Quick Start Guide — Teams

Getting started with Team Focus

Set up your team, invite members, and start using shared reports to understand collective focus patterns and protect deep work time across your org.

01 Overview

What's Included in Team Focus?

Team Focus gives every member their own individual Focus features, plus a shared layer that lets managers see productivity patterns across the org, protect focus time, and support better work habits across the organization.

Team Productivity Reports

View productivity metrics, top categories, and key tools across your team, filterable by organization, team, or individual user.

Individual Focus Features

Every team member gets full access to Focus Sessions, Goals, Alerts, and their own reports.

Role-Based Access

Managers see team-level data. Members see only their own. Privacy is protected by default.

Daily Pattern Reports

See when your team is most focused and identify scheduling patterns that support deep work.

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Privacy by design. Team Focus does not share personal browsing activity with managers. What managers can see: productivity metrics, top categories, and key tools, filterable by organization, team, or individual user. Learn about privacy →
RescueTime Team Productivity Reports showing aggregate focus and productivity data
02 Setup

Set Up Your Team Account

  1. Create or upgrade to a Team plan

    Team plans are only available at rescuetime.com/pricing. Select the Team Focus or Team Bundle plan and complete checkout.

  2. Name your organization

    During setup you'll be prompted to name your team. This is how your org will appear to members in their accounts.

  3. Restrict invitations to your domain

    Under Organization settings, you can limit invitations to your company email domain so only colleagues with your organization's email address can join.

  4. Configure work schedule settings

    Set your organization's default work hours at Account Settings → Work Schedule. This affects how team reports calculate productive time. Without it, reports may include evenings and weekends in your team's data.

03 Invitations

Invite & Onboard Members

  1. Send invitations

    Go to rescuetime.com/sponsors/invitations and enter your team members' email addresses. They'll receive an invitation to join your organization.

  2. Assign member roles

    Each member can be assigned as a Member (individual access only) or Manager (team dashboard access). Set roles from the Team Member Roles page.

  3. Members install the app

    Each member needs to install the RescueTime desktop app and sign into their account. Share the Solo Focus Quick Start guide with new members to get them set up quickly.

  4. Communicate the why

    Do this before invitations go out. RescueTime works best when teams understand its purpose from the start. Be transparent that it's for personal productivity, not surveillance. See the manager communication guide →

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Transparency builds trustRescueTime recommends being open with your team about what data managers can see. Members who understand the privacy model are far more likely to engage with their own data.
04 Focus Sessions

Team Focus Sessions

Every team member gets full individual Focus Session access, the same experience as the Solo plan.

Your team-level view shows Daily Pattern data, filterable by organization, team, or individual user. Use that data to identify peak focus windows and protect them from meetings.

ℹ️ Focus Sessions are individual. Each team member runs their own sessions independently. There's no shared or synchronized team session mode. What you can do as a manager is model the behavior: run your own sessions consistently, share what you notice in your own data, and the team tends to follow.
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One protected block makes a big differenceEven a single recurring 2-hour "no meeting" window during your team's peak focus hours can significantly increase deep work output across the whole org.
05 Team Reports

Team Reports & Insights

Manager-level reports are designed to surface patterns across your team, not to scrutinize individuals. Use them to spot systemic issues like meeting overload or fragmented focus time, and bring those findings into conversations with your team.

Team Productivity Report

Overview of Focus Work hours, productive vs. distracting time, and trends across the whole team.

Daily Pattern Report

Shows when during the day the team is most focused. Use this to protect peak hours from meetings.

Key Tools Report

See which apps and categories consume the most team time. Useful for spotting tool overload or communication bottlenecks.

Individual Reports

Each team member has access to their own detailed reports. Managers see Key Tools; members own their own data.

Start with a team review cadence. Schedule a monthly 15-minute review of the Team Productivity Report with your whole organization or individual teams. It normalizes talking about focus habits and gives everyone shared data to act on.
RescueTime Team Daily Patterns report showing peak focus hours across the team
Last updated May 2026 · View all Teams articles
What's next
Need project time tracking across your org? Add Timesheets.
Quick Start with Timesheets for Teams →
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