Show HN: ADHD-friendly Pomodoro web app | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: ADHD-friendly Pomodoro web app

brainpls.work

329 pointsgrzracz129 comments

app looks clean. I dig it.

Kind of unrelated to the app, but wanted to share a related thought that's been useful to me over the years in case it's useful for anyone else.

I have pretty strong ADHD. Pomodoro and other time tracking techniques never really worked well for me long-term because they end up being associated with a lot of anxiety and self-shame as I used them, so I tend to stop using them as negative feelings build up.

Now I use them differently. I'll set the timer for 30 - 45 minutes and when it goes off I ask myself if I'm using my time in the way I intended. I try to ask it in a non-judgmental way and the answer is mostly unrelated to the process. Sometimes it's fine that I got off on a tangent; sometimes it's not. The goal is really just to be aware that time is passing and have built in moments where I'm conscious of how it's being used.

When I'm consistent about it (which isn't always), I find that I'm much more aware of how I'm actually using my time, which tends to lead toward naturally using it better but again, I try to separate the awareness from the tracking and planning.

I personally use a physical clock like this one but I think using a website or clock is really personal preference: https://www.amazon.com/Hexagon-Rotating-Minute-Preset-Countd...

I like that one because I enjoy the physical feeling of rotating it. I also like that the alarm is the light blue backlight flashing, which feels less aggressive and psychologically traumatic than my phone alarm.

That's also not to say pomodoro is bad for someone with adhd. I still use similar methods and I think there are techniques for being more successful with it that I wasn't employing. I just like to separate the time/task management from time awareness now and feel that it's useful for me.

Love this comment. I suffer from some of the same problems and feelings.

One weird thing that works me is playing reality TV in the background (love and hip hop, vanderpump ect). Seems to have really calming effect on my brain which lets me focus on work. I've realized over the years that my adhd is just suppressed anxiety in disguise and reality TV masks it.

A cognitive psych professor of mine couldn't work without music playing to 'occupy a certain part of his brain', almost always prog rock. Didn't seem to be holding him back - sometimes a mask is a workable solution. :)

John Von Neumann famously preferred chaotic background noise while working. I think most of us would be happy to trade brains with him.

I am the same.

Some things (code, writing docs) I can only do them with music in the background, usually music that is either downtempo, instrumental or both (for the most part Pink Floyd, Sting, Mogwai, Morcheeba or several jazz/fusion artists).

Without music it 10x harder for me to get those activities going.

Since being diagnosed and medicated it’s the total opposite for me.

Before I needed some background music - electronic or hip-hop in any language but English (to avoid my brain focusing on the lyrics).

Now with meds I sit in silence all day.

Nowadays it's as if silence creates some type of mental pressure inside me.

I found this to work really well in many different situations: https://youtu.be/P48QELwruQs

I do the same thing, although I typically put on something lightweight that I’ve seen before, like a season of Parks & Rec. It’s interesting to see someone else with this specific experience, I always used the analogy of “picking up the slack”.

If I am engaging in rote work that doesn’t require much creativity or doesn’t fully engage my mind, then part of my attention tends to wander. It might not lead to total distraction, but it does produce an uneasy feeling I describe as anxiety.

I always imagined that music can serve a similar function in others, but I believe that my having been a musician (and a serious one when I was younger) causes me to engage a little too deeply into whatever music is playing, so it’s a little too active for me.

TV shows I've already seen are my go to as well. Parks and Rec is a staple. Office, Scrubs, That 70s Show, Big Bang Theory are all great as well.

Sometimes I get into phases that need a little extra. The Marvel movies phase 1-3 are solid, as is Breaking Bad.

I swap to prog rock music (again stuff I've heard multiple times before) if I have something particularly creative and demanding to work on.

thanks for the positive feedback! I'm not as quick to engage as I once was and I appreciate it

I usually can't do any background noise with a pattern but there are a handful of albums I've listened to hundreds of times while working over the years in the same way I think you're talking about. I ended up finally ripping them from old cd's because every year Spotify would tell me that I basically no other music mattered to me in comparison ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I also listen to mynoise.net (a gem of the internet) pretty often. Over the years a few of their tracks have become mentally associated with a sort of calm productivity for me

Sir, can you share your list of top 3-5 albums?

Yeah, for sure!

