ABOUT WAKATIME
Where intention meets action
WakaTime is built around the simple idea that change doesn’t start with discipline, but with small, intentional actions and goals.
We design physical and digital experiences that help you wake up, refocus, and move forward with purpose. Not through force, but through rhythm. Not through pressure, but through presence.
HOW IT STARTED
Most people know what to do. They just struggle to stay consistent.
The morning is where that gap shows up first. Alarms go off, routines begin with good intent, and yet, almost instinctively, snooze gets tapped, and momentum is lost.
THE PROBLEM
The same pattern appears everywhere
The same pattern appears throughout the day, in study sessions, breaks, screen time, and routines that slowly lose structure.
Existing solutions attempt to solve this with more features, more noise, or more pressure. But behaviour doesn’t change through complexity, it changes through small, well-placed moments of friction.
We realised that the problem wasn’t waking up. It was what happens in the first decision, the moment where intention meets action.
THE SOLUTION
A small shift that changes everything
The moment of intention needed to feel different, more physical, more deliberate, more human.
So we built WakaTime around a small and simple shift: You don’t dismiss your alarm from bed, you move to the device and complete a small action that moves you forward.
Not just in the morning, but whenever focus slips.
It’s not about forcing discipline. It’s about creating a moment that makes showing up easier, not harder.
One small tap, that shifts everything.
HOW WAKATIME HAS EVOLVED
From an idea to intentional routines
2024: The Realisation
Losing momentum was the real problem, not waking up.
2024: Early Concepts
Testing different ways to break the habit loop.
2025: First Prototype
The first Capsule was designed and built.
2026: Coming Soon
WakaTime is almost here.
THE TEAM
A small, focused group
Divan Rousseau
Founder & CEO
Nicholas van Rensburg
Founding Engineer
Anneke van der Merwe
Head of Content
Born from two words
WakaTime comes from the South African phrase
“wakker word” (to wake up)
But it means more than that.
It’s not just about waking up.
It’s about showing up. Wherever the moment calls for it.
Starting. Resetting. Moving forward.
That meaning sits at the core of everything we build.
Not urgency. Not pressure.
Just a simple call to begin.