Can A Thermal Printer Cure ADHD?

August 6, 2025 by Tyler August 34 Comments

No, of course not. Per Betteridge’s law, that’s the answer to any headline with a question mark. On the other hand, while a thermal printer might not cure ADHD, it can help treat it — according to [Laurie Hérault], to the point of curing his procrastination habit. Even if you don’t have ADHD, you probably do procrastinate sometimes, so this hack is worth a look.

The printer itself is a key hardware portion of the hack, but the hack itself is purely organizational. [Laurie] started with post-its before adding automation. Before the post-it notes came a simple realization: [Laurie] could sit and play games for hours, but not buckle down for serious work for more than a few minutes, if he could even get started. (Who can’t relate?) That sent him down a rabbit hole reading about the psychology of what makes games so addictive — and the idea of “gamification” that was so popular in educational circles not long ago.

Unlike work, games give you a loop of unambiguous, instant, and continuous feedback to pump your dopamine circuits. [Laurie] uses the example of an FPS. You aim, you shoot — and either you miss, or you hit the target. Either way, there’s feedback. When you hit, your brain gives you dopamine. This fast loop of input -> feedback is what [Laurie] felt he was missing from his day.

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An ESP32 Pomodoro Timer

March 29, 2025 by Jenny List 15 Comments

The Pomdoro technique of time management has moved on a little from the tomato-shaped kitchen timer which gave it a name, as [Rukenshia] shows us with this nifty ESP32 and e-paper design. It’s relatively simple in hardware terms, being a collection of off-the-shelf modules in a 3D printed case, but the software has a custom interface for the friend it was built for.

At its heart is a NodeMCU board and a Waveshare display module, with a rotary encoder and addressable LED as further interface components. A lot of attention has been paid to the different options for the interface, and to make the front end displayed on the screen as friendly and useful as possible. Power comes via USB-C, something that should be available in most working environments here in 2025.

We’ve tried a variant on this technique for a while now with varying success, maybe because a mobile phone doesn’t make for as good a timer as a dedicated piece of hardware such as this. Perhaps we should follow this example. If we did, the Hackaday timer couldn’t possibly use an ESP32.

Hack On Self: Headphone Friend

December 4, 2024 by Arya Voronova 3 Comments

In the last two articles, I talked about two systems relying on audio notifications. The first one is the Alt-Tab annihilator system – a system making use of my window monitoring code to angrily beep at me when I’m getting distracted. The other is the crash prevention system – a small script that helps me avoid an annoying failure mode where I run out of energy before getting myself comfortable for it.

I’ve been appreciating these two systems quite a bit – not only are they at my fingertips, they’re also pretty effective. To this day, I currently use these two systems to help me stay focused as I hack on my own projects or write articles, and they are definitely a mainstay in my self-hacking arsenal.

There is a particular thing I’ve noticed – audio notifications help a fair bit in a way that phone or desktop notifications never would, and, now I have a framework to produce them – in a way that calls for a purpose-tailored device. It’s just wireless headphones, Pi-powered, connected through WiFi, and a library to produce sounds on my computer, but it turns out I can squeeze out a lot out of this simple combination.

Here’s a pocketable device I’ve developed, using off-the-shelf hardware – an audio receiver/transmitter with extra IO, paired to my laptop. And, here’s how I make use of this device’s capabilities to the fullest.

Audio Output

In the “producing sound out of a Pi” article, I’ve mentioned USB-C 3.5mm soundcards. You can use them with a USB-C host port, and you don’t even need any sort of resistors for that – the soundcard doesn’t try and detect state of the CC pin, and why would it, anyway? Get VBUS, GND, D+, and D-, and you got yourself an audio card with high quality output.

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A grey smartphone sits inside a sleeve made of light brown wood veneer and a black felt interior.

Wooden Smartphone Sleeve Keeps You On Task

January 31, 2023 by Navarre Bartz 2 Comments

Smartphones are amazing tools, but sometimes they can be an equally amazing time suck. In an effort to minimize how much precious time goes down the drain, [Lance Pan and Zeynep Kirmiziyesil] decided to make a functional and beautiful smartphone sleeve to keep you on task.

Most modern smartphones have some form of Do Not Disturb mode available, but having the phone visible can still be an invitation for distraction. By tucking the phone into an accessible but less visible sleeve, one can reduce the visual trigger to be on the phone while keeping it handy in the even of an emergency.

Once in the sleeve, the NFC tag sandwiched between the felt and wood veneer triggers an automation to put the phone into Do Not Disturb mode. This hack looks like something that you could easily pull off in an afternoon and looks great which is always a winning combination in our book.

To see some more focus-oriented hacks, checkout the Pomodachi or this Offline E-Paper Typewriter.

