It's designed to be somewhere in view of the person using it. People with ADHD (myself included) struggle with time blindness and just starting tasks in general, so this helps with that (I hope) by:

a) making the start of your tasks just a simple press of a button

b) keeping your progress of time and your deadline right in front of you.

It's just another one of pomodoro apps that I made specifically for myself and wanted to share in case someone wants to use it as well :)

A suggestion I have (as a time-blind ADHD person): try to hijack the browsers’ Picture in Picture mode, or display a timer icon in the window bar or tab favicon.

Unless you keep your browser tab open, you can’t see it. A “gauge” icon in the browser bar would be enough to actually be in view without being distracting. Repackaging as a plug-in would give you a tab-free icon.

Yes, time display in the window title can be nice. I made a simple web app for a similar purpose, that demonstrates the technique:

http://pclock.github.io/

based on an old flash app: https://davidseah.com/2007/01/a-chindogu-clock-for-procrasti...

Screen-level overlays work nicely if you can take the native route (or use sth like Tauri). I have a goat showing up on the screen at random intervals and telling the to slow the fuck down when I speak:

https://twitter.com/rafalpast/status/1272945933228167169

For time management I'm using Be Focused (always visible + sound cues)

Maybe a "livestream-esq" video would work

Indeed. Here is a very lightweight demo I did with this: https://pipodoro.vercel.app

Code can be found on https://github.com/peebeebee/pipodoro

> It's designed to be somewhere in view of the person using it.

Then it really shouldn't be a browser app, it needs to be a local app that runs in the taskbar.

I've made two of these in the past:

V1, browser based: the browser simply wasn't viable because there's no taskbar timer.

V2, Bash+zenity script to run locally, pops up a uncloseable, uncoverable and omnipresent (across all workspaces) window, with a progress bar showing the time as it elapses[1], and properly sends desktop notifications. A much more functional experience than V1 which was invisible while I was working, stuck on a single workspace (I have nine in a 3x3 grid) and frequently didn't send notifications.

V3, Next iteration, local application without a window but with taskbar integration for timer display. Might just decide to hack zenity to provide a 'taskbar' widget.

[1] If you're interested my V2 app (run locally), see https://gist.github.com/lelanthran/bbbcf5c8b6b26c9bc0263384a...

> the browser simply wasn't viable because there's no taskbar timer.

Chrome supports badges on chrome extensions. E.g. I've built a chrome extension that shows an "On" badge when it's activated in the current tab. Via the same mechanism you could display the number of minutes remaining.

Edit: Random article showing this in action: https://dev.to/paulasantamaria/chrome-extensions-adding-a-ba... -- also, no idea if it's supported in v3

> Chrome supports badges on chrome extensions.

Then it's not a browser app anymore, it's a chrome app. Maybe not even that, it's a chrome app that needs a specific extension as well?

I'm using Firefox. Having to install Chome+extensions just for a pomodoro app is extremely unappealing to me.

Nah, you’re reaching too far to neg your interlocutor, been available for mobile for years and even Safari finally shipped it

I think most popular browsers support badges in standard mode (no extension or webapp mode needed). A fallback would be to change the favicon and/or the window title and tab color.

> Then it really shouldn't be a browser app, it needs to be a local app that runs in the taskbar.

Counter use case - browser apps are superior unless you can invest in building strong cross-platform capabilities (like Obsidian.md)

I'm constantly jumping between machines and operating systems. I've often been on Linux, Windows, and Mac in a single day. Or moved from desktops to laptops.

> browser apps are superior unless you can invest in building strong cross-platform capabilities

Or only use one platform... c'mon linux phones... get better!

> I'm constantly jumping between machines and operating systems. I've often been on Linux, Windows, and Mac in a single day. Or moved from desktops to laptops.

Hence why I want to make a V3 that is a local app (some sort of hacked up zenity won't work, though).

For this particular use-case, functionality beats portability.

Hu?

As far as I know, web apps can run in the background, when the browser is closed and use native notifications.

Not according to “ps” on my Linux box after killing chrome and Firefox.

Arguably a case for ambient electronics. We need to start making physical devices with smarts.

And for easily distracted people, you might want a physical timer that also synchronizes with your devices. Set a timer for the stove, then forget you're baking and try to leave the house, your watch or phone needs to get the alert.

Smart watch works great for this. Haptics twitch gently.

Sometimes too gently. And with watches that last 24 hours between charges, trying to do something in the early evening that takes hours could run you into a dead battery.

Really is better if you have multiple devices to remind you. Right now if I set a timer on one iOS device it tends to go off on the one I'm using. Give me more of that, including ambient devices.

> uncloseable, uncoverable and omnipresent window

What’s worked for me was turning the screen grayscale to signify a break:

https://andrew.kvalhe.im/2020-11-18

Relatedly for a while I was using periodic ~zenity prompts to keep myself on track:

https://andrew.kvalhe.im/2014-11-02

I would package this as a local nativefier app and have it running as a dedicated app/window for it to make sense for me.. This as a browser tab would just get lost. Is there source code for this?

Yep! https://github.com/grzracz/BrainPlsWork Enjoy :)

For me it would make more sense as a (native) desktop app, personally I like the idea of attention / flow timers but not if they're another browser tab (or electron app.

One idea to explore, is using analog-looking timers instead of the digital-looking ones. I’ve heard this recommended by a number of “time blind” folks.

Maybe you can try turning it into a progressive web app so it can be installed and receive notifications

My company's IT bans installing anything outside of their software application management/installation application. All software goes through a laborious approval process.

Webapps like this are very useful to me.

My employer’s IT policy is to require asking for permission to access a laptop’s administrator account, and have the sysadmin audit the log.

Unfortunately, as part of my special duties, I need to run an operating system that is not compatible with this framework.

> Unfortunately, as part of my special duties, I need to run an operating system that is not compatible with this framework.

Sadly the answer my employer has in that case: buy a VMWare Workstation License in the store and use you special snowflake OS in there. Still better than nothing but also a bit annoying.

Is this a problem?

I am sure it is not a common workflow, but I have done most of my work inside VMS pretty much exclusively for years.

It makes it so easy to freeze the state of a project, do backups, quick snapshots. Archive finished projects. Removes any fear of upgrading. Keeps work clean, I need to know project dependencies when starting a new one on a fresh VM.

It keeps my base system very barebones with respect to software installed. I can also get up and running with a new host machine upgrade by simply copying the vms to the new host.

What do you use for virtualization? And what do you use for graphics? (example Libvirt/VNC)

> My company's IT bans installing anything outside of their software application management/installation application.

I abhor these setups. Luckly every time I've been in them it's been realtively easy to get an exception.

I can't think of many situations I'd stay at a company like this unless it was very easy to get necessary software added within 3-5 business days.

In my experience, the IT friction is usually higher the larger the company. Since plenty of people work at large companies, restrictive IT departments is a frequent concern.

It allows to set 0 minutes work, and just doing breaks all day.

That's a feature not a bug. Let me enjoy my day of only breaks.