Yake a pause. Not a productivity break — a real one.
idlekime started as an experiment
between a few designers who were just… tired.
Not burnout tired — scroll fatigue tired.
We built a page that did nothing. No feed, no tips, no goals.
Turns out “nothing” felt amazing.
Now it’s a small digital space that helps people stop for a moment — short guided stillness sessions that don’t sell calm, just give you a blank to breathe in.
Why pausing feels weird but works
Modern screens never blink. We do. And that mismatch hurts more
than it sounds.
You’re flooded with alerts, dopamine loops, tabs, noise.
idlekime isn’t self-help. It’s the opposite: a soft refusal to
perform.
No metrics, no streaks. Just a browser window that asks you to exist
for ninety seconds without scrolling.
It’s awkward at first — then your shoulders drop.
Pause zones (we call them rooms, but they’re mostly air)
They don’t track anything. They don’t remember you.
You come in, you leave. That’s the point.
-
01.
Microzone — 90 seconds, plain color, one slow fade
-
02.
Flowdrop — 5 minutes of quiet breathing, no guidance voice
-
03.
Softwall — muted visuals + noise dampening
-
04.
Blank Frequency — white screen, low hum underneath
-
05.
Offline Room — simulates disconnect while you’re still online
Who ends up using it
-
Writers between drafts
-
Developers after stand-ups
-
Students who can’t close a tab but know they should
-
People who overthink “rest” until it’s work again
There’s no right audience, just anyone who needs to pause without being told how.
Measuring rest (sort of)
We’re building a small tool called the
Digital Rest Index.
It guesses how much recovery you’re actually getting online —
based on how often you stop, not how fast you move.
It’s still rough, mostly graphs that look calmer than they
should.
Metrics we’re playing with:
-
Time since last real pause
-
Notification pressure
-
Visual clutter per minute
-
Recovery vs stimulation
No prizes, just perspective.
Tools we’re quietly testing
Everything’s optional. Nothing sells data.
-
Idlekime browser plug-in — pops up when you’ve opened too many tabs
-
Slack nudge bot — reminds you to breathe between message storms
-
Pause API — for teams who want built-in silence in their own apps.
For designers and curious devs
We keep a small UX library of “anti-patterns” — interactions that slow you down on purpose:
-
01.
Buttons that dissolve after success
-
02.
Modals with no scroll
-
03.
Deliberate micro-delays
They sound annoying until you try them and feel… calmer.
Research bits
We read and write papers when we can:
-
-
“Attention Gaps in Everyday Interfaces” — idlekime notes, 2024
-
-
“Dopamine Loops and UX Feedback Delay” — with a few friends at MIT
-
“Rest as a Design Variable” — open draft on our site
-
Nothing behind paywalls. If you quote us, great — that’s the whole point.
Voices from the people who tried it
-
“It’s the first app that doesn’t ask me to ‘be mindful.’ It just lets me stop.”
Lena,
developer
-
“Our design team uses it between meetings. It’s weirdly grounding.”
Yusef,
PM
-
“I opened it by accident and stayed longer than planned. That says something.”
Kai,
student
-
“It’s the first app that doesn’t ask me to ‘be mindful.’ It just lets me stop.”
Lena,
developer
-
“Our design team uses it between meetings. It’s weirdly grounding.”
Yusef,
PM
-
“I opened it by accident and stayed longer than planned. That says something.”
Kai,
student
Join or don’t — both fine
There’s a small membership for those who want to test new pause
modes or hang out in our quiet forum.
Early tools, event invites, the occasional snail-mail postcard.
Contact
We collaborate with folks who build humane tech — health apps,
learning platforms, mindful hardware.
If you want to embed “pause logic,” reach out.
- info@idlekime.site
-
Remote-first, somewhere between screens