FAQ
Questions, answered.
Clear answers about how Conberate works, what it measures, and what happens to your data.
General
What is Conberate, exactly?
A tool for planning a realistic day and working through it one focus block at a time. It combines a timeline, task-specific Focus Profiles, quick thought capture, transition notes, and day shutdown in one workflow.
Who is it for?
Knowledge workers whose best work depends on sustained attention — writers, developers, designers, researchers, founders, and others who need a calm, opinionated frame for the day rather than another inbox of tasks.
Why can't I configure more of it?
Some rules need to remain consistent to be useful. Minimum block lengths, enforced breaks, and warning thresholds are fixed. Personal preferences, such as working hours and interface settings, remain configurable.
Focus & sessions
What actually happens when a block starts?
The main window steps aside and the block lives in your menu bar. Its Focus Profiles close selected apps and redirect selected websites to a block page, with a notice explaining why. Deep or shallow controls the block's duration, transition, recovery, and measurement rules — not which distractions are blocked.
Does it lock my screen?
Only between blocks, and only if you enable the setting. After a deep block, the break is one fifth of the time worked, with a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 30. After consecutive shallow tasks, the break increases with the number of tasks.
Can I pause a block?
No. End the block, complete the transition, and start another block when you are ready. Time follows the system clock, so quitting the app does not pause a running block.
What if a task runs long?
At 125% of your estimate Conberate asks once whether to extend or finish. Extending raises the estimate and moves on — there's no cap and no penalty. Running over is information, not a failure.
How short can a block be?
Deep blocks start at 45 minutes and shallow blocks at 30. Deep-work reporting excludes an initial ramp-up period, so several short blocks are not treated as equivalent to one sustained block. The reasoning and formula are explained on the science page.
A thought hits me mid-block. Now what?
Press ⌥Space by default. A one-line panel appears over the app already in front of you, then disappears as soon as you press Return. The running block never moves and the thought waits at shutdown, where it must be resolved. ⌥⇧Space reads captured notes back without opening the main window. Both shortcuts can be changed in Settings.
Are there streaks or rewards?
No. Conberate has no streaks, badges, or rewards. Reports describe what happened; they are not designed to keep you returning for a score.
Numbers & the report
Does Conberate set productivity goals for me?
No. Conberate reports what happened and shows how each number was calculated. It does not set targets or tell you how productive you should be.
What is the Day Score?
A summary based on completion, your own rating, the share of completed work that was deep, estimate accuracy, and the amount of your learned focus capacity used. Missing components are excluded and the remaining weights are recalculated. The app shows a dash until at least one block is resolved, and the full formula is visible beside the score.
Why publish the formula?
So you can judge whether the number is useful. The formula also avoids rewarding raw minutes or fragmented deep work. The reasoning behind each rule is on the science page.
What is focus capacity?
An estimate of how many hours of deep work you can sustain in a day, learned from your own history. It starts at one hour, changes as more sessions are completed, and includes a confidence range and sample count.
Why does the app suggest different estimates than I give?
Because people under-estimate systematically, and the useful signal is your own bias, not an absolute standard. Once you've timed enough blocks, the task form will note that your work typically runs, say, 1.5× its estimate. It's a hint. It never edits the number for you.
Why don't I see any insights yet?
They're gated behind enough data to mean something: at least 10 days, at least 3 samples on each side of any comparison, and a gap big enough not to be noise. Three days of data can't tell you that Tuesdays are your best day. Every insight states how many days it stands on.
Account, data & privacy
Do I need an account?
Yes. Conberate signs you in with email and password, Google, or Apple. Your plans, notes, and reviews sync across your signed-in devices and are backed up away from the local copy.
Does the app work offline?
Yes. Conberate is offline-first: everything is written to your device immediately and works with no network. Sync catches up in the background when you reconnect.
Do you track how I work?
No analytics on your activity, no advertising, no profiling, and nothing sold or shared. Your plans sync so that they're yours on every device — not so that we can look at them. Read the privacy policy.
What stays only on my device?
Window layout, permission and browser-capability results, encryption keys, recovery backups, and privacy-safe diagnostic logs stay device-local. Product state — including settings and onboarding — belongs to the signed-in account and syncs.
Can I get my data out?
Yes. Settings can export a portable JSON copy of your account and synced records. You can also permanently delete the account and its synced data from the same screen.
Money
Is it free?
Yes. The whole app is free during beta, with every feature included and no card required.
Will it stay free?
The finished release may have a price, but that decision has not been made yet. If pricing is introduced, it will be explained before the beta ends and never applied retroactively to work you already did. Read the beta promise.
Still have a question?
Send me an email. I usually reply within one day.