Counts real work, not wall-clock
The timer only moves while you're actually typing or moving the mouse. Reading, calls and thinking time past the idle threshold don't count against you.
The break enforcer for Windows
You know you should take breaks. Now you actually will.
StopBurnout watches how long you've actually been working — and when you hit your limit, it locks every screen behind a full-screen break that's genuinely hard to skip. Step away, recover, come back sharper.
No account · No tracking
Free 14-day trial · then $9 once, yours forever · Windows 10/11
Working
Password-locked
Time until break
60:00
of 60 min limit
Work this session17:43
Breaks today3
Today's work4h 52m
Early unlocks0
0/0
default rhythm — minutes of focus, minutes of enforced break
0
protection levels, from a friendly nudge to No way out
0
accounts, servers and trackers — everything stays on your PC
0s
state autosave — a reboot mid-break resumes exactly where it was
What it does
Willpower is a bad API. This is enforcement.
Every break app can remind you. StopBurnout is built for the moment you'd normally click "just 5 more minutes" — and takes that button away.
Stepping away rewinds the timer
Time away from the keyboard is credited back as recovery. A long lunch resets your session — the countdown literally goes back up while you rest.
A break you can't alt-tab away
A borderless, always-on-top overlay covers every monitor, swallows Alt+F4, and follows you across virtual desktops. There is no free desktop to escape to.
A password you can give away
Let a partner or friend set the password. In locked modes it's the only way to end a break early or weaken your settings — and in No way out, even the password won't end a running break.
Local-only, by principle
No account, no network, no telemetry. It reads one thing — how long ago your last input was — never what you typed. Everything lives in a SQLite file on your disk.
History that sticks
Daily totals, weekly breakdowns, all-time averages — plus a 24-hour timeline of every day. Written to disk every second, so restarts, sleep and reboots never lose a minute.
Protection levels
Choose how hard "no" means no
Three modes, from a polite tap on the shoulder to a door with no handle. You pick the level of trust you deserve today.
Notification
A corner notification announces each break. Nothing blocks your screen — whether you actually stop is up to you. The only mode where enforcement can be paused.
Way out: nothing to escape — it's on you
Password-locked
Mandatory full-screen break on every monitor. Thirty seconds in, a dim "unlock early" link appears — ending the break takes your password. The password also guards settings.
Way out: the password, 30 seconds in
No way out
No skip, no unlock link — the password doesn't work on a running break either. That refusal is enforced in the core engine, not hidden in the UI.
Way out: none. The break ends when the timer does.
Every emergency unlock is logged locally — time, mode, remaining break — so you can't quietly lie to yourself about how often you bail.
How it works
Work. Get locked out. Come back better.
01
The ring fills only while you actually work
Every second, the engine checks when your last keyboard or mouse input was. Active work fills the ring toward your limit; going idle past the threshold winds it back down.
- Locking your PC (Win+L) counts as recovery too
- A long enough pause resets the session to zero
- Five minutes before the limit, you get a heads-up warning
02
At the limit, every screen locks
A borderless, always-on-top overlay covers all monitors with a countdown, a suggestion, and one of fifty rotating quotes. It cancels close attempts, swallows Alt+F4, and re-appears on whatever virtual desktop you flee to.
- Break length is wall-clock — typing doesn't end it early
- The "unlock early" link stays hidden for the first 30 seconds — dim, slow and logged
- Unplugging a monitor mid-break? The overlay rebuilds instantly
03
Watch the habit become a record
Work and pause totals are written to disk every second and archived per day. Statistics shows today, the last 7 days, weekly totals and your all-time averages — and the Timeline replays any day hour by hour: work, breaks, idle, even when the app wasn't running.
- "Today's work time" never lies — idle time can't inflate it
- The Timeline shows when what happened — down to every early unlock
- History survives restarts, sleep and reboots — your data, your disk, forever
Screens
Dark, calm, and honest
The whole app in five screens. Drag or scroll sideways.
Live demo
Feel the lock — right here
This page can't lock your PC (that's the app's job), but it can show you exactly what a break feels like. Pick a mode, start a 30-second break, and try to get out.
Demo only — the real overlay is full-screen on every monitor, swallows Alt+F4, and doesn't have an Esc key.
While you rest, the overlay keeps you company
"Rest is not idleness — it's how your mind files away everything you just did."
The way out is deliberately dim
"unlock early" — small, grey, in the corner, and only after 30 seconds
From the overlay
Fifty quotes stand between you and your keyboard
"Rest is not idleness — it's how your mind files away everything you just did."
"The best debugger is a short walk."
"A tired mind mistakes motion for progress."
"Your shoulders are probably up by your ears right now. Let them drop."
"Machines overheat. So do people. Cooling off is engineering, not laziness."
"Drink some water. Seriously — right now."
"No one ever solved a hard problem by blinking less."
"Burnout is not a badge of honor. Rest is not a weakness."
