Show HN: TotalPause – an app to suggest breaks and promote mindfulness (opens in new tab)

Hello, I created this macOS app because I often spend long hours at my computer without taking breaks. Although I've tried many similar apps, few really meet my needs. For instance, Pomodoro timers feel draining and don’t suit my work environment. Other apps often trigger breaks at inconvenient times, becoming more annoying.

I decided to develop my own app to try to address my own issues. My day job is as a backend engineer, primarily working with distributed systems and DevOps. I have knowledge of web development but had never developed a desktop app before. I started learning and building TotalPause in my free time last year. There is also a blog post[1] about why and how I built it.

The goal with TotalPause is to make it as unobtrusive as possible, requiring minimal interaction, making it appear less frequently as work habits improve, and avoiding the drawbacks of full-screen break reminders through technical implementations like auto-focus mode (automatically detecting applications, meetings, and games), activity analysis, and maybe other advanced features.

Hope to see if it works for others with similar needs. Thanks.

[1] https://blog.damnever.com/en/2024/reminding-myself-to-take-a...