Most productivity tools have one thing in common: they get in your way. You spend time setting them up, navigating menus, syncing accounts, and before you know it, the focus window you had is gone. Stilloak was built as the antithesis of that — a free, browser-based focus dashboard that is ready the moment you open it, with zero friction between you and deep work.
In this article we walk through every feature of Stilloak, explain the thinking behind each one, and show you why it might be the last focus tool you ever need to search for.
What Is Stilloak?
Stilloak is a free all-in-one focus dashboard that runs entirely in your browser. There is no app to install, no account to create, and no paywall to hit. You set a start and end time for your session, name your task, and Stilloak takes care of the rest — tracking your progress in real time with a visual bar, counting down the minutes, and keeping your focus habits alive with a set of thoughtfully designed tools.
Everything runs locally in your browser. Your data never leaves your device. Session history, settings, and your earned trees are all saved in your browser's local storage — private by default.
The Session Timer: The Heart of the Dashboard
At the centre of Stilloak is the session timer — a clean, visual progress bar that stretches across the top of the dashboard, filling from left to right as your session advances. It is not a countdown clock: it is a live map of your entire working day, showing exactly where you are, how much you have done, and how much remains.
You set a start time and an end time for your session. The bar begins filling from the moment the session starts, and the percentage shown tells you at a glance how far through your focused block you are. The current time, elapsed time, and remaining time are always visible — no guessing, no mental arithmetic.
You can also name your current task directly in the dashboard, so the session has an intention attached to it, not just a clock running in the background.
Works overnight too
Stilloak supports overnight sessions — if your end time is before your start time, it automatically understands you are working across midnight. Useful for late-night study sessions or early-morning creative blocks.
Pomodoro Mode: Built In, Not Bolted On
Activate Pomodoro mode with a single toggle and the session timer immediately transforms. The progress bar fills with alternating red and blue stripes — red for focus intervals, blue for break intervals — so you always know which phase you are in and how long remains in the current block.
Focus and break durations are fully customisable. The default is 25 minutes of focus and 5 minutes of break, but you can adjust both to match your own rhythm. A clear banner at the top of the dashboard shows the current phase (Focus Session or Break Time), the cycle number, and a live countdown.
Pause the Pomodoro, not the session
One of Stilloak's most thoughtful Pomodoro features is the pause function. When you pause the Pomodoro, the overall session timer keeps running — because real time does not pause — but the focus countdown freezes. The bar turns yellow during the paused interval, and the red and blue stripes shift forward to compensate, so your Pomodoro structure stays accurate even after interruptions.
Sound alerts
An optional sound alert plays at the end of each phase — a soft, non-intrusive tone that signals the transition without breaking your concentration. You can toggle sound on or off at any time from the dashboard.
The Tree Reward System: Motivation That Sticks
Stilloak gamifies focus in a way that feels meaningful rather than gimmicky. Complete a session and you earn a tree. The longer the session, the larger and more impressive the tree — from a small sapling for a short burst to a towering oak for a full deep work day.
Your earned trees accumulate in a visual grove displayed in the dashboard. It becomes a literal record of your focused work — a growing forest that makes consistency visible. On difficult days when motivation is low, seeing your grove is often enough to make you start one more session.
There are multiple tree species to unlock, and the variety keeps the reward system fresh over time. You can also choose which tree you are working towards before each session, adding a small layer of intention to every block.
Hydration Tracker: The Feature You Did Not Know You Needed
Dehydration is one of the most overlooked causes of poor concentration. Even mild dehydration — as little as 1–2% of body weight — has been shown to impair cognitive performance, working memory, and attention. Stilloak addresses this with a built-in hydration tracker that sits right in the dashboard.
Set your daily water goal, log each glass as you drink it, and the tracker shows your progress in real time. It is not a separate app or a notification you need to enable — it is simply there, alongside your timer, as a quiet reminder to look after yourself while you work.
Session History and Productivity Stats
Every completed session is automatically saved to your session history. You can see the date, task name, duration, and the tree you earned for each session. Over time this builds into a meaningful record of your work — useful for weekly reviews, identifying your most productive periods, and staying accountable to your goals.
The history is stored locally in your browser, which means it is private, instant, and always available — even without an internet connection.
Fully Customisable Layout
Stilloak is a dashboard, which means you can arrange it the way that works for you. The panels — timer, Pomodoro settings, hydration tracker, grove, history — can be repositioned and resized. If you only need the timer and the grove, you can hide everything else. If you want the full view, it is all there.
Your layout is saved automatically, so every time you open Stilloak it looks exactly the way you left it.
Why Stilloak Is Different From Every Other Timer App
The internet is full of timer apps. What makes Stilloak worth your attention is the combination of things it gets right simultaneously:
- Zero friction to start — open the URL, begin working. No account, no setup.
- Everything in one place — timer, Pomodoro, hydration, trees, history, all in a single dashboard.
- Visually clear — the progress bar tells you exactly where you are in your session at a glance.
- Private by design — all data stays in your browser. No servers, no tracking of your work habits.
- Completely free — no freemium, no trial, no hidden limits.
- Rewarding to use — the tree system gives focus sessions a tangible outcome, not just a number going up.
🌳 Who is Stilloak for?
Stilloak is built for anyone who needs to do focused work at a computer — students studying for exams, writers and creatives, remote workers, developers, researchers, and anyone who has ever opened a timer app and closed it again because it was too complicated. If your goal is simply to sit down, focus, and track that focus without any overhead, Stilloak is for you.
How to Get Started in Under 30 Seconds
- Go to stilloak.app in any browser.
- Set your session start and end time.
- Type in what you are working on.
- Choose your tree.
- Start working.
That is genuinely it. No form to fill in. No email to confirm. The session starts, the bar begins to fill, and the clock is running. Everything else — Pomodoro, hydration, sound alerts — is there when you want it and out of the way when you do not.
Final Verdict
Stilloak does not try to be everything to everyone. It is a focused tool for focused people — clean, fast, private, and genuinely free. The combination of a smart session timer, built-in Pomodoro, hydration tracking, tree rewards, and session history in a single browser tab is something no other free tool offers without a signup wall or a premium upsell lurking around the corner.
If you have been looking for a focus dashboard that respects your time, your privacy, and your intelligence, Stilloak is the answer.