[This post was recovered from the old blog, thanks to being cross-posted on Reddit.]

I’m pleased to announce the general release of an update of Time Out, my popular break reminder tool.

Version 2.9 includes several great enhancements, including a status message in the sidebar to indicate why a break was skipped etc, the ability to schedule and exclude breaks using calendar events, support for Monterey focus, an option to hide the Pause function, new break options to pause or reset an individual break, and much more.

Read on for details.

Added a status message to the breaks in the sidebar

• The break items in the sidebar now display a status message, e.g. to indicate that the break has been postponed or skipped.

• When a break is skipped or postponed due to an app exclusion, the app name is included.

• So if you ever wonder why a break didn’t occur as expected, look at this status message.

Added the ability to schedule breaks using calendar events

• A new Calendar option is now available in the From pop-up menu on the Break Schedule page.

• If chosen, a pop-up menu of your calendars, and a field to filter on event text is displayed.

• The first time this is chosen, the app will prompt for permission to access your calendars.

• When using this option, Time Out will look at the specified calendar for events containing the specified text, and start a break at the start of the event, and finish at the end.

• If the event text filter field is left blank, all events will be used; specify something else to use the same calendar for multiple breaks.

• Multiple values can be entered in the filter field, separated by commas, e.g. “break, lunch, snack”.

• A reload button is available to reset the due date, if you edit the events.

• Since the calendar controls the duration, frequency, and availability of the break, those controls are disabled.

• This feature is available as a reward for current supporters; others can try it for an hour at a time.

Added an Exclusions option to skip breaks when busy on the calendar

• A new Also skip breaks during calendar events option is now available on the Exclusionspage.

• If chosen, a pop-up menu of your calendars, and a field to filter on event text is displayed.

• The first time this is chosen, the app will prompt for permission to access your calendars.

• When using this option, Time Out will look at the specified calendar for events containing the specified text, and skip a due break if it would fall within an event.

• As with calendar scheduling, if the event text filter field is left blank, all events on that calendar will be used; specify something else to only skip some of the events.

• Multiple values can be entered in the filter field, separated by commas, e.g. “meeting, 1-on-1, planning”.

• This feature is available as a reward for current supporters; others can try it for an hour at a time.

Support for Monterey focus

• Renamed the Exclusions option to skip breaks during Do Not Disturb to focus, Apple’s new name for it in Monterey.

• The first time this option is enabled, the app will prompt to get permission to look at the focus state.

• If declined, you can enable it via System Preferences ▸ Security & Privacy ▸ User Availability.

• This feature will still work with the old Do Not Disturb state from previous macOS versions.

Added an Advanced option to hide the Pause function

• Sometimes it can be very difficult to resist the temptation to pause Time Out to avoid breaks, even though you know you shouldn’t.

• So for people who don’t want the Pause function, there is now an option on the Advanced page to hide it.

• This feature is available as a reward for current supporters; others can try it for an hour at a time.

New break options to pause or reset an individual break

• Added a Pause Break or Resume Break command to the break options menus. So a break can be paused independent of other breaks.

• The Pause Break menu item can be chosen to pause indefinitely, or choose a shorter time from the submenu.

• This is of course not included if the new Advanced option to hide pause is active.

• Also added a Reset Break command to these menus. This will start the work period again from now, just for this break.

But wait, there’s more!

• Fixed the Flash Screen break action on Apple silicon Macs. It now uses the built-in screen flash, so doesn’t have color or duration options.

• Fixed the Fadeout Sound break action not showing the fade out time interval field.

• Updated the Stop Screensaver break action script.

• Breaks due on future days are no longer adjusted when having a natural break (idle).

• When resetting a From: Fixed Time break, the next due time now respects the fixed time.

• Break names are now cleaned up to avoid invalid characters that can cause saving the break to fail.

• Updated the Exclusions to remove DVD Player, and change FaceTime, Photo Booth, and QuickTime Player to include “System” in their paths.

• For new folks, the exclusions for Zoom are now When Frontmost, to avoid a common support query. Existing data is not changed, in case you like them When Open.

• The Pause All Breaks menu item can now be chosen to pause indefinitely, instead of needing to choose that from the submenu.

• When paused indefinitely, the status item text now shows “–“.

• Improved the highlighting of the status item rows.

• Hidden a couple of rarely-used diagnostic logging options.

• Fixed a performance issue where the app could use more CPU than it should in some unusual circumstances.

• Time Out now requires a minimum of macOS Catalina (10.15).

Want to try it?

If you are using the Mac App Store edition, you can update via the App Store app.

Similarly, if you are using the Setapp edition, it will handle that update for you.

If you are using the direct edition, you can use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

Otherwise, download Time Out 2.9 now!