Boxer

Boxer is a small utility application that runs commands on a given interval and steps within that interval. For example, I may want to have my computer make a tick noise every five minutes but make a beep every hour.

This application is still in early development but it's meant to be configurable so you can run any script on a given step or interval.

History

I've been intrigued by time management techniques for a long time but I haven't found any traditional approaches work well for me. The Pomodoro technique is the most famous timeboxing technique and I've found limited success with it. It requires that I plan what I'm going to do in the future and it has me take breaks every 25 minutes. I find that too restrictive since I sometimes have to jump on an ad hoc IM and I sometimes like to work for several hours without taking a break.

The best solution I've found is to do reverse timeboxing. Instead of planning for the next half hour, I simply write down what I did for the previous half hour. This helps me do several things. First, I can see what I did during the day. Some days it feels like I didn't accomplish anything but when I look back at my list I can see all the little tasks. Second, it gives me a way to check in frequently to make sure that I'm not focusing on a task for too long. For example, I might think I can add a small feature in 30 minutes but sometimes several hours go by and I'm in a rabbit hole. Checking in helps prevent that.

Reverse timeboxing has been great... when I do it. Unfortunately, it still requires that I remember to write down something every half hour. So I decided to build a tool that helps remind me of these intervals and gives me a way to visualize the steps within these intervals. Thus, box was born.

Usage

To install, simply run go get from the command line:

$ go get github.com/benbjohnson/boxer/...

Next you'll need to set up a configuration file. Copy the boxer.sample.conf to boxer.conf in your home directory and adjust settings as needed.

Then run boxer:

$ boxer

The default configuration will enable the wallpaper module which updates your desktop background in 1 minute increments and restarts every 15 minutes on the quarter hour. The menu bar will also cycle between dark mode and light mode every 5 minutes and flash every 15 minutes.