Memento Mori
A focus timer with a heavier sense of finitude. Instead of a Pomodoro count, the screen shows roughly how many productive hours you have left in your statistical lifetime. Built to make us feel a little uncomfortable about how we spend afternoons.
The why
Standard productivity apps optimize for tasks per day. Memento Mori asks a different question: what does it look like to confront how much time you actually have?
The Stoics had memento mori as a daily practice. A literal reminder that you will die, used not as morbidity but as clarity. We wanted to see what that practice looks like as software.
The approach
Instead of showing "25 minutes left in this session," the timer surfaces "10,847 productive hours left in your statistical lifetime." Inputs: your age, average sleep, expected retirement, and your honest estimate of focused-work fraction. Output: a number that gets smaller every session.
The math is brutal but accurate. We didn't soften it. The whole point is to not soften it.
What we learned
People don't actually want to feel uncomfortable about their time. The app got high engagement among users who already had a focus-app habit, and felt punishing for casual users.
The right framing for a wide audience is encouragement. The right framing for the right audience is honesty. Both can be useful tools. They're different products.
Status
Shipped to a small audience. Still used by the small group of people who want this specific kind of accountability. No plans to expand.