akaalias / dangerzone-writing-plugin

A plugin that forces you to write for X seconds. If you pause for more than 5 seconds, everything you've written in this note is DELETED.

🔥 Dangerzone Writing 🔥 for Obsidian

“Elegant”

“Dangerous”

“Relaxing”

“Perverted”

“Your best friend”

"Your worst nightmare"

Hey all, I’ve been a paying customer of FlowState since 2016 and wanted something similar for Obsidian.

It’s really fun. And stressful. But mostly fun.

It's simple:

1. You start a timer for X minutes.
2. THEN, during those X minutes you MUST write continuously.
3. The catch: If you PAUSE for longer than 5 seconds, everything you’ve written is DELETED.

Here's an example session:

When to use Dangerzone Writing

• Use it to "warm" up your writing muscle
• Use it to write that first draft however dirty and ragged
• Use it to keep you laser-focused on writing

How to use the Dangerzone Writing plugin

1. Open a note in Obsidian^
2. Click the "Stopwatch" icon in the left bar to start the timer
3. From now on, the count-down from 60 seconds to 0 starts
4. Start writing!
5. DO. NOT. STOP. WRITING for 60 seconds.
6. If you DO stop writing for more than 5 seconds, everything you've written in this note so far is DELETED.

Again, let me be clear: If you stop for more than 5 seconds, your writing in this note will be deleted.

^ I usually create an empty one, but that's not necessary

How to start as a beginner

If you've never used this type of writing before, I highly recommend starting with the defaults and an empty note to get a feeling for it.

A few simple tips and tricks

1. Fake it till you make it: It's totally fine to write a lot of "nothing" such as Well, I don't know what to write here. Nothing comes to mind. I'm sitting here. Writing... - I do this all the time. You'll eventually find a thought that is interesting, so don't worry.
2. Don't Panic: Just because there's a countdown, doesn't mean you have to freak out. I know this sounds weird, but as long as you hit a key every second or so, this thing won't blow up. So, instead of switching to PANIC-MODE as soon as you start a session, just stay calm and start writing.
3. Start small: Gradually increase session time as you get more comfortable with this type of challenge.
4. Learn to touch-type: Learn to touch-type if you're not yet fully touch-typing and you're struggling with the mechanics to keep up. This is one of the most powerful hard-skills I've ever learned.

How to personalize your sessions and fuse time

To optimize your flow experience, you can configure your:

Writing Session Timing Settings

• Countdown duration in seconds: Default is 60s, How many seconds you want your Dangerzone Writing session to last?
• Seconds-to-deletion fuse: Default is 5s, How many seconds until your text is deleted?

Immersive Writing Settings

• Session Font-Size: Increases editor font-size temporarily for a more immersive experience. Leave empty to keep default size
• Session Background Color: Changes background color of editor temporarily for a more immersive experience. Find a good color at https://htmlcolorcodes.com. Leave empty to omit

Successful sessions tracking

You get a +1 🎉 for every Dangerzone Writing session you complete successfully. "Successfully" means that once the timer is up, there is at least some text there (indicating you didn't just give up and let the countdown finish).

Let me know how it goes!

• How do YOU use the Dangerzone? Leave a comment in the forum
• Got an idea for a setting? Leave a comment in the forum
• Wanna share a story of one of your Dangerzone sessions? Leave a comment in the forum
• Wanna share your successful sessions count? Leave a comment in the forum
• The plugin ate your homework? Well. Sorry but that's what it does (See disclaimer)

Thank you

Thank you ryanjamurphy, roberthaisfield, macedotavares, afokapu, tristanbailey, lukeleppan, AutonomyGaps and hicsuntdragons for your feedback and support.

Disclaimer

This plugin is provided as-is with NO warranty that it'll work exactly as you expect. It's made to DELETE text in a note after X seconds of inactivity when you're start a session. Please do not hold me responsible if it does, in fact, DELETE your text. That's what it does. On the other hand there is always the possibility of a bug that makes this plugin behave unexpectedly.

dangerzone-writing-plugin's Issues

VIM normal mode moving around resets the timer

I'm not sure if this is intended behavior or not, but when using VIM mode, pressing non editing keys in normal mode (ie, hjkl to move the cursor around but doesn't change any text) resets the timer.

Not really a big issue and might recall significant code change to change, so issue should probably just be closed.

Doesn't not delete - Windows

Keeps ticking down on Windows, never allowing you to stop the deletion timer, meaning it just deletes everything even if you are actually writing

Graphic artifact after fading

Backgrund color permanently looks different after the text gets deleted, or when the fading stops.

Deleting should only work for current note

If you start the danger timer and then switch into another note, it still works and can accidentally delete another note.
It should only work in the note where it was started I think. (even if user switches into another note, the countdown should continue)

Thank you for your work, this is an awesome plugin!

Plugin don't recognize that the text is being written

I have Obsidian 0.10.11, and I installed this plugin manually by copying main.js and manifest.json into plugins directory of my vault.
When I start the timer the text fades no matter what I do. Even if I type continuously the text gets deleted anyway, so I'm not able to type any more then couple of words. It seems like the plugin doesn't register key presses.

A pop-up window before entering the dangerous mode

Maybe users can choose to set Session Duration and Seconds-To-Deletion in a pop-up window according to their plan or just start a default session according to the configuration.

Danger is not real as you can ctrl + Z to undo deleting.

Would you please consider to develop a new version which will really delete everything.

If so, it would be super cool and truly dangerous.

Another note gets wiped out.

If I have a note open in a panel, it gets wiped out instead of the text I've been writing. This happens even if I don't leave the editor after the timer starts.

Suggestion for extreme mode

A mode that makes you unable to delete any characters, therefore you can only type forward!

Doesn't do anything on iOS