Full Reference Guide
Content
1. Purpose of the application
Are you familiar with the situation when during the working day you never get up from your workplace? It used to be a common situation for me. After a certain amount of time working in this mode I started to notice that I feel myself completely exhausted, I didn’t have any resources left by the end of the day. I didn’t like this feeling at all, so I began to study this issue. After reading some articles and recommendations on how to organize working hours, I found my main problem – I didn’t take any breaks during my work.
Many studies say that taking frequent short breaks during work is the key to high productivity and well-being. During continuous work the brain is overloaded, thoughts are scattered and this negatively affects your productivity. Sitting still at the workplace leads to poor blood circulation, pain in joints and muscles and vision deterioration. This is why it is very important to take breaks during work.
The so called Pomodoro Technique fits well to the requirements of regular breaks during work. The essence of the Pomodoro Technique is to break tasks into 25-minute intervals called “pomodoro”, followed by a 5-minute rest after each interval. At the same time, after every 4th pomodoro, you should take a long break from 15 to 30 minutes. As for me, I decided that during the rest you need to spend it with benefit – to stretch the muscles, do exercises for the eyes, or just get some tea with cookies – the main thing is to get up from the desk and give the brain a break.
After a week of using this technique, I began to feel positive results – by the end of the day I felt much better, and my productivity increased.
I started looking for an app that could remind me to take breaks during work, view statistics, and include task time management. I could not find a convenient application that would satisfy all my needs, so I decided to create it myself. I hope you will improve your well-being and become more productive with the help of my app.
2. Application features
The main function of the app is to remind you of work rests in order to improve your well-being and increase productivity.
Application features:
- Usage the Pomodoro technique
- Tips on how to make a good break
- Time management with the ability to create different categories of tasks
- Individual settings for each category of tasks
- Configurable duration of periods – work / rest
- Notifications when changing periods
- Customization of notification ringtones, silent mode
- Statistics to track your results
- Backup in the cloud with linking to google account
- Various color schemes
3. Timer
3.1 Timer Description
The main timer screen contains timer controls and information about the remaining time until the next stage of work or rest.
The timer is divided into 2 types – the work timer and the rest timer. Each timer type has a duration setting, the default duration for the work timer is 25 minutes, for the rest – 5 minutes.
- start work period
- pause timer
- stop timer
- start rest period
3.2 Pomodoro Technique
The timer supports the Pomodoro technique. The essence of the Pomodoro technique is to break tasks into 25-minute intervals called “pomodoro,” followed by a 5-minute rest after each interval. At the same time, after every 4th pomodoro, you should take a long break from 15 to 30 minutes.
The top of the timer shows how many pomodoros are left before the long break.
The application provides the ability to adjust the number of pomodoros for a long period, as well as the length of the long break (see. Long Rest (Pomodoro Technique)).
3.3 Quick adjustment of the timer
You can quickly adjust the timer by swiping the screen.
Swipe right +1 minute
Swipe left -1 minute
3.4 Starting rest timer
Sometimes it becomes necessary to manually start the rest timer; for this, the application provides a separate button in the lower right corner of the timer screen.
By pressing the rest button, you can start the rest timer for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes or any other period in minutes.
3.5 Category selection
On the main timer screen, you can select an activity category to structure the time. The category can be changed while the timer is running.
For more details about categories see Categories
4. Categories
4.1 Description of categories
Categories allow you to administer time management more efficiently. You can create and use categories – whether you need them for specific tasks for work, hobbies, sports, or reading a book. You will be able to keep track of when and what you were doing, how much time was spent on a specific day, week or month on a specific activity.
The Categories screen is a list of categories with the category name, information on the duration of work / rest periods for that category, and controls.
4.2 Category controls
- Create a category. When creating a category, you must specify the category name, which must be unique at one level of the category hierarchy.
- Edit category.
- Remove category. Please note that deleting the standard Work category is not possible, and deleting a category deletes all nested categories.
- View statistics for the selected category. Statistics includes information about all contained categories in the hierarchy.
- Category color.
- The duration of the work period in minutes.
- Duration of the rest period in minutes.
4.3 Category hierarchy
Categories support a hierarchical structure with no restrictions on the nesting level. Hierarchy allows you to structure your tasks more competently and conveniently. For example, you can create a specific project in the “Work” category, which will contain the tasks “Communicating with clients”, “Parsing incoming mail”, “Task №197” and then track statistics and time spent on these tasks.
The category main screen contains the highest level of categories. To go to a specific category, you must click on the category card. When creating a child category, by default, the values from the parent’s category are filled in – color, duration of work and rest periods.
5. Activities
5.1 Description of activities
The activity screen lets you know when and what you were doing. The screen is made in the form of a list grouped by days, the most recent day is located on top. Within the day there are activities from the beginning to the end of the day. The activity card contains the following information:
- Start time of activity
- End time of activity
- Activity duration
- Activity category
- Activity color based on category color
- Activity type
The activity type is divided into 2 types:
- Work
- Rest
5.2 Activity controls
- Create an activity. To create an activity, you must specify the category, type of activity, start time and end time.
- Filter the list. To filter the list of activities, you must specify the start date and the end date of the filtering. To reset the filter, in the filtering dialog box, click Reset Filter.
To edit an activity, click on the activity card.
To delete activities, select the desired activities by long pressing on the cards and click on the trash can icon in the upper right corner.
