Introducing Sit

A simple meditation timer for the iPhone

Meditation isn’t complicated; it shouldn’t be. Being present, following your breath, and observing your thoughts is a fantastic and rewarding way to spend a few minutes each day.

When I looked in the App Store to find a new meditation app to replace my old one, I was disappointed. Everything was ugly or overcomplicated. Some asked for my location or my credit card number. I didn’t want any of that.

Richard Burton and I looked at dozens of meditation apps, trying to find just one we liked.

When we couldn’t find anything, we set out to build Sit, the app that we wanted.

Set any amount of time for your session. Not into warmup or cooldown? Set them to zero or just leave them blank.

Sit is a simple meditation timer. It’s possibly the simplest one in the App Store.

It was designed from the beginning to be accessible and useful for everyone — from the beginner to the experienced meditator.

At its core, Sit is just three things:

1. A timer
2. A journal
3. A set of past sessions, streaks, and journal entries

This can be relaxing and mesmerizing to stare at or just put your phone behind you and listen to the sounds of the singing bowls as each section starts and end.

When you start your session, Sit calculates what percentage of your session is warmup and what percentage is cooldown.

The period from the bottom to that first line is your warmup. The period from the top line to the top of the screen is your cooldown.

Time is represented as water filling a glass and fills according to the amount of time in your session. There are no numbers to give you anxiety about how much time you have left.

After your session, if you like, write down any thoughts that occurred to you during your session. You can always edit these later.

From the main screen, tap the button in the lower left to view all of your past sessions and journal entries.

Streaks are represented on the far left so you can visualize how consistently you practice.

Tapping any session will let you edit its journal entry.

Two small easter eggs:

• All of the sounds in Sit were recorded at The San Francisco Zen Center, the first Zen center in the West. It was started by Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. It’s the book that got me into meditation. I was very excited when they let me come in to record the sounds for Sit.
• Sit doesn’t ask for your name, email, location, phone number, or credit card number. It doesn’t send push notifications or emails, ever.

That’s it. That’s Sit.

Sit is available today on the App Store.

We’re also climbing the ranks of Product Hunt and doing an AMA in the comments. Vote for Sit and ask us a question!

We hope you enjoy using Sit.