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Blue Cocoa
p/blue-cocoaThe Time app. Productive people’s secret weapon.
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Erik van der Plas

Time 2 - Stay focused and crush procrastination

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We all know and hate the guilty feeling we get when we procrastinate. With Time 2, that feeling is a thing of the past. To use the app, you add a task like "Tweak Sketch mockups, 30 minutes.” & a brightly colored timer counts down as you work. This timer helps you feel a slight twinge of pressure so you get your work done.

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Siobhan O'Rorke
This looks really cool! Will you have an Android version?
Shaan Singh
Maker
@siororke We have gotten a lot of requests for this! Eventually we might, but right now it is not on the roadmap.
Shaan Singh
Maker
Hi Product Hunt community! My name is Shaan Singh. As we all know, being productive is extremely hard, especially when you have to set your own schedule. As a student, I understand this firsthand, but the same applies to developers, designers, and especially freelancers. The problem is simple: when working on something, like "Tweak Sketch file," it's too easy to get distracted in the middle of the task. How can we overcome the psychology of procrastination and stay focused? Time 2 is the solution. You can plan out your entire day, or even week, in terms of blocks of time. So, you might have "Tweak Sketch file, 30 minutes." When you start this task, a timer begins counting down and a brightly colored wave moves down with it. If you put Time down on your desk with the timer counting down and try to get some work done, you'll notice yourself staying focused. Remarkably, that simple little timer and wave interface applies a subtle pressure that helps us avoid distractions. Erik and I put a lot of work into making Time 2 a reality. Since we're both students (Erik is 16, I'm 18), it took a tremendous amount of schedule weaving to make this app. Our original app, Time 1, came out in January 2017. It was the #1 product of the week on Product Hunt when it came out, and it topped App Store rankings all over the world. This was a fantastic experience for us, and we were so happy people loved Time. With Time 2, we've added so much more – multiday planning, repeating tasks, reminders, omnipresent progress bar, the list goes on. We're so excited to share this with you, and we hope it helps you become more productive :) Shaan
Abadesi
@shaandsingh Great to have you back on Product Hunt! I never used timers as a student but in hindsight wish I did. I use them almost daily now to stay focused on a task. What feature are you most excited about with Time 2.0?
Shaan Singh
Maker
@abadesi Hi! One of the cooler features in Time 2 that I haven't talked a lot about is the omnipresent progress bar. In the screenshots above, this is the big purple bar under the title. A lot of times, we procrastinate on actually starting our work. Let's say it's the evening, and you're feeling a bit lazy. You have a couple tasks left. The progress bar tracks how many tasks you've completed out of how many you have in Time for that day. As humans, we naturally like to complete things. So, an unfinished progress bar for the day is sometimes just the push we need to finish our work.
Abadesi
@shaandsingh Such a cool feature, thanks for letting me know 😄
Dominik Lakó
Hi. When Time 1 came out I purchased it, and I loved it, but I stopped using it. Is it free to update if I purchased the previous version?
Shaan Singh
Maker
@lakodominik We decided to make Time 2 a separate app, which means it's another 99 cents to buy it. However, the reason for this is that Time 2 has so many upgrades that it's honestly worth it in our eyes. It's not just about making a quick buck for us. Time 2 has multiday support, so you can plan out tasks for different days. It has reminders and repeating tasks. It is super stable and won't suddenly crash on you. We think you'll love it :)
Charlie Coppinger
@lakodominik @shaandsingh Have you considered changing to a low-cost SaaS model? The problem with low price one-time-purchase-apps is that you want to keep working on it, but in order to do so, you need to make money, too - fair enough - if it was $0.99 a month, you might see a dip in overall conversion rates, but in the long term you'll work out making much more, and importantly, you'll be able to sustain development without having to fall back on full new releases. Just a thought. Great work, either way, I'm a big fan.
Shaan Singh
Maker
@thecoppinger Good points actually. We’re thinking about something similar. Thanks for the thoughts!
Anton Eliasson
Love this product but I'm already using Asana for team projects and as my to-do lists, so I'd love an integration with this to manage day-to-day tasks and productivity. Would purchase immediately if there was an integration, migrating is not an option and double posting tasks is a hassle. If you're not locked into another system this is a great app though!
Shaan Singh
Maker
@antoneliasson We’re looking into integrations for sure!
Ben Levy
Hey Shaan, I really like this concept - as it's something I struggle with daily. Is this something you could ever release as a Chrome extension? Would be really helpful, as I try to avoid using my phone when I'm in the zone. Great work! Ben
Shaan Singh
Maker
@benmlevy We haven't yet thought about a Chrome extension. The reason we like Time as a mobile app is because of the fluid interactions. If you have to add more time to a running task, you just pull the wave up with your finger. It's a simple gesture that adds so much to the psychology. After using Time for a while, you'll find yourself avoiding distractions so you don't have to slide the wave up. To deal with notifications, I usually find myself using Time with Do Not Disturb on. We will start looking into a web version soon. For updates, you can subscribe to our mailing list here: https://confirmsubscription.com/....
Brent Heeringa

