How it was built
I built this timer by chatting. Here's every step.
No coding background. No late nights learning to program. Just me describing what I wanted, in plain English, and watching it come to life. Here are the actual sorts of things I asked for, so you can see how genuinely doable this is.
Step 1 · The idea, in a sentence
I didn't start with a plan or a drawing. I started by describing the feeling I wanted, a calm timer for editing, not a shouty productivity app. That's genuinely all it took to get going.
Can you build me a simple Pomodoro-style timer for editing photos? I want it to feel calm and warm, not like a shouty productivity app. It should have a work timer and a break timer.
Started a calm, browser-based timer with focus and break phases, a soft colour for each, and a big readable countdown. No accounts, it just runs.
Step 2 · Making it fit real edit days
A generic 25-minute timer isn't quite right for our work. So I asked for rhythms that match what photographers actually do, and described them the way I'd explain them to a friend.
Add a few presets. One for culling (25 mins on, 5 off), one for deep editing (50/10), and a short 15/3 sprint. Let me tap between them.
Added three presets as simple tabs. Selecting one resets the timer to that rhythm. Labelled them 'The Cull', 'Deep Edit' and 'Quick Sprint'.
Step 3 · The little touches
This is the bit I loved. I could ask for small, human details, a gentle sound, a calmer word for “break”, and see them appear moments later. No menus to hunt through, just a request.
When a timer finishes, play a soft, gentle chime, nothing harsh. And can we call the break 'Breathe' instead of 'Rest'? I want it to feel restful. Add a mute button too.
Added a soft sine-wave chime (with a mute toggle) and relabelled the break phase to 'Breathe'. The chime only plays after you press start, so it never surprises you.
Step 4 · Making it feel like mine
I wanted it to look like it belonged to The Co Lab, the same warm paper, the sage green, the calm circular progress ring. Again, I just described it.
Style it to match the rest of the site, warm off-white, sage green for the focus ring, and a warm clay colour for the breathe ring. Put a big circular progress ring around the countdown.
Wrapped the countdown in an SVG progress ring that empties as time passes, sage while focusing, warm clay on the breather, using the site's own brand colours.
Step 5 · Remembering your rhythm
Finally, a small quality-of-life ask: it should remember how I like it, without me having to sign in to anything.
Make it remember my chosen preset and count how many focus blocks I've done today, but keep it all on my own device, no login.
Saved the preset, session count and mute setting to the browser's local storage. Nothing leaves the device, and there's no account to create.
Step 6 · And then I kept building on it
Here's the part I love most: a tool is never really “done”. The moment real people started using the beta, the questions rolled in, can I set my own times? does my count carry over?, and each one was just another plain sentence away from being fixed.
Two tweaks from feedback: add a 'Custom' option so people can type their own focus and breathe minutes. And make the 'blocks today' count actually reset each day, saved on their device.
Added a Custom preset with two little number inputs, and made the daily count date-aware, it remembers on your device and starts fresh each morning. Both shipped to the beta.
That's the rhythm of building this way, ship something small and honest, listen, and keep nudging it forward.
Step 7 · Deciding what's free and what's Pro
The bigger question was where to draw the line between free and paid, and I wanted it to feel honest, not stingy. The free tool should be genuinely lovely; Pro should be for the things that make it truly yours.
Let's make 'set your working week' and weekly targets a Pro feature, not free, the free streak can just be a simple every-day one. Show a gentle Pro teaser in the app where the working-week settings would go.
Gated the working-week picker and targets behind a Pro flag, kept the free streak simple and every-day, and added a tasteful 'Pro, coming soon' teaser in the timer so people can see what's ahead without it feeling locked-down.
That's the ethos in one exchange: give generously for free, and keep the deeper, life-shaping bits, your real working week, targets, syncing everywhere, for Pro.
The build log
And it keeps evolving.
Every change since launch, newest first, tap any entry to read the thinking behind it.
LatestHonest streaks, and a Pro line for your working weekMost of us don't sit at a desk seven days a week. So streaks got more honest, and tailoring them became a Pro feature.
The free beta now keeps a simple every-day streak, kept on your device. Setting your real working week, so rest days don't break your streak, plus weekly targets to aim for, will live in Pro (alongside cross-device sync and full history). It felt like the honest line: the free tool is genuinely lovely, and Pro is for making it truly yours.
UpdateAdd to Home ScreenInstall it on your phone so it opens full-screen, like a proper app, with its own icon.
Added a web app manifest and icons, so on iPhone (Share → Add to Home Screen) or Android (menu → Add to Home screen) the timer launches chrome-free, just like a native app. No app store, no download.
UpdateStreaks & your weekA current streak and a seven-day glance, right in the timer, a gentle nudge, never a scoreboard.
Your daily blocks are now remembered on your device, powering a calm little seven-day bar chart and a current streak. Deliberately understated: encouragement, not pressure.
UpdateCustom durationsSet your own focus and breathe lengths, not just the presets.
Added a Custom option with simple number inputs, after feedback that everyone's ideal rhythm is a little different. Your custom times are remembered on your device.
LaunchThe first betaA calm, browser-based Pomodoro timer for cull-and-edit days, free, no account, nothing leaves your device.
The starting point: three presets (Cull, Deep Edit, Quick Sprint), a soft progress ring, a gentle chime and a 'Breathe' break. Built to reduce stress, not add to it.
That's the whole trick.
No jargon, no course, no computer-science degree. Just a series of plain-English requests and a bit of curiosity. If you've ever wished a tool existed, you're closer to making it than you think.