SILO Focus and Study Timer

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*update* Thank you dev for responding. I have raised the my rating from my original 1-star because I believe it is something with Apples software that is causing the bug. The symptom I have originally described has happened with other apps as well, not just yours. Basically the only fix is uninstalling and reinstalling again... unfortunately it just stops working randomly and the only fix is uninstalling and reinstalling again which is a real hassle. Again this is happening with a lot of timer apps including fitness timers on my watch not just yours. The fix is always uninstall and reinstall. My next step in trouble shooting is completely resetting my watch and downloading everything again. *Original review* I am getting neither a notification nor haptic feedback after the end of work or break times on my Apple Watch series 1 with IP7+. I used to get both haptic feedback and notification every time. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling yet this didn't work.

The most recent update did the trick--I haven't had a problem of any sort. Kudos to the developer for being so responsive and quick to find a fix. I use this app everyday. It's simple and impossible to get distracted by (with the update), which is ideal if you're easily side-tracked like me. It's also way more customizable than some of the other apps I looked at. I'm going to leave my original review to draw attention to the developer's attentiveness. Increased from 4 stars to 5. **Original** This is a simple and effective app that does what I want it to. Most of the time. The most recent update has fixed the crazy end-of-cycle bug that previous reviews mentioned for about 50% of the time. Completing a cycle now induces the equal parts of panic and adrenaline of a game of roulette--rather than the previous sense of impending doom. It's not a totally catastrophic bug anymore, just quite annoying. It seems, however, that the most recent update wrecked havoc on the haptic feedback tap marking each focus/break transition. It's the primary reason I chose this time tracker over others. My hope is that the developer, who seems fairly responsive to reviews, can rectify the haptic bug quickly. Bearing in mind the unfortunate haptic hiccup of the most recent update (and the moderate success of the other bug's fix), I nevertheless recommend this app to folks looking for an efficient, customizable tool for time management.

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Despite removing and reinstalling the app , this app is buggy and inconsistent. Some days it works, others it doesn’t. At the start of most days, before I’ve even used the app, the Apple Watch version claims I’ve already done 1.5 hours of work which a obviously untrue. I don’t care about tracking daily totals so this isn’t a big deal but this is probably frustrating to those who do use such a feature. The various Apple Watch complications often don’t refresh the time remaining in a session which defeats the point of raising the watch to monitor the time remaining. These should update instantly, like any other complication. Often the Apple Watch doesn’t vibrate when it’s supposed to despite having “prominent haptic feedback” enabled and the vibration pattern often isn’t very strong anyways. A suggestion for a future update might be to allow configuration of different vibration patterns as the same vibration patterns as every other Watch app are easy to ignore. Perhaps even differentiate between working sessions and break sessions? I use “silent mode” and “do not disturb” on my iPhone when working however the Apple Watch should still vibrate unless in theatre mode.

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Giving 3 stars as benefit of doubt but I got no haptic or audio alert when finished on first use. Also, if you glance at the screen it takes about 2 seconds to update the remaining time. I've had both of these issues with other Pomodoro apps. I'm now convinced that WatchOS just can't handle a simple third-party timer app, as nobody can seem to make one. Back to using an app on my phone, as the push alert goes to the watch just fine.

My first exposure to the timed break technique was as a quintet of ten minute + two minute work-break periods per hour. Silo works well as a Watch-implementation for that, and even supports the 52+17 period that Nicholas Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts, and Zhichun Jenny Ying found most effective in their 2013 experiments. Pause, resume, skip are all on the wrist. Less risk of distraction from Watch than from iOS, too.