Support

How it works, and where to write.

Get in touch

Bugs, questions, and requests all go to [email protected]. Bottou is made by one person, so replies take as long as they take, but every message is read.

Where's the pause button?

There isn't one, and there won't be. Pause would let you step away, come back, and still call the block unbroken — which would make every number in the app a little bit false. If your attention breaks, stop the block. Sitting back down starts a new one, and the gap between them gets counted as a break.

I forgot to stop the timer.

You can trim the end time to when you actually stopped. You can only ever shorten a block, never extend it, and the start time isn't editable — otherwise the log becomes something you author rather than something you record.

My block disappeared.

Anything under 60 seconds is discarded as a misclick. If you really did focus for less than a minute, Bottou isn't going to be much use to you.

How should I rate my focus?

On attention, not output. The question is how present you were, not how much you produced — a short block you were locked into is a 5, and a long block you kept dragging yourself back to is a 2. Rating on output would just make the scale a second, worse measure of duration.

Why is everything shown against a previous period?

Because a lone average tells you nothing. "47 minutes" isn't information; "47 minutes, up 6 from last month" is. The movement is the whole point — Bottou is built to be read over weeks, not to be won today.

Why can't I write a reflection for last month?

Reflections are open for today and the previous six days, then they close. A reflection written a month later isn't a reflection, it's a reconstruction.

Syncing between my iPhone and Mac

Create an account in Settings and sign in on both devices. An account is optional — the app works fully without one, and everything stays local until you make one.

Deleting your account or data

Deleting the app removes everything stored on your device. Account deletion is available in the app and removes your account and everything synced with it from the server, permanently. See the privacy policy for the full detail.