ADHD Focus Timer with Webcam Detection for Windows

A 25 minute work timer keeps counting while the chair is empty, until LiquidFocus stops that count with the camera check on. The bell still marks those minutes as done for the full length of the work timer, including time spent away from the chair. The check looks for a face in the frame on the computer at your desk but does not follow eye direction. A face outside the frame for the wait you set, 5 seconds by default, makes the live work timer record an interruption, then pause. The timer resumes when the face returns. A pause from the button stays in place for you to resume yourself, separate from the pause the camera opened.

A trip to the kettle leaves the chair empty for a minute or two in the middle of that same work timer. A 25-minute length by itself cannot see an empty chair or the return to the desk. A face outside the frame for the default 5 seconds records one interruption on the running work timer, for a trip away from the chair or a longer absence in the timer settings, on the laptop camera or a USB camera during that work session.

Lengths that cannot see the chair

The usual timer is 25 minutes of work, then 5 minutes of break, then a 15 minute longer break after 4 work sessions, and those breaks sit still unless you turn automatic breaks on. The lengths cannot tell a full chair from an empty one, on the usual 25-minute timer or on a longer timer you set. Only the camera check can, by looking for a face in the frame rather than following the eyes. A visible face, even over a second monitor or a notebook, keeps the timer running, and an empty chair pauses it once the wait has passed.

Off until you enable it

The camera check stays off on a fresh install until you enable the switch. It is a Pro feature inside the 14 days of Pro that come with the PeakFlow download for Windows, before any separate purchase of that check. The computer examines each frame, then throws it away. It neither keeps a video file on the disk nor sends a picture off this machine, during the check or after it. The Windows camera lamp stays lit while the check is using the camera.

Windows the camera does not see

The camera does not know which window is in front, so a second window can cover the task while a visible face lets the timer continue. FocusDim is the tool for a second window that still has to stay readable beside the task. Active mode leaves only the foreground window bright, which is a poor fit when you need a second window. App mode leaves every window from that same app bright, such as an editor beside its own terminal on one desktop. All Windows dims the desktop and the taskbar, and the windows stay bright. Ctrl+Shift+D toggles the dim from any window on Windows 10 or Windows 11. While you drag a file, drag escape fades the dim. Use the dimmer for windows you still need, and use the camera for the empty chair. The face rule is in the guide to the camera check. The three modes, Active, App, and All Windows, are in the guide to dimming the other windows.

Sites on that same session

During a running work session, a local helper tells the PeakFlow browser extension which sites to refuse. The usual list is YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, Netflix, Twitter, and X, for the work session only, not for the break or the rest of the day. The refusal ends with that work session, not during the break afterward. It does not cover every program on the PC, whether or not the camera is on, such as a desktop game or a separate music player. A Todoist task can ride on the session if the tasks already live there.

Before the session begins

Get the PeakFlow installer, open LiquidFocus from the tray, and enable Webcam Focus Detection, allowing the camera when Windows requests it. Begin the session only with the switch already on, or the 25 minutes will swallow the empty chair. From the same tray, set FocusDim to App or All Windows for a task with more than one window. Resume a pause you made yourself; a returning face will not resume it.