Bento: The Do Less Timer

Review got refreshed while I was writing, so here’s a shorter one. I like the app’s simple methodology. Privacy respecting always a plus. Main two reasons I bought it. Major gripe is that it’s unintuitive and clunky. I never triggered the timer intentionally before, until I realized the >> button on the side starts the timer. I guess the >> was meant to be interpreted as a “let’s go (do this task)” but to me it’ll usually mean “edit more details in this submenu”. Swiping through the bentos, if my thumb lingers even a bit the app interprets it as a tap. A lot of my experience using this app has had unintentional clicks. The timer notifications are buggy. After (accidentally) starting the timer, I come back to turn on my phone and I see 10, 15 notifications all from 29 minutes ago telling me time’s up. Okay. My biggest problem is, I had wondered why my battery’s draining faster today. I check and Bento’s been in the background playing audio for 16 hours. Bento has no business doing anything for 16 hours. And, surprise, I didn’t start a timer… I just don’t know what to say. Well, please just take this review into consideration. I’ve never made so many “mistakes” in one app or attempt to exit out of things I didn’t intend to use before. I really hope you guys take another look at the user friendliness etc of this app. As it is now, the app frequently stands between point A and point B of using it.

I’ve tried a million time mgmt apps, note taking apps (u know the regular ones) GTD, Eisenhower matrix, etc etc and while they all have their place and value, I’m at a point now in life where I just need simplicity and flow state. Just downloaded this app after researching the medium articles written by developer company and so far it’s been working. To be objective, you could just use Evernote or drafts or notes and just limit yourself to 3 tasks but it’s those little intentional nuances that make this app great as it’s focused on ONLY three tasks vs having to use your mind power to limit yourself to three tasks. My current setup is using drafts for quick easy capture of ideas in head, Google keep purely for their text grab feature from pdfs/images as I also use good ol handwritten notebook a lot for idea capture (like Leonardo da Vinci) but for Macro top level planning and scheduling, am using Bento to stay focused on what’s most important vs getting lost in the weeds of my thoughts. Keep up good work devs!

I love testing out new productivity apps and especially ones that have a clear vision vs just making the same old system prettier, so I was excited to try Bento. I do usually jot down my top three priorities for the day in my bullet journal so my biggest question was whether this app would add value to that process, and it did! First, Bento forces you to decide how you will work through your list, starting with the biggest, smallest, or medium task. The timer lets you focus on on the task at hand and the instrumental music in the background is lovely and relaxing. The pictures and animations are also pretty and create a nice ambiance. This is not going to replace any of your existing productivity apps, but it’s a great add-on for those of us who may struggle to focus or know where to start. Definitely recommend if you have ADHD/executive functioning issues like me. Feedback for developers: the graphics are beautiful, however it veers too much into cultural appropriation territory for my taste, as my understanding is that the developers are not Japanese. You can appreciate Japanese culture without making it the whole thing of this app. At the very least, give some credit to the Japanese artists who inspired this aesthetic. The switching themes function doesn’t work. I tried several times to do it in the settings, but the original theme remained. Would be great to have a longer track for the looping audio, and maybe some different choices. I love it for now but can see myself getting tired of it after a few days.