Show HN: LookAway, a Mac break reminder that knows when not to interrupt
Hello, I'm Kushagra and I am the indie developer behind LookAway (I've posted about it earlier but it has received quite a lot of updates since the last time so I am posting it again). LookAway is a native break reminder for macOS that doesn't interrupt. I built it because I work from home and I spend a lot of time in front of my screens. It's very easy for me to get lost in the flow and I can end up sitting for hours. Due to this, I started facing issues like eye strain and back pain by the end of the day. The solution to this was simply taking enough breaks throughout the day. But remembering to take breaks was difficult, especially when I was in the flow. I tried some reminder apps but the problem with those was that they always interrupted me at the worst moments. So I ended up not using them. LookAway is designed not to interrupt. It gives enough heads up before a break so that you're not caught off-guard. It's also context-aware and it automatically pauses when you go into a meeting, start watching a video, record screen, and much more. It even waits for you to finish typing or dictating when a break is due. One thing worth mentioning is the free iOS counterpart LookAway Mirror. When your Mac goes on a break, your iOS devices can also mirror the same break so you don't end up scrolling your phone screen during the Mac break. I've spent a lot of time in making LookAway the least annoying break reminder app and I would love to know your thoughts. It's a native Swift app so it doesn't take much resources (150MB RAM and <1% CPU when idle). It's available to download from the website (lookaway.com), Setapp, and the App Store. Thank you!
Discussion Highlights (11 comments)
holistio
Distilled, this would be a nice macOS or Raycast feature, but I don't see myself giving up either $29 or 150MB RAM.
Cider9986
This app was good but I ended up disabling it and they forgot to turn it back on. How much trouble do you have with piracy? I notice there's a DMCA on Macked.app forcing one to sign in to download it. Do you contact sites manually or pay someone? Do you think that people that pirate would pay if it wasn't cracked? Perhaps adding a crypto payment integration would allow more people to buy it. For me, I will very rarely pay for software unless it accepts crypto, for privacy and convenience reasons.
fosterfriends
Looks really clean!
trinix912
Two things regarding the website: - scrolling is so extremely laggy that the website is almost unusable on Firefox on macOS on an idle MacBook Pro (even if it seems smooth at first, scrolling up and down a few times slows it down significantly) - I assume the code editor screenshot should actually be some sort of animation, it doesn't seem to work (although right clicking shows options like Pause, Loop...).
Kovah
I've been using it as part of my Setapp subscription, and it's a love-hate relationship. On the one side I appreciate the posture hint and the app nudging me to take a break. But ever so often I am in deep focus and get really annoyed when the "long break starting in 1 minute" notification pops up. Most of the time I am in the middle of writing when the break starts, and I click it away fast to not loose my thoughts. A feature recognizing active writing to push the break a minute would be helpful I guess.
dheera
> knows when not to interrupt I wish all forms of pop-up notifications knew this. If I log into a security camera interface after an event triggered, that's not the time to tell me about a software update. If I log into a news website because of a local crime, that's not the time to tell me about your fancy newsletter. If I log into a brokerage during trading hours, that's not the time to tell me about your new interface. I click all of these things away reflexively because they appear at the wrong time.
sosodev
The license scheme makes me sad. It reads like a subscription pretending to be a one-time purchase.
crossroadsguy
Few alts for other platforms https://workrave.org/ (not mac) https://github.com/hovancik/stretchly (everywhere) Both are open source. Then there’s this https://www.dejal.com/timeout/ (only mac) - used this one as well.
Waterluvian
Curious to hear from anyone with long term success: do these kinds of apps actually work or do they more just make you feel like you’re doing something about it?
telman17
I've found the posture and blink reminders have been really helpful. I do find myself having to postpone the breaks because they like to pop up when I'm in deep focus. Thing is, I never really mark when I'm in deep focus because I honestly don't realize it when it happens, so it's hard to provide a constructive solution for this app around that. I haven't seen it in the settings but some "drink water" reminders or just customizing those would be great.
hailtothechimp
Looks nice, but hate that pricing.