"An idea in the shower is worth ten at the desk."
"This break is not an interruption of the work. It is part of the work."
Pricing
Try it free. Then pay once.
The full app, free for 14 days — no account, no credit card. Like it? A one-time license unlocks it for good, and the earlier you buy, the less you pay.
Free 14-day trial
StopBurnout 1.0.0 · Windows 10/11 · x64
$0 for 14 days — the complete app, nothing crippled
- Everything included — all three modes, statistics, timeline
- No account, no card — the trial simply starts on first run
- No installer — extract the zip, run
StopBurnout.App.exe
After 14 days the work timer pauses until a license is entered — a break already in progress always finishes. Your settings and history stay put.
Lifetime license
Unlocks the app after the trial — bought once, yours for good
$9 one-time then
— left at this price · Early bird
- Lifetime license — a one-time payment, no subscription, ever
- All updates included — every improvement and milestone, free
- Two machines — one key activates up to 2 of your PCs
- Instant delivery — the key arrives right after checkout, by email too
- Still private — one activation call registers the machine, then the app never phones home
Secure checkout by Stripe · cards, Apple Pay & Google Pay
- Buy — checkout takes under a minute
- Copy the key from the confirmation page or email
- Activate in the app: Settings → License → email + key
Early buyers fund the roadmap — like the background service that makes locked breaks truly unskippable. Your price is locked the moment you buy; it only ever goes up for the people after you.
FAQ
Fair questions, straight answers
Can't I just kill it in Task Manager?
Today — yes, and that's deliberate honesty: the overlay resists close attempts and Alt+F4, but StopBurnout will never block Task Manager, the Win key or Ctrl+Alt+Del. Software that fights the OS is malware behavior, and this app must never cross that line. A background service that instantly relaunches the overlay if the app is killed mid-break is the next milestone — turning "hard to skip" into "genuinely unskippable" without ever touching the OS.
What does it track, exactly?
One number: how many milliseconds ago your last keyboard or mouse input happened (via the Windows GetLastInputInfo API). It never sees which keys, which apps, or what's on screen. There's no account and no telemetry — all data lives in a local SQLite file you can delete anytime. The app touches the network exactly once, ever: activating a license sends your email, your key and an anonymous machine hash to stopburnout.app, and from then on everything is verified offline.
How does the free trial work?
Download, extract, run — the 14-day trial starts on first run, with the complete app: every mode, statistics, the timeline. No account, no credit card, no crippled features. When it ends, the work timer pauses until you enter a license (a break already in progress always finishes), and your settings and history stay exactly where they were.
I watch long videos / sit in calls. Won't it think I'm away?
Possibly — no input past the idle threshold counts as recovery and rewinds the work timer. If that annoys you, raise the idle threshold (up to 10 minutes) in Settings so quiet stretches still count as work. It errs on the side of giving you credit for rest, not stealing credit for work.
What's the password for?
Accountability you can't negotiate with at 11 pm. A password is set during setup — ideally by someone you trust, so you can't simply type it yourself. In Password-locked mode it's the only way to end a break early (via a dim "unlock early" link that appears 30 seconds in), and in both locked modes every settings change requires it. And a break that's already running can't be reconfigured away — the overlay blocks Settings anyway.
What happens if my PC reboots in the middle of a break?
The break resumes exactly where it was. The unlock moment is stored as a fixed timestamp and all state is saved every second, so restarts, crashes and sleep don't shorten a break by a single minute.
"No way out" mode — seriously, no way out at all?
None. No skip button, no unlock link, and the password is refused on a running break — that refusal is enforced in the core engine, not just hidden in the UI. The break ends when the timer ends. Pick No way out only if that's genuinely what you want from yourself.
Why does the price go up over time?
It's early-supporter pricing: the first 100 licenses cost $9, then the price steps up automatically as more people buy. Early buyers take the most risk on a young product, so they pay the least — and every tier funds the roadmap (next up: the background service that makes locked breaks truly unskippable). Whatever you pay, your license is lifetime; the increases only ever apply to people after you.
What exactly do I get for the one-time payment?
A lifetime license key and every future update — no subscription, no upsells, no "pro" tier. One key activates up to 2 of your machines. And buying barely changes the privacy story: activation is a single call that registers an anonymous machine hash, and after that the app runs 100% locally and never phones home.
How does the 2-machine limit work?
When you activate, the app sends your email, key and an anonymous hash of your machine to stopburnout.app, which counts activations per key — up to 2 — and returns a token bound to that machine. Verification after that is fully offline, and re-activating the same machine (reinstall, wiped database) never costs a second slot. Replaced a PC? Write to hello@stopburnout.app and we'll free the old slot.
Your work can wait ten minutes. Your health can't wait years.
Download it free, set your rhythm once, and let the machine hold the line your willpower won't. Fourteen days later you'll know if it's worth $9 — once, forever.