Your brain
wants to skip.
Make it earn it.
Every break reminder has a 90% skip rate. MoveFlow uses 7 behavioral psychology mechanisms to make skipping harder than moving.
macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon & Intel · Free & open source
7🔥Break timers don't fail because of bad timing.
They fail because of your brain.
Your present-moment self always prioritizes comfort over health. A simple "skip" button is a gift to the part of your brain that optimizes for right now — not for your 80-year-old self.
Stretchly, Time Out, and every other break app give you a frictionless exit. That's not a design flaw — it's a psychology failure.
Research suggests — observational data on sedentary time and all-cause mortality.
Each skip costs progressively more.
Five tiers of escalating friction. From effortless to impossible.
Not a timer. A behavioral intervention engine.
Each mechanism is grounded in peer-reviewed behavioral science. Together, they make skipping cost more than moving.
Progressive Skip Friction
First skip is free. Second asks why. Third requires typing. Fourth demands a 60-second wait. Your brain learns: skipping costs more than moving.
Streak Loss Aversion
Humans fear loss 2× more than they value gains. MoveFlow shows your active streak and makes breaking it feel viscerally painful.
Morning Precommitment
Choose your commitment level before willpower depletes. Gentle, Normal, or Warrior mode — a contract with your future self.
Circadian Awareness
Gentler nudges in the morning. Aggressive reminders post-lunch when your body crashes. Adapts to your biological rhythm.
Meeting-Aware Scheduling
Camera on? Mic active? Calendar event? MoveFlow detects meetings with confidence-weighted signals and silently postpones breaks.
Snooze Budget
Five snoozes per day. Visual dots in menu bar drain as you use them. Regenerate one by completing a break. Scarcity creates value.
Ulysses Contract
Named after Odysseus who tied himself to the mast. Warrior mode locks in your commitment — you can't downgrade mid-day.
Three steps. Zero willpower.
Install & choose your mode
Download, drag to Applications. Pick your commitment level: Gentle, Normal, or Warrior. This is your Ulysses Contract.
Work. MoveFlow watches.
Sits silently in your menu bar. Detects meetings, tracks idle time, adjusts to your circadian rhythm. You forget it's there.
Move, or face the friction
Full-screen overlay with a guided exercise. Want to skip? The progression engine makes each skip cost more than the last.
The right break at the right time.
Eye rest — the 20-20-20 rule. Look 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Stand, stretch, walk. Guided exercises tailored to desk workers.
Bodyweight exercises: squats, push-ups, lunges. Elevate heart rate.
Full movement session. Walk outside, stretch routine, active recovery.
Zero data leaves your machine.
MoveFlow runs 100% locally. No accounts, no analytics, no telemetry, no cloud. Your break data stays on your Mac in ~/Library/Application Support/MoveFlow/
Stop negotiating with your sedentary brain.
MoveFlow is free, open source, and respects your privacy. The only thing it fights is your urge to sit.