Sane Break

Sane Break is a cross-platform break reminder designed to help you take meaningful breaks without disrupting your workflow.

🤔 Why another break reminder?

All too often, I'm deeply focused on a task when the break reminder pops up. Almost instinctively, I click "skip" or "postpone", and before I know it, hours have passed without a single break.

Many break reminder apps demand immediate action, which often leads to mindlessly skipping or delaying the break. While some of them send notifications before the break is scheduled, they merely inform me that a break is going to happen, rather than telling me it's happening right now. As a result, I end up ignoring these notifications and continue working.

In contrast, Sane Break allows me to take ownership of when to stop and break. It starts by providing a gentle, non-intrusive reminder through a flashing window. The break officially begins as soon as I naturally pause after finishing my current task. This way, Sane Break offers the flexibility to wrap up my work and take a break on my terms, rather than forcing an abrupt interruption.

Specifically, Sane Break employs a two-phase system:

• Phase 1: A small, unobtrusive reminder that you can acknowledge or ignore.
• Phase 2: The reminder grows to full screen, ensuring you take a break.

Transition to phase 2 happens when you stop working on your computer, or ignore the reminder and keep working for too long (configurable).

This design is an enhanced version of the RSIBreak design, but Sane Break has some other improvements:

• No big buttons for skipping or postponing to avoid mindless dismissals.
• Cross-platform support

Sane Break aims to strike a balance between respecting your workflow and ensuring you take the breaks you need.

For more details about the motivation behind Sane Break, you can refer to No break reminder works (for me).

🎬 Demo video

sane-break-demo.mp4

📷 Screenshots

Platform support

Linux

KDE 6 (on Arch-based distros) support is prioritized. Others may work too.

Since this program only supports Qt6 and uses wlr layer shell and idle notify protocols, in theory it supports:

• X11: all.
• Wayland: compositors supporting wlr layer shell and idle notify protocols, and distros with layer-shell-qt version 6.

See Compiling from source for details.

macOS

Both x86 and ARM version of macOS 12 or newer are supported.

Windows

x86 version of Windows 10 or newer is supported. Older versions may work too.

Compiling from source

For Linux users with Arch-based distros, it's recommended to install the AUR package:

yay -S sane-break

If you want to enable just X11 or Wayland support, or you are using other distros (which I didn't test), you are strongly encouraged to install Sane Break by comping from source. It will automatically enable X11 or Wayland support based on libraries found. For Wayland support, make sure you have layer-shell-qt for Qt6 installed.

git clone https://github.com/AllanChain/sane-break
cd sane-break
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build . --parallel
sudo cmake --install .

FAQ

How to exit?

Right-click the menu icon and hover over the "Postpone" menu. The "Quit" menu is there. This design is intended to make users think twice about whether they want to postpone breaks or really quit the software.

How to start Sane Break on startup?

• Linux: Whatever way you like
• macOS: Open "System Preferences" and search for "Login Items". Click "+" and add Sane Break to login items
• Windows: Use Win + R and type shell:startup. Put sane-break.exe or its shortcut there

Where are settings stored?

The default locations for settings are:

• On Linux and macOS: ~/.config/SaneBreak/SaneBreak.ini
• On Windows: %APPDATA%\SaneBreak\SaneBreak.ini

Beside default locations, Qt also supports reading settings from other locations.

If you want to make Sane Break portable, especially on Windows, you can put an empty file named SaneBreak.ini next to the .exe file and Sane Break will automatically pick that file for settings.

What if I really want to skip break?

Generally, you can quit the app via tray icon right away after the break starts. However, if you really want to quit when Sane Break is in fullscreen, you can kill the app via system command line. For example:

• KDE: Enable KRunner with Alt + Space and run killall sane-break
• macOS: Enable Spotlight with Cmd + Space and run killall sane-break
• Windows: Press Win + R and run taskkill /IM sane-break /F

To do list

• Auto start settings
• Stop breaks while in screen sharing?