Sometimes, the best tools are the ones that seamlessly blend into your day without demanding attention. This thought sparked the idea for Mindful GNOME—a small GNOME extension that rotates through daily prompts, affirmations, or reminders, helping you stay grounded and gently nudging you toward focus. It’s simple, adaptable, and designed to stay out of your way.

The Premise: Gentle Prompts

For years, I’ve kept a file of personal one-liners—notes to self, interesting quotes, or reminders distilled from books. These lived in a humble prompts.txt, a text file I’d occasionally open for some inspiration (to get a random sampling of what’s in it, just click on the dice emoji on my landing page). But having to pull up the file felt like more effort than it should have been, and the reminders, buried in the depths of my file system, tended to be forgotten.

This extension is an answer to that. A slim scroller sits quietly on the GNOME Panel, rotating through these prompts at intervals. Each snippet is displayed just long enough to catch your eye but never linger—planting an idea before you move on with your flow.

What started as a way to display static text naturally grew into something more flexible. Why stop with plain prompts when you can make the text more personal, more actionable?

Extending Simplicity

What excites me about this tool isn’t just what it does now, but what it could do. The ability to customize the experience—colors, rotation speed, or single-click actions—allows the extension to slot naturally into different workflows. For instance:

  • Clicking a text prompt could open an app or script, passing the prompt as a parameter.
  • Prompts could be color-coded by theme, drawing your attention to a particular category of thought or task.
  • Each kind of prompt might trigger a unique action—whether it’s opening a journaling app, setting a timer, or kicking off a script.

The foundation for these ideas exists. For now, it’s a matter of filling in the details when the time is right.

How It Works

At its heart, the extension reads two files:

  • A prompts file (prompts.txt) that contains one prompt per line.
  • A configuration file (config.json) for customizing the extension’s behavior.

With no special dependencies to install or processes to manage, it’s deliberately basic but powerful enough. The configuration file lets you tweak the following settings:

  • Text Color: Choose the scroller’s appearance to match your desktop theme.
  • Rotation Interval: Specify how often the prompts cycle.
  • Prompts File Path: Set the location for your list of prompts.
  • Click Action: Define the app or script that runs when the scroller is clicked.

Example config.json:

{
    "textColor": "#ffd700",
    "timeout": 45,
    "promptsPath": "/home/your-username/automations/prompts.txt",
    "clickAction": "xdg-open https://somelightreminder.com"
}

The config is straightforward—drop the file into place, and the extension should begin reflecting it (disable and enable it if it doesn’t). Prompts are rotated based on the prompts.txt file.

In my case, when I click, it opens my Silverbullet journaling setup via Google Chrome app.

And here’s an example of how it appears on the panel (at the moment I am using it for a mix of reminders and mindfulness prompts): :

GNOME extension screenshot

Example of the GNOME extension in use.

Why I Built This

There’s no shortage of tools to boost productivity. But the beauty of creating a system like this isn’t just the functionality — it’s the feeling of ownership that gets diluted when we’re using a massive suite with layers upon layers of pre-made decisons and assumptions that may not reflect our day-to-day as much as they could. Building something that complements your workflow precisely, has a certain satisfaction. So if you also keep a collection of quotes, sayings or inspiration someplace - this could be a way to get that infused into your life more often. :)

At the same time, it’s about restraint. A tool like this doesn’t need to reinvent anything. The strength lies in how it simplifies and stitches into daily life without friction, leaving room for future ideas without being weighed down by them.

Future Potential

There’s always room to explore further. Imagine tying prompts to specific actions to create a routine around journaling or reflecting. Or color-coding ideas to create a gentle hierarchy—what’s essential and what’s peripheral.

For now, though, I’m happy to start small: a simple scroller to remind myself to take a drink, breathe deeply, or spark a thought I might not otherwise have.

What excites me most isn’t what’s already implemented—it’s what could come next. Extensions like this one can be micro-experiments in tailoring your environment for mindfulness, creativity, and focus.

If you have any ideas on how it could be extended to suit your workflow, just let me know - or you’re welcome to implement it yourself!