RecallmLook closely.
Remember.
Breathe.
Recallm is a calm mindfulness game. For less than a minute you take in a hand-drawn scene, then answer a few questions about its details. Just you, the picture and this moment.
How it works
One scene, one moment of focus
Each exercise takes a few minutes and follows the same simple rhythm. There are no rules to learn — all you need to do is look.
1
You look
An illustration appears on the screen: grandma's kitchen, a summer lake, a market, a snowy backyard. You have 40–50 seconds to take it in.
2
You remember
The picture disappears. You answer five questions: what colour was the kayak, what was lying on the blanket, was the angler sitting or standing.
3
You come back
You see what you noticed and what slipped past you. You can replay any scene and look at it again, more closely.
Try it
You have 15 seconds
A shorter version of a real exercise. Set other thoughts aside for a moment, look at the scene and try to remember as much as you can. Then three questions.
0:15
Why mindfulness
Looking is a skill you can practise
Mindfulness isn't only about sitting with your eyes closed. It's every moment in which you deliberately turn your attention to what's in front of you — and gently come back to it when your thoughts drift away. Studying a picture in order to remember it is exactly that kind of practice.
Attention as an anchor
In focused-attention meditation you choose a single object — usually the breath — and return to it every time the mind wanders off. Here, that object is the scene. The point isn't to keep your thoughts from wandering, but to notice that they have, and come back. Every return is one repetition.
The wandering mind
In a large study, Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert tracked what people were doing and thinking about over the course of the day. Almost half the time they were thinking about something other than what they were doing — and in those moments they generally felt less happy. Forty seconds with one picture is forty seconds fully here.
“A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind”, Science, 2010
Seeing versus observing
Sherlock Holmes chides Watson for having climbed the stairs at Baker Street hundreds of times without knowing how many steps there are. “You see, but you do not observe.” In everyday life we look only briefly, because the brain fills in the rest from memory. Trying to remember makes you truly see what's in front of you.
Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia”, 1891
Beginner's mind
Zen speaks of shoshin: looking at things as if you were seeing them for the first time. Mindfulness courses practise this with a single raisin, examined slowly as though it were something completely new. Every scene in Recallm is an invitation to look this way — even one you're seeing for the second time.
Kim's Game
In Rudyard Kipling's novel, young Kim learns to memorise precious stones laid out on a tray and then describe them from memory. “Kim's Game” is still used to sharpen the observation skills of scouts around the world. Recallm is the same simple idea — only instead of a tray, there's a whole little world.
Rudyard Kipling, “Kim”, 1901
Without judgement
Jon Kabat-Zinn describes mindfulness as paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. A wrong answer isn't a failure — it shows you where your attention didn't land. Noticing that is mindfulness too. Your score is just for you: no rankings, no race.
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.Simone Weil
At your own pace
An app that doesn't want your time
Recallm was made as a counterweight to apps that fight for every minute of your attention. Here, the point is to get that attention back.
- No adsNothing pops up, nothing breaks your focus.
- No sign-upOpen it and play. A Google account or email only if you want to move your progress to another phone.
- New exercises are freeThe whole path is open. Replays to improve your score have a daily limit that renews every morning.
- A few minutes a dayOne exercise is a good excuse for a short break during the day.
- Four languagesEnglish, Polish, German and Spanish.
- Support the projectIf you enjoy Recallm, a one-time support purchase removes the replay limit. No subscription.
Pause for one scene
Recallm for Android is in its final round of testing. Coming soon to Google Play.
Recallm is a game for focus and observation, not therapy or a medical device.