I wish there were a few more options for organizing completed items or moving items around. For example, I accidentally left an item running on Thursday last week and incorrectly cancelled it today when I meant for it to be complete. I can't now record it as complete for Dec 7.

Pros:

Clean Design

Pomodoro Style Scheduling Works

Cons:

I wish the history was cleaner.

Kara Ntumy
Looks awesome! Wheres the Android version?
Marc

Can't be used on Android. That's a no-go.

Pros:

Nice app

Cons:

iOS-only

Ali Naderzad
Just downloaded it on my iPhone. Gonna take it for a spin !
Xanthe Kueppers
This is a great idea. I think it could really help focus and productivity.
Henning Horn
Looks great, guys! I see the point in structuring your day into blocks of time. This makes great sense in order to get a quick overview of your day. What I do miss in this app, is a way to manage my time while doing the work. Say you plan to use 3 hours on a task. Personally I would need (small) breaks, therefore I use the pomodoro technique where you work 25 minutes and then have a 5 minute break, and after 2 hours you do a 30 minute break. If you could manage to get that flow integrated in Time, what would be awesome!
Shaan Singh
Maker
@henninghorn Thanks for the input! The way I do it personally is to create different tasks for each thing I want to do. So, I'll do work for some time, then have a break task, then do more work. You can alternate like that to achieve a pomodoro-like effect. The app is flexible to anybody's working style. Our fear is that locking people in to any specific flow makes it confusing and restrictive.
Alexandre Mouriec
I just bought the app and look forward to use it tomorrow. The app seems very useful (especially for a college student 😉) and looks beautiful. The list of features is impressive 👍 Great job and congratulations on launching the V2 👏
Jay M
@shaandsingh looks interesting. I’ve two quick questions. 1) Can we get free upgrade if we have purchased original Time 1 app? 2) Any plan of working on Mac or Apple Watch app? Combination would be killer and more productive.
Jay M
@shaandsingh I currently use FocusList and that’s working amazing for me as it has Mac and iPhone apps. They have Watch app too but I hardly use it and it has lot of bugs in it. I really want to try out Time 2 but only iPhone app is restricting me.
Shaan Singh
Maker
@enworl Time 2 is a paid upgrade. Mac is on our timeline.
Jay M
@shaandsingh Can you share a rough idea by when will it arrive? I’m super excited. 😄 Also, Time 3 will be paid upgrade or a free upgrade?
Anna Filou
My god this looks so freaking great but still no Android version after so long? 😭
iNilay
I was never able to understand the upvoting... Maybe it's more of lobbying going on with this app. If you Have u ever used the first version for a while, which was full of bugs...Money and time wasted. now rather than improving the app further, Developer is here again on product hunt with version 2. I definitely don't mind paying and helping for further development but it's not fair to release imperfect app every year and ask for money. Anyway, Good luck.
Shaan Singh
Maker
@nilsej We've spent a lot of time working out the bugs from the 1.0 version. Time 2 does not have any of the reported issues from the first version of the app.
Shaan Singh
Maker
@nilsej Regarding your concerns, I'd be happy to discuss over email and offer you a promo code for a free copy of the app. If you take a look at Time 2, you'll see it's beyond stable and is leaps and bounds ahead of Time 1.
Theodore Strauss
@erikvdplas hyped. might be coming to Amsterdam for tnw’s conference. They invited me over. You going?
Alex Romanchykov
Something is really wrong with the Search in App Store. When you enter Time 2 nothing is found. You need to use the whole app name to find it: Time 2: Beat Procrastination.
Simon Bromberg
Very nicely done app intro tutorial, all around well-designed as well, plus intriguing simple concept.
Gaina Roman
Please create a Mac app, or let us sync with Reminders app. I usually add all my reminders while at the computer, so I use Fantastical for now. Actually the sync with Reminders feature would work best, I guess.
Raphaël Chabaud
looks good but where is android ? ios is a niche market now :p