Menu bar timer for macOS
Focus in rounds. Get nudged to stand, drink, rest your eyes and stretch.
Enalla is a pomodoro timer that lives in your menu bar. A nudge starts as a small change to the icon, never as a window over your work. Free on the Mac App Store.
macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Free download · Enalla Full $4.99 once
The popover: focus ring, the round count and a nudge card. Nothing opens over your screen.
Why break apps get switched off
Most reminders interrupt. So people turn them off.
Enalla was built around the three complaints people give before they uninstall a break app.
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01
It pops up at the worst moment
A full screen block in the middle of a thought is the main reason people skip or quit. Enalla never blocks the screen. The first nudge is a menu bar icon change and a card in the popover.
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02
Too many notifications
A nudge only becomes a notification if you ignore it for 90 seconds, and even then it is a passive one. Nudges due near a break wait for the break, so you get one pause, not five pings.
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03
Two apps for one desk
A pomodoro app that ignores your back, and a break app with no timer. Enalla is one native app with the focus cycle and four health nudges in the same popover.
How it works
The whole app, in four steps.
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01
Start a round
Open the popover from the menu bar and press play, or space. 25 minutes of focus, a 5 minute break, a 15 minute long break every 4 rounds. All adjustable.
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02
A nudge arrives quietly
During focus, when it is time to stand, drink, rest your eyes or stretch, the menu bar icon changes and a card appears in the popover. Press Done, or Later to snooze it for 10 minutes.
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03
Ignored? It waits, then asks once
After 90 seconds (30 to 600, your choice) it becomes a passive macOS notification. It goes through the system, so Focus and Do Not Disturb apply.
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04
Breaks collect the nudges
A nudge due within 5 minutes of a break folds into that break and shows as a suggestion on the break card. Step away for 3 minutes and focus pauses by itself.
What else it does
Small, native and out of your way.
Enalla is a menu bar app. No Dock icon, no main window, no account.
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Four nudges, your intervals
Sit/stand every 30 minutes, water every 45, eyes every 20, stretch every 60 by default. Each one has its own switch and interval. Free keeps one of them, Enalla Full turns on all four.
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Idle pause
No keyboard or mouse input for 3 minutes pauses the focus timer. Time away never counts as focus, and the app needs no permission to notice. Press play to carry on.
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Time in the menu bar
See the time left next to the glyph, or hide it and keep just the icon. Sounds for phase changes can be turned off.
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Launch at login
One switch in Settings. Enalla starts with your Mac and sits in the menu bar until you need it.
Where the defaults come from
Intervals based on published studies. Every one adjustable.
The default intervals follow what the research suggests for desk work. They are starting points, not medical advice: change any of them in Settings.
| Nudge | Default | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Sit/stand | Every 30 min | A 2025 Griffith University trial found a fixed 30 minutes sitting, 15 standing pattern beat self chosen ratios for back discomfort, stress and concentration. University of Waterloo guidance puts the sit to stand ratio between 1:1 and 1:3. Griffith University University of Waterloo |
| Eyes | Every 20 min | The 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Direct evidence for the exact numbers is thin, but frequent short screen breaks are well supported. 20-20-20 rule explained |
| Stretch | Every 60 min, plus every break | A 2022 systematic review in Cogent Engineering found 2 to 3 minutes of light movement every 30 minutes came with no loss of productivity. Pomodoro breaks every 25 minutes already cover most of this, so the standalone nudge is hourly. Systematic review (DOAJ) |
| Water | Every 45 min | There is no strong study on how often a reminder should fire. 45 minutes is a conservative default; set your own. |
Enalla is not a medical device and makes no health claims. If you have a condition that affects how long you should sit or stand, follow your clinician, not an app.
Privacy
Nothing leaves your Mac.
Enalla has no networking code and runs inside the App Sandbox with no network entitlement. There is no account, no sign in and no analytics in the app. Your settings stay in your Mac’s user defaults.
- No network calls: the app cannot reach the internet
- No account, no email, nothing to sign up for
- Idle detection uses the system input timer, which needs no permission
- Notifications go through macOS, so Focus and Do Not Disturb are respected
Pricing
Free to download. One price to unlock everything.
Free
The full timer plus one nudge of your choice
$0 forever
Included
- Full pomodoro timer: focus, short and long break, rounds, auto start
- One nudge of your choice: posture, water, eyes or stretch, with its own interval
- Idle pause, gentle escalation, sounds, time in the menu bar
- Launch at login
- Every setting stays on your Mac
Free forever · macOS 14 Sonoma or later
Enalla Full
One in app purchase, paid once
$4.99 once
Everything in Free, plus
- All four nudges at once: posture, water, eyes and stretch
- Each nudge keeps its own switch and interval
- Several nudges due near a break fold into one break
- Paid once, no subscription
- All 1.x updates included
- Restore button in Settings
Unlock in the app
Download the free app, then unlock Enalla Full from Settings. Apple handles the payment and any refund. Apple's refund page.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly
Does Enalla ever block or blur my screen?
No. A nudge changes the menu bar icon and shows a card in the popover. If you ignore it for 90 seconds it becomes a passive macOS notification. There is no overlay, no blur and no lock.
Will it interrupt a call or a presentation?
Enalla does not detect meetings. It relies on macOS. A nudge is a passive notification, so Focus and Do Not Disturb silence it. The notification at the end of a round is marked time sensitive, so it can show during a Focus unless you turn that off for Enalla in System Settings. The menu bar icon change is always silent.
What is free and what does Enalla Full add?
The free app has the complete pomodoro timer, idle pause, gentle escalation, sounds, menu bar time, launch at login and one health nudge of your choice. Enalla Full, $4.99 once, turns on all four nudges at the same time.
Is it a subscription?
No. Enalla Full is a single in app purchase on the Mac App Store, paid once. It includes all 1.x updates.
Can I change the intervals?
Yes. Focus, short break, long break and rounds per long break are adjustable, and so is each nudge interval and the 90 second escalation delay (30 to 600 seconds). Idle pause can be turned off or set to a different number of minutes.
How does idle pause work?
Enalla reads the number of seconds since your last keyboard or mouse event, a value macOS exposes without any permission. After 3 minutes without input during focus, the timer pauses and the popover says so. Press play, or space in the popover, to carry on.
Does Enalla collect any data?
No. The app has no networking code and runs in the App Sandbox without a network entitlement, so it cannot send anything anywhere. There is no account and no analytics in the app. This website counts visits in a cookieless way, described in the privacy policy.
How do refunds work?
Enalla is sold only through the Mac App Store, so Apple handles every refund. Open reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with the Apple Account you bought with, and choose the purchase. Apple decides and pays the refund. Apple's refund page .
I bought Enalla Full and it shows as locked on another Mac
Open Settings in Enalla, go to Reminders and press Restore Purchases while signed in to the same Apple Account. The same button is in the Free edition row of the popover. The unlock follows your Apple Account, not the Mac.
What does it need to run?
macOS 14 Sonoma or later. It is a small menu bar app with no Dock icon.
Start your next round with your back, eyes and water bottle in mind.
Free on the Mac App Store · Enalla Full $4.99 once · macOS 14 Sonoma or later