Organise Your Hacks With TreeSheets: An Open Source Hierarchical Spreadsheet

September 7, 2022 by Dave Rowntree 42 Comments

Some people may have heard of Dutch programmer [Wouter Van Oortmerssen] since he’s the creator of the Amiga-E programming language, as well as being involved with several game engines. Heard of SimCity? How about Borderlands 2 or Far Cry? Having had clearly a long and illustrious career as a programmer for a variety of clients — including a long stint at Google, working on Web Assembly — many people will be familiar with at least some of his work. But you may not have heard of his TreeSheets productivity tool. Which would be a shame, as you’ve been missing out on something pretty darn useful.

TreeSheets is described as a hierarchical spreadsheet, which is intended as a replacement for several distinct tools; think spreadsheets, mindmaps and text editors and similar. In [Wouter]’s words:

It’s like a spreadsheet, immediately familiar, but much more suitable for complex data because it’s hierarchical.
It’s like a mind mapper, but more organized and compact.
It’s like an outliner, but in more than one dimension.
It’s like a text editor, but with structure.

Having been in development for about a decade, TreeSheets might look a bit dated here and there, but the design is clear and distraction-free, which is exactly what you need when you’re trying to focus on the task in hand. Why not give it a try and see if it works for you? After the break, you can see a video tutorial by YouTube user [DrilixProject].

No strangers to productivity hacks, here’s Pomodachi, a cute pomodoro timer crossed with a Tamagotchi. Sometimes productivity isn’t solved with software tools, but more to do with your attitude to projects. Finally sometimes the route to greater productivity is a little closer to home, like inside your head.

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Pomodachi: A Productivity Pet You Feed By Working

August 14, 2021 by Kristina Panos 1 Comment

Being productive doesn’t have to be a lonely endeavor. Even if you’re a lone wolf, who wouldn’t benefit from having a cute little productivity pet to cheer them on? That’s the idea behind [droxpopuli]’s Pomodachi, which combines a hardware implementation of the Pomodoro technique with a virtual pet. It adds some fun, but doesn’t overly gamify time tracking to the point of distraction. And this is way more fun than just sticking a pair of googly eyes on a tomato-shaped timer.

Inside the box is an Adafruit HalloWing M4 Express and a NeoKey FeatherWing with two Kailh box white switches for a satisfying clack. [droxpopuli] printed up a PyPortal-inspired case and added a glass lens for a spiffy tube TV look.

Pomo himself is a cute little jack-o-lantern looking creature with a teddy bear face and no arms or legs. He could eat with his face, but prefers to be fed. That’s where you come in. You feed him by completing a set of four 20-minute work intervals.

Don’t worry about keeping track of time, because he does that for you and spends the time foraging for food. When it’s break time, Pomo lets you know and suggests an activity. This is when you press the button and feed him. If your productivity begins to flag a bit, don’t freak out — there’s a multiplier for catching up, and you have seven chances before Pomo runs away forever.

The Pomodoro Technique is pretty great for productivity, and it’s versatile, too. Here’s a hydration-based Pomodoro that will flood your desk if you don’t drink enough water.

[via Hackaday.io]

Nissan’s Office Pod Concept Is A Productivity Paradise On Wheels

February 28, 2021 by Kristina Panos 40 Comments

All this working from home is pretty great, but we have to admit that we miss packing up the Hackaday office and heading for the local coffeehouse once in a while to spend a few hours writing against the buzzing background. One thing we don’t miss about the experience is that you’re never guaranteed a place to sit and spread out. And unless you trust a friendly stranger to keep an eye on your stuff while you’re in the bathroom, you have to take it with you at the risk of losing your table.

If only we could afford one of Nissan’s mobile office pod concept vehicles. We’ve always wanted to pretend we’re doing surveillance and would probably have the thing wrapped with graphics for a fake flower shop or something. That would certainly make it easier to park somewhere and borrow someone’s open Wi-Fi network — maybe even from the coffeehouse parking lot after we hit the drive-thru.

As you’ll see in the extended tour video below, Nissan seem to have thought of everything except restroom facilities. The cab-over-engine design and all-terrain tires would make it easier to drive out into nature and really get away from it all. Once you’ve found the perfect spot, you can open the lift gate for some fresh air, or get some sun while you work by pulling out the motorized unibody-constructed cubicle which includes a built-in Herman Miller Cosm chair. (Evidently the Aeron is old and busted now; we disagree). For some reason, the cubicle is edge-lit, and not in a way that would help you work at the desk. According to the video, it’s based on the Caravan NV350, which looks far more comfortable but not as cool when outfitted as an alternate mobility concept.

The office pod has some nice amenities like a DC-AC converter so you can run your Keurig or Nespresso, and there’s even a UV-disinfecting lamp in the glove box. The larger windows behind the cab can be electronically shaded so you don’t bake in the sun. Here’s where things get a bit ridiculous: the floor is made of clear polycarbonate in case you want to park lengthwise over a small stream and watch the surviving fish go by underneath your feet. And if you really want to take a break, climb up to the roof deck and stretch out in the chaise lounge beneath the deck umbrella.

If we lived anywhere but America, we might forego the flower shop graphics wrap and dress it up to look like a TV detector van instead.

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