There are a few mobile or web idle/incremental games I have used as a substitute for a Pomodoro timer. Oh, I am really into the game and it only progresses if this is the focused tab? I really want to make progress, but I am in a period of the game where active play isn’t that rewarded, and just watching the screen while I wait to earn the upgrade is pretty boring? How about we just leave my phone with that as the active tab, and I check back when the upgrade should be earned? Keeps me off my phone and doing the actual things I should be doing instead. Somehow, “abusing” games like this works better for me than the Forest app which has the explicit intention of making sure you do not touch your screen for a set length of time and instead do something else off your phone.
What's a Pomodoro timer?
There is a “Pomodoro technique” where you work for some longer amount of minutes, often 25, and then take a break, usually 5 minutes. Repeat the process a few times, then take a longer break instead of a shorter one. Repeat. The gist of “Pomodoro timer” is just whatever timekeeping thing you’re using to pull this off, whether it be a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato or a phone timer.
I also “abuse” Pokémon Masters EX in a similar fashion. You’re expected to level up with some combination of putting them through battles that cost stamina to play through, and some pretty easy-to-obtain level-up items. And although there is an Auto option I have a feeling you are intended to manually do the battles in-game. Instead, I start story mode battles which cost no stamina to play through, that still reward me with XP no matter how many times I repeat it, and have the game fight the battle for me with the Auto setting. I check back when the battle is done and restart it. I have essentially turned this into an idle/incremental game, albeit one with a pretty short time between waiting and checking back in on the game. Free level-ups! Even though it does take much longer than the intended way, which is why I suspect nobody tried to prevent this method from working. I like doing this for some reason, and it’s probably the main reason I still keep this game downloaded despite my usual allergy to gacha games.
I always like to see people who go all in on the roleplaying in RPGs.
I do wish people would leave mods that aren’t for them alone. There are a bunch of mods extremely not to my taste that I just scroll past instead of intentionally clicking to tell the mod author just how much it is not to my taste and that they should not have made it because I am uninterested in the content.