Mind the Gap Documentation

Mind the Gap is a small desktop app that lives in your system tray (the menu bar on macOS, the notification area on Windows). It reads the calendars you connect and shows the day ahead.

When the next event is about to start, it opens a large, always-on-top window in the middle of your screen — deliberately hard to ignore, so you actually look up in time.

Mind the Gap runs from the tray rather than a normal app window. Click the tray icon to open the control panel and see what’s coming up. The icon also shows a countdown to your next event.

On macOS you can choose whether it also appears in the Dock under Settings. By default it stays out of your way.

On macOS the menu-bar icon shows a live countdown — “1h”, “12m”, “Now” — beside a pie that fills as the time approaches. On Windows the tray shows the pie icon only (no text), shifting color as things get close.

By default it counts down to the next event’s start. Under Settings → General → Tray countdown you can switch it to count down to the next reminder instead, and optionally ignore events that have no reminder.

Mind the Gap connects to Google Calendar, Microsoft (Outlook.com and Microsoft 365), and any iCalendar (ICS / webcal) feed URL. All connections are read-only — Mind the Gap never edits or creates events in your source calendars.

Open the tray menu → Settings → Calendars and add a source. For Google or Microsoft you’ll sign in through your browser and grant read-only calendar access. For an ICS feed, paste its HTTPS URL.

Each calendar source syncs on its own interval (5 minutes minimum). Per source you can set the default reminder lead time and a policy — remind me for all events, only during work hours, or not at all — plus how all-day events are handled.

A large notification window appears, centered and always on top, across all your virtual desktops. It shows the event and gives you snooze options as well as a less-prominent dismiss button (so you don’t wave it away by reflex).

Both the notification window and each event’s menu on the board offer two ways to change your reminder, shown as Snooze and Notify in advance:

• Snooze is relative to now — “in 5 minutes”, “in 1 hour”. Use it to push a reminder back from this moment.
• Notify in advance is relative to the event’s start — “At start”, “5 minutes before”. Use it to set when you want the heads-up.

“Notify in advance” only applies while the event is still at least a minute away. So on the board, an event’s menu shows in advance” options while it’s upcoming and switches to snooze durations once it’s imminent or under way. You can pick which set a fresh notification shows first under Settings → Notifications → Default action.

By default, yes — clicking a link in a reminder (the meeting URL or any link in the description) opens it and dismisses the reminder. If you’d rather the window stay put, turn off “Dismiss the reminder when I click a link” under Settings → Notifications.

By default the notification takes keyboard focus when it appears so you can act on it right away. If you’d rather keep typing in whatever you were in, set “Notification focus” to “Keep current window focused” under Settings → Notifications.

Yes. Under Settings → Notifications → “Notification window size”, choose “Default size” for a compact centered window or “Fill the screen” for a take-over arrival window.

Yes. Set a work-hours window and the days it applies to, then choose the “work hours only” policy on any calendar so it stays quiet outside those times.

Click the + button — or use a quick-timer shortcut — to drop something straight onto the board: a meeting you just agreed to, or a 5-, 15-, or 25-minute timer to keep yourself honest.

These are ad-hoc events that live entirely inside Mind the Gap. They are never written back to Google, Outlook, or any ICS feed, and they never leave your device. They’re just yours, on the board, as quick timers and reminders.

Yes. Your events, calendar settings, and preferences are stored locally on your device. There’s no Geshido account and no analytics. Calendar data is fetched directly from the provider to your device — it never passes through Geshido’s servers. OAuth tokens are kept in your operating system’s secure credential store (Keychain on macOS, Credential Manager on Windows).

For full details, see our Terms & Privacy page.

Mind the Gap checks for updates from its official release feed and can download them automatically, only notify you, or stay on your current version — your choice in Settings. You’re never forced to update.

macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel; or Windows 10 version 1809 (64-bit) or later, including Windows 11.

Mind the Gap is free to try for 30 days. After the trial, a license is required to keep using it — buying one supports development and removes the licensing reminders. A license is $15 (USD), a one-time purchase, yours for life, and covers the current major version (v1).

You can buy a license any time.

After purchase you’ll get a license key. Either click the Open Mind the Gap button on the confirmation page (it hands the key straight to the app), or open Settings → License, paste the key, and choose Activate. Verification happens entirely on your device — no internet connection required.

Use the license recovery page. Enter the email you bought with and the invoice number from your receipt, and we’ll re-issue the same key. Your key is derived from your order, so recovery always returns exactly what you bought.

Can’t find your invoice number? Contact us and we’ll help.

Your license covers every update within the current major version — all v1.x releases. A future major version (v2) may be a separate, optional purchase. Geshido determines whether a given release is a major, minor, or patch version. See our Terms for the details.

Yes — a license is for one person and may be activated on the computers you personally use (for example, a home and a work Mac). It’s not transferable to anyone else, and each person needs their own license.

Payments are handled by Stripe, which acts as the merchant of record. If something isn’t right with your purchase, or you’d like to ask about a refund, contact us and we’ll sort it out.