shortcuts and tap Automation at the bottom.
  2. Tap the + in the corner, then Create Personal Automation, then Focus.
  3. Pick Driving, When Turned On, then Run Immediately.
  4. Tap Add Action, search “Buckets”, choose Pause or Resume Focus Session, and set Action to Pause.
  5. Make a second automation the same way for When Turned Off, choosing Pause or Resume Focus Session again with Action set to Resume.
  6. Two automations in all, one for each half. With only the first, a Session pauses when you drive and never starts again.

Paused minutes are never counted, so the number that eventually pours is the number you actually lived. If you would rather point the two automations at ready-made shortcuts, add the Pause the Session shortcut and add the Resume the Session shortcut; the recipe works without either.

The Session starts itself. The Pour still waits for you.

Start a Commute Session

Pair with CarPlay connects, or your car's Bluetooth connects

Starts a Focus Session the moment the car wakes up, with the note Commute already written. The drive counts as time, because it is.

Add to Shortcuts

Start a Movement Session

Pair with Arrive at the gym, or your headphones connect

Starts a Focus Session with the note Movement. You never have to remember the app on the way in, only to confirm the Pour on the way out.

Add to Shortcuts

Start a Work Session

Pair with Joining the office Wi-Fi, or a time of day

Starts a Focus Session with the note Work. The Block you protected on the calendar and the time you actually spent finally agree.

Add to Shortcuts

Tap Add and iPhone will ask whether you want to download the file, then hand it to Shortcuts. Open the shortcut once afterwards and pick which Bucket it pours into. Leave that empty and the first Bucket in your own order takes it.

Go further

Six that do more than start a timer.

A Session has more than a beginning. It can be paused when you step away and resumed when you sit back down; it can be closed from the lock screen; and it can look at what is already running before it starts anything on top. These six use the newer Buckets actions, and every one of them stops at the same line: the Pour is yours to confirm.

Deep Work Block

Pair with A time of day, or put it on the Action button

Two actions on one tap: Do Not Disturb goes on, and a fifty-minute Session starts with the note Deep work and three steps already written — open the real file, one pass, read it back. The ring has something to fill against, and the plan is on the screen instead of in your head.

Still yours: the Pour at the end. Open it once after adding to pick the Bucket and to say which Focus the first action should turn on — a Focus lives on your phone, so no file can name yours for you.

Add to Shortcuts

Start Commute If Free

Pair with Your car's Bluetooth connects, or CarPlay

The polite version of the Commute recipe. It asks Buckets what is running first, and starts the drive only if the answer is nothing. Take a call in the car in the middle of a Work Session and the Work Session survives — the automation reads the room and steps back.

Still yours: the Pour, and one look at the If block when you first open it — it should read Nothing running. Then pick the Bucket the drive belongs to.

Add to Shortcuts

Finish the Session

Pair with The car's Bluetooth disconnects, or Leave a place

The other half of every pair. Arriving ends the drive: this opens Buckets on the running Session's confirmation, with the time already counted and the question already on screen. One tap and the drive is in the Bucket.

Still yours: all of it. This one deliberately does not pour — it only walks you to the question.

Add to Shortcuts

Pause the Session

Pair with Leaving the office, or a Focus turning off

Lunch is not work. This stops the clock without ending anything — the Session keeps the time it has earned and simply waits. Paused minutes are never counted, so the number that eventually pours is the number you actually lived.

Still yours: nothing here, and nothing is lost. Pausing is undone by resuming.

Add to Shortcuts

Resume the Session

Pair with Arriving back at the office, or a Focus turning on

The twin of the one before it. Sit down and the clock picks up where it stopped, without you opening anything. Pair the two and the Session follows you out of the building and back in.

Still yours: the Pour, at the end of the whole thing, once.

Add to Shortcuts

Wind Down for the Night

Pair with A time of day, or your Sleep Focus turning on

Starts the overnight Session against whichever Bucket you marked for sleep tracking. The night measures itself while you are not thinking about it, and the morning has a real number in it rather than a guess.

Still yours: the morning. Say “Good morning Buckets” and the night comes up to be confirmed — it never pours while you sleep.

Add to Shortcuts

Every one of these is a shortcut, not an automation: adding it gives you a button. The six taps that turn a button into something that happens on its own are just below.

The automation half

A shortcut waits to be tapped. An automation does not.

Adding the shortcut gives you a button. Pointing an automation at it is what makes the Session start on its own. iPhone will not let anyone hand you a finished automation, so this part takes six taps on your side, once.

  1. Open the Shortcuts app and go to the Automation tab.
  2. Tap New Automation, or the plus in the corner.
  3. Pick the trigger and set it up. The ones worth using here are CarPlay, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Arrive, Leave, Time of Day, Focus, Open App, NFC and Charger.
  4. Choose Run Immediately, so the Session begins without asking. On older versions of iOS the same choice is a switch called Ask Before Running, which you turn off.
  5. Pick the shortcut you added above from the list. If iPhone offers a blank automation instead, search for Run Shortcut, add it, and point it at the shortcut.
  6. Tap Done. Nothing has to be opened again.

The Session starts itself. The Pour still waits for you. Nothing lands in a Bucket until you confirm it in the app, whatever started the timer.

Build your own

Every action Buckets offers is in the Shortcuts library.

Open Shortcuts, search for Buckets, and you will find seven actions: Start a Focus Session (with a Bucket, a note, a length and up to three steps), Start the due Block, Pause or Resume Focus Session, Get Focus Session State, Finish Focus Session, Going to Sleep and Good Morning. Get Focus Session State is the one that makes the rest composable: it answers Running, Paused or Nothing running, which an If block can branch on. Start the due Block is the one the Work recipe uses: it picks the Block itself, so no automation has to name one. Chain them with anything else on the phone. The rules are the same wherever the Session comes from — nothing in this list pours.

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