Viewing Sessions — Focused Watch Analytics

The Video Controls Plus sessions dashboard treats each continuous block of watching as a unit and reports on the patterns those blocks reveal. A session starts when you press play and ends when the tab is closed or after 15 minutes of inactivity; the dashboard shows session duration, the videos covered, breaks taken, and the average attention quality (a heuristic based on whether you scrubbed, paused, or watched straight through). The /sessions page is public marketing surface; the personal session log appears after sign-in. Useful for users who want to understand not just how much they watch but how they watch.

Use cases

Identifying your peak focus windows

The dashboard ranks sessions by attention quality. Patterns emerge — many users find their best learning sessions cluster on weekday mornings or weekend afternoons. Schedule deep learning into those slots.

Spotting fragmented sessions you should consolidate

A 2-hour course consumed in fifteen 8-minute sessions usually retains worse than the same course in two 60-minute sessions. The dashboard surfaces fragmentation so you can plan longer blocks.

Verifying that Pomodoro discipline is working

Pair the sessions view with /pomodoro. After two weeks, the data shows whether the timer is actually changing your behavior or whether you push through the breaks.

Comparing days, weeks, and months

Trend lines for total session time and average session length make abrupt changes obvious. Useful when you suspect a new habit (good or bad) is changing your watching pattern.

How it works

1. Watch normally. A session starts at first play and continues until inactivity > 15 minutes or tab close.
2. Sessions appear in the dashboard. Each session shows start time, duration, videos covered, scrub-and-pause counts, and an attention-quality score.
3. Drill into a session. Click any session to see its video timeline second-by-second.
4. Filter by quality. Filter to "high attention" or "fragmented" sessions to spot patterns quickly.
5. Export. CSV export includes every session row for spreadsheet analysis.

Examples

• A user reviews two weeks of sessions. Notices Tuesday evenings are consistently low-attention. Moves study to Saturday mornings; quality scores climb after week three.
• A Pomodoro user verifies discipline. Sessions show 90% have at least one full Pomodoro cycle; the 10% that do not reveal late-night sessions when the timer is being skipped.

Frequently asked questions

How is "attention quality" calculated?

A heuristic combining play / pause / scrub frequency, time on task vs. inactive periods, and whether you stayed within a single video versus jumping between many. It is a rough indicator, not a verified science score.

Can I exclude work-watching from sessions?

Yes. Site-exclusion rules apply to the sessions dashboard the same way they apply to /history and /stats.

Are sessions private?

Yes — local-only by default. Cloud sync is opt-in.

What if a session spans multiple devices?

Each device tracks its own sessions locally. Cloud sync stitches them together when you sign in; without sync, they remain separate.

How does the 15-minute inactivity cutoff work?

If no playback or interaction occurs for 15 minutes, the session ends. Adjustable in Settings → Sessions if you prefer a longer or shorter cutoff.

Can I tag sessions?

Yes — manual tags per session. Useful for separating "course study" from "casual" watching when reviewing data.

Tips

• Pair the sessions dashboard with site-exclusion rules so personal-time sessions are clean of work content.
• Look at the lowest-quality sessions first — they reveal the contexts where you watch passively rather than learn.
• The 15-minute inactivity cutoff works for most users; lower it to 5 minutes if you do a lot of single-video bursts.
• Export monthly to keep a long-term record outside the browser. Spreadsheet pivot tables reveal patterns the dashboard does not surface.

Limitations

• Attention-quality is a heuristic, not a measured cognitive metric. Treat as directional.
• Without cloud sync, sessions stay siloed per device.
• The /sessions page itself is public marketing surface; the personal session log appears after sign-in.

Last updated 2026-05-06 by Ahsan Mahmood, maintainer.