Canonical page: https://tellenze.com/help/focus

Turn a priority into a Focus group

Select work for a shared objective, track progress, and close the group with a snapshot.

Understand project Focus

A Focus group is a named, bounded commitment inside one Project. It collects work around a goal while preserving each item’s stage, rank, and ownership. Project Focus is separate from the personal three-item daily queue in Profile & progression.

When project planning is enabled, open a Project and choose Backlog. Members who can collaborate in the active Project can manage its Focus groups. Archived projects freeze these controls.

Plan and populate a group

1. Choose Create Focus in Backlog, then enter a Name and Goal. Add Starts and Ends if useful; these dates are informational and do not activate or close the group automatically.
2. Select relevant Milestones when available, then choose Create Focus.
3. The dialog closes and the planned Focus appears in Backlog. Add work to the group. With Rank sorting, drag work between Focus areas or use the row’s Move … to Focus area control.
4. Alternatively, select items and use the batch action Set or clear Focus group. Choose a planned or active destination, or clear the assignment.
5. Review the scope and use Activate, then Confirm activation, when execution should begin.

A work item has one current Focus membership. Moving it to another group changes that membership; it does not duplicate the task. Parent and child items can have different Focus assignments, so inspect expanded children when planning a whole outcome.

For example, create “Self-service receipts” with a goal covering customer access, support documentation, and verification. Keep later enhancements in another planned group until the team is ready to commit to them.

Work with active commitments

A Project can have several active Focus groups at once. Their current work appears in Work. When no groups are active, Work provides the project’s broader execution view. An item disappearing after activation can therefore be a scope change; check Backlog or All work before assuming it was deleted.

Creating work from the active Work view selects the only active Focus automatically, or asks which group should receive it when several are active. Backlog offers an optional Focus selection.

Click a Focus name to inspect its goal, dates, milestones, and current work. Open the … menu and choose Edit to change details, then use Save details. Milestone links have a separate Save milestones action in the same dialog. Activate and Disable stay visible in the row; other actions live in ….

Drag the grip beside a Focus to arrange commitments. A compact preview follows the drag, and an insertion marker shows the destination. With a keyboard, focus the grip, press Space to pick up the group, use the Up/Down keys, then press Space to drop or Escape to cancel. This order is separate from task rank.

Pause, close, and archive deliberately

Use Disable to return an active Focus to planned. Its tasks stay grouped in Backlog with their stages and order, and you can activate it again later.

Choose … → Close & snapshot to finish an active commitment. Closure records current membership and releases every task from the group, including unfinished work. It does not complete those tasks or change their rank. Review remaining work first, then confirm closure. A closed Focus cannot be reopened in the current product; use Disable when you intend a temporary pause.

After closure, the Closed Focus groups section opens in Backlog. Click its name to inspect the saved work and stages at closure. When Retrospectives is enabled, choose … → Retrospective on a current or closed Focus to open workshop setup with that Focus selected; review participants and sources before opening the workshop.

… → Archive is available for non-active groups. Archiving a planned group releases its memberships. … → Restore brings the group back but does not recreate those released memberships or reopen a closed group. Close or disable an active group before archiving it. Archived groups leave Backlog; open Archived Focus groups from Backlog to view them and their saved snapshots, or restore them. Archived Focuses cannot be used to start retrospectives until restored.

Old Focus management links open Backlog, and historical Focus links still open the matching details dialog.

Troubleshoot planning changes

Use Rank sorting when drag reordering or moving between Focus areas is unavailable. Clear filters and inspect All work for items excluded from Backlog. Completed items can remain visible in an active Focus until its membership is released.

If another person changes a group or membership first, refresh the planning view and check the current scope before retrying. Historical membership counts can exceed current membership counts because moves, removal, closure, and archival preserve the planning history.