Quietboard

Kanso

Link: https://getkanso.app/

Kanso — yield, then look awayKansofocusingpaused
A timer that yields — then looks away.

I built Kanso because every break reminder I tried failed the same way: it interrupted a call, I snoozed it forever, or it lived on my phone while my eyes stayed on the Mac.

The name is from Japanese kanso — simplicity without clutter. One quiet job in the menu bar. No account, no dashboard, no streak that guilt-trips you for being human.

The problem it actually solves

You already believe in looking away. The slip isn’t laziness. It’s that your attention stays on the Mac while the reminder lives somewhere else — a phone timer, a tab you closed, a habit you keep meaning to restart.

Kanso is a local 20-20-20 rhythm: work for a while, take a short screen break, optionally stack longer rests. Presets cover Balanced, Deep Focus, Eye Care, and Wellness, or you dial intervals yourself. Office hours keep weekends and evenings silent if you want them to.

Smart Pause

The interesting part isn’t the countdown. It’s knowing when not to fire.

Smart Pause watches for meetings, camera/mic use, screen recording, fullscreen, and a few deep-focus signals. Dedicated apps (Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, Slack, and friends) count; browsers only count when the camera or mic is actually hot, so general Chrome use doesn’t freeze the timer.

When you’re busy, the work countdown waits. When the moment passes, it comes back on its own. That’s the difference between a tool you keep and one you disable after a bad standup.

What else is in the box

  • Break overlay on one monitor or all of them — solid color, gradients, custom image, or system wallpaper
  • Skip difficulty from Flexible to Committed, if you want friction against cheating yourself
  • Wellness nudges for posture, blink, water — optional, and easy to turn off
  • Automations via AppleScript, shell, or Shortcuts at break start/end (mute Spotify, flip Focus, whatever you already do)

Native SwiftUI, macOS 13+, lives in the menu bar with an optional live timer.

If you only remember one thing: it’s a break reminder that yields when life does, then resumes without you babysitting it.