Honestly the ADHD focus ones are kind of random because they're sort of just albums I happened to be listening to at the point in my life when I finally started doing programming professionally (I def still like them though)

These are the ones I listen to the most when I'm programming. I'll flip through them depending on my mood at the moment:

Tool - Lateralus

Don Ross - Klimbim

Axiom of Choice - Niya Yesh

Axiom of Choice - Unfolding

Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale - Breathing Underwater

They're just sort of cooked into my brain at this point

Oh, there's also an album of Harpsicord music that I used to listen to at cafes because for whatever reason the Harpsicord drowns out voices really well (for me at least). I can't remember what it is now, though. I mostly use mynoise.net cafe tracks for that now

>Breathing Under Water

Wow, I've known that album since 2009? 2010? and never seen anyone else ever mention it. Curious if you remember how you found it?

I ask because the way I found it was odd enough that it sticks with me...

I was helping a friend in high school with their computer. I went to a boarding school without much internet and all the kids traded music on thumb drives. Windows Vista was new in our parts, and this girl's laptop was one of the first ones running it that I'd had access to. Asked her if she had any interesting music and she said not really, but there were some sample tracks that had come with the computer. So she gave me the Vista sample pack haha.

My favorite track was Karsh Kale's Distance, listened to it a lot. Later (months later, on vacation) looked the guy up to see if he'd made more like it. Didn't really click with the album Distance was from, but Breathing Under Water made the cut into "albums I remember to this day" (and I too have ADHD).

Nice! Yeah, it's kind of random, but less random than how you ran across it, I think.

I have a friend who's a drummer, and at some point in the early 2000's he picked up a tabla (a type of indian drum--sounds like something you're probably familiar with). I was really fascinated by tabla and started looking into more indian music, which led to listening to Ravi Shankar. I think I mentioned that to the same friend who told me about Anoushka and loaned me a copy of Breathing Under Water.

I haven't actually listened to any Karsh Kale, but I'll have to check it out.

I think that's also why I ended up listening to Table Beat Science (which I forgot to mention before).

Another more random album totally unrelated to those that I really like:

Iarla Ó Lionáird - I Could Read The Sky

It's more irish folksy inspired but has a vibe I always really liked. I used to sometimes just pick a random CD at the local music shop that I'd never heard and buy it. I think that's how I found that pme. That's also how I ended up with the four cd play-them-all-at-once flaming lips album(s) zaireeka. In retrospect, sort of an adhd thing to do, lol

Many many thanks! Always looking for music to help focus. Tool was unexpected but expected (I like to listen to NIN and Aphex Twin).

Your harpsichord comment reminded me of a folk band called Muszikas

np!

Muszikas just went on my list.

I don't listen to tool a ton anymore. I still like their stuff and think they're a talented band but just don't get the urge often, except for Lateralus.

Some of it is just happenstance, I think, but something about that album's energy and vibe can help me intentionally get into a steamroller of hyperfocus on work problems. It's honestly sort of draining for me? So I don't do it a lot. I can honestly say that I've listened to that album many hundreds of times at this point, so my brain long since stopped latching onto the patterns and lyrics.

For some reason I've never sat down and listened to Aphex Twin, which feels weird now. I'll have to check them out more intentionally.

There’s something to this.

I had a period where I’d play old episodes of Mr. Rogers while working.

When one of my kids was an infant, the only thing that would get him back to sleep in the middle of the night was watching shows like House Hunters on HGTV.

Something about the chill vibe, people interacting kindly and relatively quietly, nice scenery, no music or sound effects, longer durations without cuts.

Contrast this with, say, Sports Center on ESPN, where it’s a constant blitz on the senses.

I got the same clock! but I find it hard to read the screen without the backlight. going to try it again given your comment.

To be honest, nothing really works for me except medications. like i have a spare smartphone that's running my pomodoro timer, but if it's a task that interests me i will blow past every 5min pause and anything else because im focused on the task that interests me on hours end, like i would program in my head while drive home, but if the task is boring that i don't want to do i can have 100 timers it would not help. like for example i have to fill a form and send it that would return me 17k in overpaid taxes i did not do it for last 4 months. there is X amount of those task that no amount of timers would help me do it. i fucking hate my adhd in that without medications im a zombie. the only thing that i can hope without medications is find interesting problems. that's also shit when you have a family because you cannot turn of, because you are dealing with the interesting problem all the time and it consumes you. my brain is great in resolving big challenges, but the worst at doing daily tasks.

I very much relate to this (or at least parts of it; everyone's relationship with their own adhd is very specific and personal).

I was medicated as a 90s kid, then went a long time without being medicated. It took awhile to get medicated again and a longer time to be okay with it as a part of my life instead of constantly trying to wean myself off of it because of lingering stigmas around medications and mental health.