6. Statistics
6.1 Description of statistics
Viewing statistics becomes available when the user finishes an activity of the “Work” type lasting more than 5 minutes. Until then, demo statistics will be displayed.
The statistics card is a list of statistics graph widgets. Statistics are built based on activity in the application and are available for the entire period of using the application, with support for viewing data for a specific day, week or month.
It is also possible to view statistics for a specific category (for this, you need to go to statistics from the category card), in this case the statistics will be based only on the data of the selected category and all included categories in the hierarchy.
6.2 Diagrams
6.2.1 Time diagram
The time diagram shows the consumed time by activity type Work / Rest.
The diagram is interactive, it supports movement along the X axis, zoom.
6.2.2 Rest Ratio
Rest Ratio shows how much you met your rest plan based on the actual work / rest time for a given period and the configured work / rest duration for a specific category.
For example, you used an activity with the category “Work,” which has durations of 25 minutes for work and 5 minutes for rest. You have done 4 work periods of 30 minutes and only 1 rest period of 5 minutes, so the rest ratio will be 25%, since you have rested 5 minutes out of the planned 20.
The diagram is interactive, it supports movement along the X axis, zoom.
6.2.3 Rest acceptance rate
The diagram shows percentage of how often you accept an offer to rest.
The diagram is interactive, it supports movement along the X axis, zoom.
6.2.4 Category pie chart
This chart shows the cumulative time of the Job type, sorted by categories.
The chart itself displays the categories as a percentage of the time spent. If the number of categories exceeds 5, then the top 4 categories are shown, and the rest are grouped into “Others”. The chart history displays the actual time by category.
If statistics for a specific category are used, then this chart includes information only in the nested categories.
The chart is interactive, it supports turning pages by swiping “Back”, “Forward”.
7. Application settings
7.1 Account
Starting from app version 3.0.0, app account has been added. Login to your account is done through your Google account. Authorization includes cloud data synchronization, which allows the user to use the application on different devices and not lose data when reinstalling the application or changing devices.
7.1.1 Backup data
When using an app account, the backup is done automatically when internet is available
Settings:
- Cloud data sync – checkbox that allows you to enable or disable cloud data sync.
- Force data recovery from the cloud – starts a full forced data synchronization with the current account.
- Restore backup from Google Drive – restores a backup of the old format, while all local data will be overwritten. Added to support the old way of restoring backups that were made before the application version 3.0.0
7.2 Long Rest (Pomodoro Technique)
Each person may have their own convenient configuration of the Pomodoro technique, so the application provides settings in order to adjust the number of sessions before a long break and its duration.
Settings:
- Enable Long Rest – checkbox to enable or disable the Pomodoro technique when using the timer.
- Sessions before a long rest – the number of sessions (pomodoros) before a long break. A successful session is considered the completion of the “Work” period. The default is 4.
- Long rest duration – duration in minutes, default value is 20.
7.3 Daily reminder
One of the main purposes of the app is to remind people to take rests during work, but it turns out many people immediately start work at the beginning of the day and forget to turn on the timer. To solve this problem, a daily reminder was added, which can be flexibly adjusted to the beginning of your working day.
Settings:
- Enable daily reminder – a checkbox that enables or disables the daily reminder to use the application.
- Reminder time – the time at which a reminder will come in the form of a notification. The default is 09:00 AM.
- Days of the week – select the days of the week on which the reminder will come. The default is weekdays.
7.4 Notifications
7.4.1 Setting up notifications on Android 8.0+
Starting from android 8.0, notifications are managed entirely through the notification categories (channels), this is a setting at the level of the Android OS itself, which allows more flexible customization of application notifications.
Watch "Notification android 8+" demo video
The application has several categories of notifications:
- Work timer – a notification signaling the end of a timer with the “Work” type;
- Rest timer – notifications signaling the end of the “Rest” type timer;
- Daily reminder – a notification that is triggered when you use the application every day (see Daily reminder).
For example, you can set different tones for the rest timer and the work timer.
Additional settings:
- Long notification – when this checkbox is enabled, the short melody will be played again until the notification is turned off.
7.4.2 Setting up notifications on Android versions up to 8.0
- Notification ringtone – Select a ringtone for app notifications.
- Long notification – when this checkbox is enabled, the short melody will be played again until the notification is turned off.
- Silent mode – if the checkbox is enabled, the notification will be received without sound.
- Vibration – Activate or deactivate vibration for notifications.
7.5 General settings
7.5.1 Auto accept
When the timer expires, the next step will start automatically.
7.5.2 Keep screen on
When the “Screen always on” function is enabled, the phone screen will not be locked when the user is idle. Useful if you want to always see the timer in front of your eyes.
7.5.3 Themes
The application contains 16 different color themes. Choose the style that suits you.
7.5.4 Dark theme
The app supports dark theme. The dark theme can be used with a variety of color themes.
8. Application PRO version
8.1 Why are some of the application’s functions paid?
This application is not developed by a team or a company – it is being developed by one developer during his own free time. The development of the application takes a lot of effort and time including some financial investments. Therefore, to replenish my strength and support the application, you can buy coffee or any delicious treat in the application. I will be very grateful for any purchase and all the additional functions of the application will open to you.
8.2 List of PRO Features
- Synchronization of data with the cloud, linking to a google account
- Data backup
- Ability to view, edit, and delete activities
- Create an unlimited number of categories
- Various color styles
- Dark theme
- Keep screen on
- Daily reminders
- More background sounds