Automatic breaks between online meetings
Published 9 November 2026
A meeting at an address has a trip: you get in the car, and it takes as long as the traffic says. A meeting that is a link has a trip too, the one in your head. One call ends at 10:00 and the next starts at 10:00; you close the camera, open it again, and there is a new face and a new subject. There is no time to drink some water, write down what the last call decided or stand up and look out of the window, because the calendar gave that time to nobody.
DOFOTT's Brain Sauna writes that time into your calendar for you. It puts a 5, 10 or 15 minute block before, after or around your Zoom, Meet, Teams and Webex meetings. This page covers what you see in your calendar, how DOFOTT tells that a meeting is online, and what it does when calls run back to back.
What you see in your calendar
You have a Meet call on Tuesday from 10:00 to 10:45. With the default setting, as soon as it ends this block lands from 10:45 to 10:55:
- 🧠♨️ Brain Sauna
Its description is one line, "10 min to breathe between calls. Stand up, look away from the screen, drink some water." The block shows as busy, so anyone trying to book those ten minutes sees you are taken. It is private: people you share your calendar with only see that you are busy.
The block follows its meeting. Move the meeting to 11:00 and the break moves with it; delete the meeting and the break goes too. A weekly call gets its break every week. Delete a break and it does not come back for that meeting.
How it tells a meeting is online
A meeting counts as online when its location holds no address and there is a sign of a call. The sign is one of these:
- A call link or name in the location, such as "Zoom", "Google Meet" or a Teams link.
- A call link in the description. When an invitation comes from another calendar, the Zoom link is often inside the description; DOFOTT finds it there too.
- A Meet link Google added, but only when someone besides you is invited. On some accounts Google Workspace adds a Meet link to every new event, so a work block with only you in it does not count as an online meeting.
Some events never get a break: all-day events, Google Calendar™'s focus time, out of office and working location events, and invitations you declined. Invitations you have not answered, or answered "maybe", get their break too, shown as free, so the time stays open to others until you say yes. Travel blocks work the same way.
Back-to-back calls
A break never sits on top of another meeting and never shortens one. Where there is no room, it gets smaller:
| Your day | What happens |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes between two calls | A break as long as your setting; the rest stays free |
| 6 minutes between two calls | The break shrinks to 6 minutes and fills the gap |
| "Both" on, 15 minutes between two calls | The after of one and the before of the next become one block |
| One ends at 10:00, the next starts at 10:00 | No block |
The last row is on purpose. When calls run straight into each other, the only thing DOFOTT could do is shorten one of them, and that means touching your meeting. DOFOTT only writes its own blocks. The fix there is yours, not the calendar's: make the meeting 25 or 50 minutes. Google Calendar™'s "Speedy meetings" setting does that for the meetings you create; buffer time between meetings shows how to turn it on.
Settings
Brain Sauna is one line on the settings page: Off, Before, After or Both, with 5, 10 or 15 minutes beside it. The default is 10 minutes after each online meeting. A break after is for closing the last call: writing the note, sending the email you promised. A break before is for getting ready: opening the file, remembering where you left off. Choose Off and DOFOTT removes the breaks it wrote and stops looking at your online meetings.
Meetings at an address, and mixed days
A meeting with an address in its location gets a travel block, not a break, even if its invitation also has a Meet link. When one person is in the room and another is on screen, you are the one in the room and you have to get there. A meeting gets a trip or a break, never both.
On a day spent at the office in the morning and on screen in the afternoon, the two work side by side. The trip to the client and back is written as travel blocks, and the Zoom after you get back gets its break. A travel block and a break never overlap either.
What it reads and what it keeps
To tell that a meeting is online, DOFOTT looks in the description only for a call link, and in the guest list only for whether anyone besides you is there and whether you declined. The description is let go as soon as it is read and never written anywhere. Who the guests are is never seen. Meeting titles are never requested.
What is kept is about the break itself: which online meeting it belongs to, the block's id and its times. With Brain Sauna off, neither the description nor the call details are requested. The privacy page has the details.
Price
Brain Sauna is free. What DOFOTT counts is meetings with a place: 12 a month are free, a month that goes over is $5 + tax, or $36 + tax a year with no limit. Online meetings are not part of that number; a hundred calls with a break each leave the counter where it was. The pricing page has the details.
What it doesn't do
- It doesn't touch your meetings. It doesn't shorten them, move them, or change their title or description.
- It doesn't send you a separate notification. A break is an ordinary calendar event. With "Mute reminders" on in settings it stays silent; with it off, it does what your calendar does for any event.
- It doesn't report its own work. You won't see "14 breaks this week". The break in your calendar is the whole of it.
How do I get a break between Zoom meetings automatically?
Google Calendar™ has no setting that adds one, and Speedy meetings only shortens the meetings you create. DOFOTT's Brain Sauna writes a 5, 10 or 15 minute block before or after each Zoom, Meet, Teams or Webex meeting in your Google Calendar™.
What happens when my calls are back to back?
With a gap shorter than your setting, the break shrinks to fill it, and a before and an after that meet become one block. With no gap at all there is no block, because DOFOTT never shortens or moves your meetings.
Does it work for meetings other people invite me to?
Yes. It reads the call link in the location or the description, wherever the invitation came from. An invitation you have not accepted yet gets a break once you say yes.
Do the breaks count toward the free 12 meetings?
No. Only meetings with a place are counted. Breaks around online meetings are free, however many there are.
Can I turn it off?
Yes, on the settings page: Off, Before, After or Both, and 5, 10 or 15 minutes. With Off, DOFOTT removes the breaks it wrote.
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