Sane Break
No more mindless skips
Only for Mac
Free
Sane Break is a cross-platform break reminder designed to help you take meaningful breaks without disrupting your workflow. It allows you to take ownership of when to stop and break, and aims to strike a balance between respecting your workflow and ensuring you take the breaks you need. Specifically, Sane Break uses a two-phase system:
Phase 1: A small, unobtrusive reminder that encourages you to find a good stopping point.
Phase 2: The reminder grows to full screen during the actual break.
Transition to phase 2 happens when you stop working on your computer, or when you ignore the reminder and keep working for too long.
more Features
- split break theme settings by break type
Other improvements
- use font icons for break window buttons
- clarify break message wording
- translation update
0.10.7 Nov 4
Features:
- pause on screen lock
Bug fixes:
- crash on tray icon click on macOS 27
0.10.6 Oct 6
Bug fixes:
* bound invalid settings from file
* honor pause requests during postpone
* guard idle signals before the first break phase
Other improvements:
* no heads-up blinking to distinguish from breaks
0.10.5 Aug 26
Bug fixes
- Fix crash on macOS with unplugged display
- Fix treating inhibitors as activity at post-break
0.10.4 Aug 4
Features:
- add/remove break windows on display change
- reduce friction for postpone, meeting, and focus
- treat idle inhibitors as user activity
- case insensitive program monitoring
0.10.3 Jul 27
Fixes:
- Fix crash during screen removal
- Allow meeting ends tomorrow for night owls
0.10.2 Jun 16
Improvements:
- Times now follow your system's preferred time format in break windows and related views.
- Meeting and Focus dialogs now better explain why confirmation is unavailable when the reason is too short.
Fixes:
- Fixed an issue where the tray icon could disappear after starting a break immediately.
- Fixed a crash when flashing speed was set to 0 BPM.
0.10.1 May 5
- New Statistics window to review your break history by week, including timelines, break totals, postpones, and tracked time
- New Meeting/Presentation Mode to pause reminders until a time you choose, with smoother resume behavior afterward
- New Focus Mode for deep work sessions with a separate break schedule you can start from the tray
- New heads-up reminder before breaks, with the option to start the break right away when you reach a good stopping point
- Reworked postponing to feel more flexible and less disruptive to your overall rhythm
- More break window customization, including background images, color selection, and tray icon flashing options
- Smarter automatic pause behavior when you connect an unknown monitor
- Option to use small breaks only
- Added Cmd+W shortcut support to close Preferences and Statistics windows
- Added Italian and Swedish, plus broader translation updates
- General fixes and reliability improvements
0.10.0 Apr 7
Bug fixes:
- fix preference window theme
- display window above menubars
Changes:
- flash tray icon 10 seconds before breaks
Misc:
- support liquid glass icons
- translation update and add German translations
0.9.5 Jan 6
Bug fixes:
- Fix clock update after break ends
- Update preference button color after theme change
0.9.4 10/08/2025
Bug fixes:
- Improve sleep handling and avoid exiting pauses
- Fix false positive postpone confirm after pause
- Fix incorrect initial time on break window when user is idle
- Fix exit force break button remains after clicking
- Show buttons when previewing break windows
- Fix save button not shown in general tab
- Hide buttons after breaks since can't click
- Fix `qt_add_plugin` for x11 with old Qt versions
- Fix preference window icon
- Do not make window transparent for inputs on X11
- Smaller clock size with countdown and remove seconds
0.9.3 09/15/2025
Bug fixes:
- Fix break window not shown on macOS
- Just prevent any new instances to start up to avoid confusion
0.9.2 08/14/2025
Bug fixes:
- Fix show components for small break windows
- Fix pause reason not cleared on sleep end
- Fix auto close window for small and big breaks
- Fix break window auto close after closing preference window
0.9.1 08/12/2025
Breaking changes:
- use bpm as unit for flash speed
- only show custom messages in full-screen
Feature:
- enable immersive break experience
- avoid starting more than one instance of the app
- preview button for break window interface setting
- button to revert preferences to default values
Changes:
- organize preference tabs and add "Interface" tab
- adopt state machine pattern for app logic
Bug fixes:
- remove unused macOS permission hint
0.9.0 08/05/2025
Features:
- Limited number of exits of force-breaks (default 2)
Bug fixes:
- Avoid resetting time to next break when postponing
0.8.4 07/20/2025
Bug fixes:
- Unified icon button appearance in break window on all platforms
- Fix values of spin box and slider out of sync
- When there is break right after the pause, Sane Break now takes the duration of the next break into consideration to decide whether to regard the user has taken a break
0.8.3 06/02/2025
Features:
- Confirm postpone if long time no break
- Add lock screen and exit force break buttons
Bug fixes:
- Fix auto screen lock even if not idle after break
- Move notices to a separate window for better preference UI performance
- Improve preference UI in different languages
Minor changes:
- Avoid using `osascript` and accessibility permissions to lock screen on macOS
0.8.2 05/08/2025
Bug fixes:
- Fix seconds paused is not correctly reset
- Fix default message prompt not translated
Minor changes:
- Use macos workspace API to get running apps
- Update builds to Qt 6.9
0.8.1 04/15/2025
Features:
- Introduced custom color themes for break windows
- Added customizable break messages
- Added option to take a small break instead of a big break
- Optional tips to exit the application during forced breaks
Bug fixes:
- Enhanced minimum value settings for sliders and spin boxes
- Fixed menu background color inconsistencies in configuration
- Fixed unexpected autostart requests
- Fixed lock screen logic during breaks
0.8.0 04/13/2025
Bug fixes
- sound config mismatch
- set minimum for schedule in preference UI
Minor changes
- clarify transparency only affects countdown
- add ticks to flash speed config
0.7.1 04/02/2025
- allow setting app auto start from settings
- configurable postpone minutes
- configurable flash speed and text transparency
- improved rework preference UI, adding spin boxes and scrolls
- add French and Dutch translations
- quit is now in a separate menu entry
- make progress bar animation smooth
0.7.0 03/30/2025
Fix translation configuration
0.6.2 03/02/2025
Translation for zh is available
0.6.1 02/27/2025
Features
- split break theme settings by break type
Other improvements
- use font icons for break window buttons
- clarify break message wording
- translation update
more Version 0.10.7 Nov 4
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