This utility helps limit the amount of time devoted to work by keeping track of clearly defined work periods. It's like a timer which cannot be stopped but will kill the passed command forcing the user to finish the job.

This may sound counterintuitive, but a lot of studies show that limiting time for a task forces the person to use the time more effectively.

• CLI interface
• Three configurable effort levels:
  • Minimal
  • Work
  • Overtime
• Keep track of user-provided command and kill it if it has been running too long (after overtime)
• Utilizes desktop notifications to inform users about the finished period
• Plays a notification sound when minimal effort/work period is done - optionally a custom sound file (sounds are played by the desktop's notification server, so they depend on its sound support)
• Allow storing amount of work done as CSV file for further analysis

Killtimer requires Python 3.11 or newer. The recommended way to install it is with pipx, which puts the killtimer and killtimer-stats commands on your PATH in an isolated environment:

$ pipx install killtimer

To upgrade to the newest version later:

$ pipx upgrade killtimer

usage: killtimer [options] [--] [command [arguments ...]]

Close application when time runs out

positional arguments:
  command               Executable (with arguments) to run

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -m, --minimal-effort duration
                        Minimal work duration (default: None)
  -w, --work duration   Proper work duration (default: 1:00:00)
  -o, --overtime duration
                        Overtime duration (default: None)
  -l, --log log_file    Log file where to store amount of work done (default:
                        None)
  -t, --title title     Title to display above progress bars and configuration
                        (default: None)
  -s, --sound sound_file
                        Sound file to play with the notification when minimal
                        effort or work period is reached (instead of the
                        default notification sound) (default: None)

When not given, the minimal effort defaults to 50% and the overtime to 25% of the work duration.

Killtimer options must come before the command - everything from the command name onwards (including arguments that look like options, e.g. blender --background) is passed to the command. Use -- before the command if its name starts with a dash. The command is started directly (not through a shell) with its arguments passed as given. When the overtime runs out, it is sent SIGTERM together with any processes it started; whatever is still running 5 seconds later is killed with SIGKILL.

Usually you would want to create alias in your *rc file like:

alias blender-work="killtimer -m 10m -w 1h -o 10m -t 'Creative work' -l /path/to/worklog.csv blender"