jonDowdle/TaskLights

Better Timeboxing with Lights

Task Lights

Like music, light (color) is an excellent source of information that the brain can process in the background. A more structured signal, like a clock or count down timer (24:13 minutes) requires our eyes to first shift focus to the location of the information, and then perform a further mental calculation to reason about the time you’ve spent on a task. All that extra thinking can be disruptive of our work.

Simply having the light on is a strong and constant environmental cue that you have a task that you need to complete. The color helps you be aware of your state: (getting started, need to really work, ok — wrap it up time is almost done). Fun trick, try reading this text and see the light in the picture below. Now, what about that 24:13 timer?

##Instructions for installing on Linux (tested on 14.04 LTS 64-bit):

1. Setting up environment

• Seting up basic requirements:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git make vim python-dev python-pip
sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev

• Setting up USB library:

sudo apt-get install libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libfox-1.6-dev

2. Installing Node.js:

• See tutorial here for other ways:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.16.1/install.sh | sh
source ~/.profile
nvm ls-remote
nvm install v0.12.0
nvm use 0.12.0
node -v
# See where installed
which node

You may want to add nvm use 0.12.0 add the end of your .bashrc/.profile

3. Change directory to src and do:

npm install

4. To get the web-server to work:

Change directory to /src/controllers/web and do npm install and to start the local-server do the following and go to http://localhost:5000/ in your browser: node app.js

##Instructions for installing on Windows (tested on win 7, 10):

1. Setting up environment

• Seting up basic requirements: Install Microsoft Visual Studio (community/express versions are enough)

2. Installing Node.js:

• For 64-bit Windows download and install: Node.js 0.12.0 64-bit
• For 32-bit Windows download and install: Node.js 0.12.0 32-bit

You may want to add PATH/TO/NODE-NPM to your environment path (if it was not added automatically).

3. Change directory to src and do:

npm install

4. To get the web-server to work:

Change directory to /src/controllers/web and do npm install and to start the local-server do the following and go to http://localhost:5000/ in your browser: node app.js

####Command line arguments:

1. Type:
   • --solid or -s
   • --linear or -l
   • --exponential or -e
2. Length:
   • --length 10 (in minutes)
3. Lightness (optional):
   • --lightness 0.7
4. Pomodoro (25 min linear session):
   • --pomodoro or -p
   • Ticking sound: --tick or -t

**Want to know more about this research project?** see: [Summary of tasks](https://github.com/alt-code/TaskLights/blob/master/Summary.md)