New increasing time limit

Feedback đź’ˇ
#1

I want to share feedback on the increasing pause before a break. Please make it optional or remove it. I was in a normal focus session and had to wait 75 seconds, which on one side isn’t a huge deal, but I had normal protection on. Sometimes I need to look up something on social media or on a break with a co worker want to be able to reference something.

Instead of being helpful, I was and still am less motivated to start a session. On Friday I cancelled the session because I didn’t want to be locked out for increasing amounts of time. I also left that screen on my phone on so that a break was more available.

Please inform me if/when this test changes.

1 Like
#2

Yes. I have removed a couple of apps (browsers) from my block list that can sometimes be distracting and sometimes useful (my non-Safari browsers, for example) because this change makes it too cumbersome to briefly use those apps during a long session. I’m guessing the pause is there to make it harder to be distracted by an app, and if all the apps on my block list were purely distracting, maybe this would be okay. But if I have a real reason to want to check something, it’s annoying to sit and wait for the break to be available.

#3

Thank you very much for sharing this @Candyce @joshhawaii

What do you think of these ideas:
either of these could work:

  1. Adding “wait time” as a field in the session, where you can set how much time you want to wait before taking a break or canceling the session.
  2. Allowing you to bypass the wait time by writing an intention for why you want to access the distracting app.
  3. Making the wait time more fun by adding games or other interactive elements to alleviate frustration.
  4. Adding a “light” protection mode that allows you to edit or cancel sessions at will with no delay.
1 Like
#4

I like options 1 and 2. Thanks for listening! (Also, I know I have seen feedback from others saying they missed intention setting from earlier versions of Opal.)

1 Like
#5

Thanks @Candyce for echoing that and @kenneth for hopping on this so quick! I love the chance to iterate quickly.

I think #1 is the best option, maybe we could choose from a specific time, “random”, or “increasing” options.

I do still like the idea of intentions. However, as a way to unlock the break it might be too easy to type a few useless characters. I would love to optionally be able to add an intention.

2 Likes
#6

I like the first option.

#7

We have decide to go a temporary solution for now - as of the latest version [v.3.9], we reverted back to a simple 15s delay (with some randomness) for break access.

We will be working on a longer term solution shortly.