The 3-second stress reset.
LATER is the simplest app you'll ever use. One button. Three seconds. Instant calm.
How it works:
Press the button. A circle fills for exactly 3 seconds. That's it. No meditation guide. No breathing exercises. Just a forced pause that interrupts whatever you were doing.
Why 3 seconds works:
Your brain craves completion. Watching a progress bar finish triggers the same satisfaction as completing a task. LATER uses this psychological quirk to interrupt your stress loop. It's behavioral science made simple.
The 3-second duration isn't arbitrary. One second feels broken. Five seconds feels annoying. Three seconds is just long enough to break your mental momentum, but short enough that you'll actually use it.
What you get:
- One button that takes 3 seconds to activate
- Haptic feedback that feels like a slowing heartbeat
- Time-based colours that shift throughout the day (warm beige mornings, deep blue nights)
- Streak tracking for consecutive days of pausing
- Statistics showing your total pause time and moment count
- Multiple visualisation styles (all doing the same thing)
- Works completely offline, no internet required
- No account, no login, no personal data needed
Who needs this:
Anyone who checks their phone 96 times a day but claims they're too busy to meditate. Anyone who downloads wellness apps with good intentions but never opens them. Anyone who starts meditation sessions but quits after 30 seconds. Anyone who knows they need to pause but won't do it without external structure.
This app is for people who are self-aware enough to know they need breaks, but realistic enough to know they won't take 10-minute meditation sessions.
What makes LATER different: Every wellness app wants more of your time. Ten-minute meditations. Guided breathing exercises. Daily journals. LATER wants exactly 3 seconds. That's not a limitation—it's the entire design philosophy.
You can't optimise 3 seconds. You can't get better at it. You can't do it wrong. The constraint removes all the anxiety that makes other wellness apps feel like another task on your to-do list.
The psychology behind it:
We live in a world optimised for speed. Two-hour delivery. Instant messages. Infinite scroll. In this context, voluntary inefficiency becomes valuable. LATER gives you permission to pause, and the 3-second wait makes that pause feel earned rather than lazy.
The app doesn't track your heart rate or tell you to breathe differently. It just makes you wait. That enforced pause is often enough.
This app won't change your life. It won't cure anxiety or fix burnout. But it might interrupt your stress loop long enough to help. Three seconds at a time adds up.
Privacy & principles:
No advertisements cluttering your pause. No subscription trying to upsell you. No data collection mining your behavior. No tracking your location or usage patterns. No account creation or personal information required. Just a one-time purchase for an app that does one thing well.
LATER exists on your phone, works offline, and never phones home. Your pauses are yours alone.
How to use LATER:
Open the app when you feel overwhelmed. Press the button. Watch the circle complete. That's the whole thing. Do it once a day or a hundred times. There's no wrong way to use it.
Some people use it between meetings. Some use it when they catch themselves doomscrolling. Some use it as a tiny morning ritual. The app doesn't care how you use it—it just works the same way every time.
Press the button. Wait 3 seconds. Feel slightly better. Repeat as needed.
Resources:
• Privacy Policy: https://pragmathema.com/#later
• Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/