Features
Everything it does, and nothing it does not.
Mandala is a menu-bar timer that takes your screen for three minutes and fills it with a drawing being made. This is the whole of it.
01
The break itself
Twelve mathematical figures, one generated per long break and drawn stroke by stroke in real time. Nothing to read, nothing to click — the drawing finishing is what tells you the break is over.
02
A schedule you set once
A twenty-second micro break every twenty minutes, and every third one becomes the hour's long break — both adjustable, or off. Working hours are off until you turn them on.
03
Smart pause
A break never lands mid-sentence. Calls, fullscreen apps and Focus modes hold it out of the box; a playing video, screen sharing or recording, and your calendar are one switch away each — and you can name the apps that must never be interrupted.
04
Ten inks, twenty variants
Every ink is a pair — a luminous version for dark breaks and a deep one for paper. Pick one, let it change per drawing, or let a single break run multicolour.
05
Screen Score
A private score out of 100 for the day, a streak for showing up, and a month of history. Computed on your Mac, stored on your Mac, exportable as a CSV you own.
06
Enforcement, three ways
Casual keeps Skip on screen the whole time and is the default. Balanced holds it back fifteen seconds. Hardcore has no skip at all — the break runs its course.
07
The gallery
Every finished mandala is kept. Not a log of what you got done — a record of the times you looked away. One click sets the latest as your wallpaper.
08
Every display, and the screensaver
A break claims all connected screens at once, so there is nowhere left to keep working. The same line work ships as a native macOS screensaver for when you step away.
Specifications
Read off the app, not the brochure.
| Platform | macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon and Intel |
| Break engine | One of twelve figures per break, drawn live from the app's generator |
| Interval | Break every 20 min · up to 8 hours · 0 turns it off · runs only while the micro-break cycle is off |
| Break length | 3 min by default; the drawing's pace is what sets it |
| Micro breaks | On by default · every 20 min, up to 2 hours · 20 seconds each · every third becomes the hour's long break |
| Working hours | Off by default · 09:00–17:00, Mon–Fri when on |
| Smart pause, on | Calls, fullscreen apps, Focus modes |
| Smart pause, opt-in | A playing video, screen sharing or recording, calendar events, excluded apps |
| Enforcement | Casual (default) · Balanced, skip after 15 s · Hardcore, no skip |
| Inks | 10 named, each a dark and a paper variant · random-per-drawing · multicolour |
| Displays | Every connected screen, at once |
| Stats | Daily score 0–100 · streaks · 30 days of history · CSV export |
| Gallery | Every finished drawing kept · latest one settable as wallpaper |
| Privacy | Breaks, stats and drawings never leave the Mac |
| Price | 7-day trial, then $14.99 once |