MacFormat UK – June 2019

£23.99 FROM Frank Reiff, publicspace.net NEEDS OS X 10.11 or later

A pro-level toolbox

for nourishing your

personal productivity.

++++++

Multiple time-

slicing features

Helpful advice

Performance logging

Takes a while to ‘get it’

VERDICT

Vitamin - R 3

Vitamin-R

integrates

several tools

to help you

achieve

your goals

The app includes optional deep integration with task

managers like Things and OmniFocus.

Your personal productivity sidekick

Image credits: Frank Reiff

Vitamin-R’s included documentation is full of

valuable insights backed up by plenty of data.

JUNE 2019 | MACFORMAT | 93

R

eaders who are familiar with

the Pomodoro Technique are

halfway to understanding

what Vitamin-R is all about. The time

management method developed by Francesco

Cirillo in the late 80s aims to break down

work into manageable chunks. The general

idea is to decide on a specific achievable

objective, work for 25 minutes, and then take

a short break when the timer rings, before

resuming the task for another 25 minutes.

Working in short time slices like this aims to

make it easier to stay motivated and focused,

and many swear by the method.

Vitamin-R is a means to implement the

technique on your Mac desktop, but it’s also

so much more, as it integrates several tools

that accompany you along the path towards

achieving your goals. The app lives in your

menu bar, and clicking its icon brings up

the main window, which is divided in two:

the Workflow View and the Pad View. In the

Workflow View you’re invited to state your

objective for the time slice. Below this lies a

slider where you can choose a duration for

the current time slice and watch as the

allotted time elapses.

Take a break

Meanwhile, the Pad View can display a Now

pad to structure thoughts, a Later pad for

things that can wait, and a Scratch pad for

rough ideas. There’s also a Log Book that the

app pre-fills with customisable stats as an

insightful record of your performance.

There are plenty of useful new features in

Vitamin-R – Soft Break lets you delay a break

to finish off what you were doing, while the

Now Pad includes a Fast Type mode that lets

you create bullet points and action items as

quickly as possible. Other neat touches include

the option to play a background noise to help

get you into your flow, as well as key shortcuts

that let you quickly switch to the app window

and navigate it without taking your hands off

the keyboard. We particularly like the option

to lock your Mac’s screen in order to force

you to take a break.

Vitamin-R is the most comprehensive

time-boxing solution for overcoming

procrastination we’ve seen. TIM HARDWICK