"I’ve spent the last few years feeling 'digitally overstimulated.' I noticed a recurring habit: the moment I finish a task or hit a wall, my thumb instinctively swipes to a social feed or a news site. My brain has lost the ability to just sit with a gap in time.
I tried several meditation and 'focus' apps, but they all felt like more 'work.' They wanted me to track streaks, join communities, or 'level up.' It felt ironic to use a high-engagement app to solve an engagement problem.
So I built TapPause. It’s a dead-simple utility designed with a few strict constraints:
Zero Data/Tracking: I don't want to know how many times I've paused. There is no 'performance' to optimize here.
Minimal Friction: No accounts, no onboarding, no 'daily goals.' You open it, you tap, you sit.
The 5-30 Minute Window: I found that 5 minutes is the minimum to actually 'reset' the nervous system, and 30 minutes is the maximum before it feels like a scheduled event. This is for the 'in-between' moments.
The goal isn't to 'meditate' in the traditional sense. It's to create a 'circuit breaker' for the digital reflex.
I’m curious to hear from the HN community: How do you handle the 'transition anxiety' between deep work tasks? Do you find that dedicated tools help create a mental ritual, or do they just add to the noise?
I'd love any feedback on the UI or the philosophy behind it."
"I’ve spent the last few years feeling 'digitally overstimulated.' I noticed a recurring habit: the moment I finish a task or hit a wall, my thumb instinctively swipes to a social feed or a news site. My brain has lost the ability to just sit with a gap in time.
I tried several meditation and 'focus' apps, but they all felt like more 'work.' They wanted me to track streaks, join communities, or 'level up.' It felt ironic to use a high-engagement app to solve an engagement problem.
So I built TapPause. It’s a dead-simple utility designed with a few strict constraints:
Zero Data/Tracking: I don't want to know how many times I've paused. There is no 'performance' to optimize here.
Minimal Friction: No accounts, no onboarding, no 'daily goals.' You open it, you tap, you sit.
The 5-30 Minute Window: I found that 5 minutes is the minimum to actually 'reset' the nervous system, and 30 minutes is the maximum before it feels like a scheduled event. This is for the 'in-between' moments.
The goal isn't to 'meditate' in the traditional sense. It's to create a 'circuit breaker' for the digital reflex.
I’m curious to hear from the HN community: How do you handle the 'transition anxiety' between deep work tasks? Do you find that dedicated tools help create a mental ritual, or do they just add to the noise?
I'd love any feedback on the UI or the philosophy behind it."