Eye Rest

I'm a Mac dev and my eyes hurt by mid-afternoon. I knew the 20-20-20 rule (every 20 min, look 20 ft away for 20 sec) and could never stick to it. I tried three or four break-reminder apps and quit all of them within a week — they did what they promised, I just found the interruption annoying and turned it off.

The insight that unstuck me: people don't abandon break apps for missing features, they abandon them because the break itself is a chore. So instead of a better nag, I built a break I'd actually want. When it's time to rest, the Mac fades into a hand-painted scene (six of them, chosen by time of day) for the 20 seconds — a gentle heads-up first, free skip/snooze, and it pauses itself during video calls and browser video.

Tech: native SwiftUI, menu-bar, no Electron, so it stays tiny. I'm betting the whole thing on beauty-as-retention, which is either the smartest or dumbest positioning for a utility. Free to start; Pro is $14.99 once, no subscription.

Would love feedback from other indies — especially whether "the break you look forward to" lands or sounds like fluff. https://eyesrest.app