The timer for me is 100% in conjunction with meds and other life strategies for managing my ADHD and honestly, even then it feels crippling at times, especially since I've been laid off. Without the day-to-day structure of a job, my brain feels like a tornado in fog a lot of days.

Context is another big one for me. I don't do well working from home, so if I have a remote job I rent a small office. Part of it is having "work context" and part is just the fact that I don't have a VR headset, a thousand books on random hobbies, ten unbuilt lego sets, and a shelf of books on elm, clojure, idris, or whatever random language I'm interested in that week.

Anyhow, what you're saying makes a ton of sense. I feel like the timer thing just helps me specifically with even being aware of time at all, but I really find that coping mechanisms for adhd are super varied.

Appreciate you contributing your own experience, though, and highlighting that it's not as simple as one or two life hacks

I was in similar situation. From my experience a lot of people for whom timers, to-do lists, blockers etc. don't work react positively to body doubling (i.e. doing a task in presence of another person). Have you tried it? It's the only method that works for me (granted, I haven't tried meds yet, I'm at the end of diagnosis process).

can confirm body doubling / virtual coworking does miracles I am so sure of it I went out and built a whole platform around this concept :)

Show me yours, I'll show you mine ;-) Just kidding, I'll show you mine anyway. https://workmode.net/ ;-)

MacOS can announce the time every 15, 30, or 60 minutes. I've used it in the past. It's kind of like a metronome for my day. I think I'll try turning it back on. :)

System Settings > Control Center > Clock > Clock Options

I’ve been getting into wearing and collecting not that expensive wrist watches as a hobby to help feel more connected and aware of time and it’s been a great and enjoyable thing for me! Along the lines of you comment

That's a super interesting idea. Make the newness a thing you constantly rotate on purpose.

It reminds me of recently thinking that my clothes are only neatly folded after I learn a new way to fold them, so maybe I should just invent one every week, lol--which feels a little less tenable than the watch idea

Really cool way you're coopting the novelty like that

Thanks for sharing.

For me, The act of starting the pomodoro timer itself was the chore, I think being contextually aware of pomodoro timer was a drag to me.

So I fixed that by creating a butt triggered timer which starts when I sit on my chair and reminds me to get off the chair after 25 mins and triggers the break timer when I do. The whole process is un-attended and I didn't have to be aware of the timer at all.

Then I went overboard and built a game around it using WASM & what not[1] which defeated the whole purpose of me not having to be aware of the timer, So I again went back to the basics and built a new Simple Butt Mover[2] which I use regularly now with huge quality of life improvement.

P.S. Congratulations to OP for the launch of their Pomodoro timer.

[1] https://github.com/abishekmuthian/buttmoverWebApp

[2] https://github.com/abishekmuthian/simpleButtMover

I have a feeling just by the length of your post that you’re on medication too.

No offense author, but what is specifically ADHD related in this timer? Actually I'd argue that it is ADHD unfriendly because it is in the web browser. So now I need to open a browser and hunt down one tab among hundreds, because as a ADHD person I tend to hoard them to process later and of course never do it.

There are also no notifications or sounds in your website (I may have nuked all browser notifications at some point, to combat asshole webdesign, and now I have no idea if that's a default setting).

The 100% expected scenario of how ADHD person would use your timer is open it, set up a timer, check it periodically if it has finished or not, happily get to first break, then setup second work period, forget about timer until 3 days later, and find it when cleaning up open tab. Close it forever. Source - this would be a fifth or so exact same pomodoro "app"-website I've tried and abandoned.

Absolutely, the ADHD version would be a physical egg timer you manually turn the dial on and can’t lose sight of on your desk. A digital representation would have to float on top of all other apps somehow.

now I'd spend all my time turning the dial and overengineering its replacement :(

me too, brother! <3

That’s the original version. Pomodoro is named after a popular physical kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato (‘Pomodoro’ is Italian for ‘tomato’).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

> So now I need to open a browser and hunt down one tab among hundreds

You can convert the tab into a window and keep it visible :)

There is a problem with hoarding tabs and multiple windows of a browser. If you have a window with 100 open tabs, and then a second window with 3 open tabs, and then you close the 100-tab window first and 3-tab window second, then browser will silently close all 100 and save only 3 tabs you have closed the last.

It is easy issue to avoid until that one time you accidentally forget about it. So I try to avoid multiple windows of Firefox.

