Why I built Marigold

A note from the maker

I didn't have a screen-time problem on paper. My numbers weren't shocking. But I kept noticing the same small theft: I'd pick up my phone to check one thing and surface twenty minutes later, somewhere I never meant to go, a little more frayed than before. The apps were winning a game I hadn't agreed to play.

So I tried the blockers. The strict ones treated me like a suspect — passwords I'd hidden from myself, lockouts I couldn't undo when I genuinely needed a map or a message. I'd feel trapped, and trapped is a feeling people delete. The gentle ones folded the moment I tapped “give me five minutes,” every single time, which is the same as no blocker at all.

The thing I actually wanted was in the middle, and it didn't exist: not a wall, not a pushover — a pause. Something that made opening Instagram a decision instead of a reflex, and then got out of my way.

The minute is the whole idea

Marigold's answer is a breathing gate. When a held app is shut and you want it anyway, you don't enter a password and you don't get stonewalled. You get sixty seconds with a flower that opens and folds while you breathe. When the minute lands, the app opens for five honest minutes.

That minute does almost all the work. Impulses rarely survive it — by the time the flower finishes you've usually forgotten why you reached for the phone. But real needs always survive it, because real needs are still there sixty seconds later. It filters the reflex without ever locking out the person. Friction, not a prison.

Nothing leaves your phone

The other non-negotiable was privacy. A tool that watches your attention should be the last thing quietly monetizing it. So Marigold has no account, no analytics, and no server to send anything to. It's built on Apple's Screen Time framework, which hands the app opaque tokens for your chosen apps — I couldn't read which apps they are if I wanted to. Your schedules, your stats, your history: all of it lives on your device and nowhere else. Delete the app and it's genuinely gone.

Honest by default

I tried to keep every part of it honest. The stats don't flatter you or invent streaks you didn't earn — quit a focus session early and nothing counts. There are no dark patterns, no guilt notifications, no engagement traps, because I don't make money from your time, so I don't have to fight you for it. Marigold Pro exists for the people who want more, and the free app is genuinely useful on its own.

The name

Marigolds open at sunrise and close at dusk — a small living thing that keeps a rhythm without being told twice. That's the whole hope: that your phone can learn the same rhythm, and quietly hand you back the parts of your day it had been taking.

If any of this sounds like a feeling you recognize, give it a try — and if it helps, tell me. I read every note.

Get Marigold on the App Store →

Contact

hello@lakkireddylabs.com
Marigold is built by Lakkireddy Labs (lakkireddylabs.com).