This is a very, very simple homemade application which does only 2 things, but right.
- Its a pomodoro timer. It has a countdown timer counting down the time for work, break and a long break every 4 pomodoros. Minecraft sounds play when it is time to work and when it is time to take a break, so you don’t have to keep the timer running in the foreground to know when its time.
- Its a distraction counter. It has a distraction counter on the side where you can count the number of distractions you have during a work session. You can increment and decrement the distractions using the buttons below, and also reset the counter to 0. You can also use your spacebar to increment the counter when the website is focused, you don’t even have to touch the mouse.
Why a distraction counter?
It is inspired from this Youtube video I watched, and this idea has had positive improvement on my focus when I implemented it after watching the video. I was using a phone based app to count the distractions, and it felt out of place, and it also required my arm to move physically from my keyboard to log my distractions. The counter solution in the video felt too tacky, and I thought a software solution would be much more elegant and wouldn’t require me to buy and wear this weird looking device on my finger. What if a tap of my spacebar incremented a counter instead of a phone app or a counting device? And hence, should-be-studying was born.