Also if we are talking about a separate icon on the taskbar, then why not make it a dedicated app with proper settings, notifications and stuff, which you can't forget or disable?

Raycast has a pretty good pomodoro timer. You can activate it directly from Raycast and it will show the timer in the menu bar.

If you own a Mac, https://github.com/glyph/Pomodouroboros/ shows the timer on your whole screen and runs it all the time.

What makes this ADHD friendly?

Also, as you prob know, there are multiple free/FOSS native taskbar based pomodoro apps that really get out the way, what is the advantage of using a browser based on?

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.

Maybe a "livestream-esq" video would work

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)

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...

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.

> 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.

> 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!

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.

The URL is very interesting :))

As someone with ADHD, I think that simplicity is key when it comes to ADHD-friendly tools.

I love the the simplicity of the app. However, one feature that I think is particularly helpful for ADHD users is the option to play ambient sounds during the work sessions.

I used to use https://asoftmurmur.com/ for ambient sounds but it's not a Pomodoro timer.

Just found http://pomoup.com/ yesterday on a Show HN post and it has everything I need.

Haha love the URL. Great concept - will use. Just an idea, I get anxious looking at the time ticking like that. Maybe run the clock in the background but for the UI, show a color gradient slowing shifting as time winds down or something less harsh? Great job!

I love the domain name :D

Pomodoro never has worked for me. The productive periods always seem to end just when I'm in a flow state and the short breaks aren't long enough to do anything really recreational and fun. I now just track my productive and procrastinating time and try to keep them somewhat in balance. For that I hacked together a trivially simple PWA at https://timeth.at/. That way I can chug along for as long as it's comfortable to do something useful without interruption, and also get to enjoy some procrastination time without feeling guilty. I just need a gentle reminder from time to time not to spend 8 hours straight binge watching some show or waste the entire game playing video games.

https://pomofocus.io/app is similar (but with satisfying sounds!)

thanks for the link, i like that one.

aren't pom's 20-25 min, not 60 min by default? the two green and blue choices are confusing, i didn't realize one was break and the other was work until i started a test session. Also the the time remaining should be displayed in the page title, so i can be in another tab and see it. The dark mode is nice

Longer Poms are (often) receommended for people with ADHD because starting tasks is a massive, dangerous hurdle. Stopping more frequently means starting more frequently. Longer Poms help.

To the fellow ADHDers out there: the Pomodoro timer is not what you think it is!

Until I got diagnosed, I thought Pomodoro to be "keep focused for 30 minutes, do not context-switch, do not get distracted" timer.

After I got diagnosed (thankfully a mild case) and started taking medications, the use of Pomodoro switched to "don't sit more than half an hour focused on one task without standing up, streching and getting some tea" mode.

You can use this phase switch to your advantage, to measure the degree of ADHDness and efficacy of medication.

Nicely done.

Does anyone else get anxiety from watching the timer get close to 0 and not being nearly done with you've set out to do in the pomo?

Same, I can't use pomodoro technique because it creates anxiety without actually helping in anything.

What I learned to do is just work when I feel like it and so take the break - trust my instinct.

This is one of the reasons I'm using skedpal. I just make the task longer and it reshuffles all my other tasks to make room. Not just good for adhd, I also have trouble with my boss being way too chatty and blowing up my time boxing.

Also since my tasks are on the calendar the 'what am I going to do next' decision paralysis is taken care of, and since they all occupy some amount of linear time they are real objects instead of just a virtual infinity list.

Thank you for mentioning skedpal. I had never heard of it, and in the last week I've been thinking through the design of a very similar thing... the shininess of which is distracting me from working on the thing I actually want to be working on. Maybe I don't have to build the thing I was thinking about building.

Yes... in my experience, flowtime is a much better approach for creative work. [1]

It's like an inverted pomodoro. Set a timer and track how long you work. When your work has a natural break (you pushed some code, etc.), pause the timer and take a break based on how long you worked.

1: https://medium.com/@UrgentPigeon/the-flowtime-technique-7685...

Are you supposed to try and complete things in the pomodoro? I don't even try.

I don't think so. However I do have a list of things I want to do, so I break them into pomodoros and I'm always surprised when I don't get close to finishing my stuff.

Is this because you think it won’t take as long as it does or because you get distracted during the pomodoro?

Because things always take longer. "Finish this feature" is scheduled at 2 pomos but in hindsight really needs 20. So then I have a choice to blow through my carefully arranged schedule and finish things, or leave work hanging. Haven't solved this one yet.

I just have one priority and keep working on it until its finished or something else become the priority.