# Gravitropic > Gravitropic is a free, offline-first study timer for UPSC Civil Services aspirants on Android and the web: a focus timer, a Mains answer-writing timer with separate thinking and writing phases, a 1-3-5 daily planner and a private study tracker. No ads, no subscription, no account required. Available on Google Play and at https://gravitropic.org for iPhone, iPad and desktop. Your daily gravity toward the goal. Key facts: - Platform: Android (Google Play, package `org.gravitropic`) and web / iOS at https://gravitropic.org (install via Safari "Add to Home Screen" on iPhone and iPad) - Price: free. No ads, no in-app purchases, no paywalled features - Privacy: works fully offline; the study log stays on the device. Google sign-in is optional and only used for cross-device sync - The study day runs 5am to 5am, so a late-night session counts toward the day it started - Streaks survive planned rest days - Session tags for UPSC work: GS1, GS2, Optional, CSAT, Revision, Reading, Practice Sets - Data export to JSON or CSV at any time - Also suits State PSC, SSC, banking and other exams that reward daily consistency ## Get the app - [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.gravitropic): the Android app - [Web / iOS](https://gravitropic.org): open in any browser or install on iPhone, iPad, and desktop ## Guides The full text of every guide, as Markdown, is at https://gravitropic.in/llms-full.txt. - [How many hours a day should you study for UPSC?](https://gravitropic.in/guides/how-many-hours-upsc-preparation/): Six to eight hours of genuinely focused study a day is a strong, sustainable target for a full-time UPSC aspirant, and three to four protected hours on weekdays for a working one. The daily total matters less than two other numbers: how many days you actually studied, and which subjects the hours went to. - [How long should a 150 and 250 word answer actually take?](https://gravitropic.in/guides/upsc-mains-answer-writing-timing/): About 7 minutes for a 10-mark, 150-word answer and about 11 minutes for a 15-mark, 250-word answer. A UPSC Mains GS paper is 20 questions in 180 minutes, so that split uses the whole three hours with nothing spare, and thinking time has to come out of the same budget. - [Does the Pomodoro technique work for UPSC? 25 minutes versus 50](https://gravitropic.in/guides/pomodoro-technique-upsc/): The Pomodoro technique works for UPSC preparation, but the classic 25-minute block is too short for most of the work. Use 25 minutes to get started on a bad day and for revision or current affairs; use 45 to 50 minutes with a 10-minute break for reading a new topic; and match the block to the exam, about three hours, for full answer-writing practice. - [A daily UPSC study plan that survives the day: the 1-3-5 rule](https://gravitropic.in/guides/upsc-daily-study-plan-1-3-5/): Plan each UPSC study day as nine tasks at most: one major task that needs your best two to three hours, three medium tasks of about an hour each, and five small ones of fifteen minutes or less. Do the major task first. If the day collapses, the major task alone still counts as a day. - [How to track UPSC study hours, and what to do with the log](https://gravitropic.in/guides/upsc-study-tracker-log/): Track four things per session: when it started, how long it ran, which subject it was, and whether it was study or answer writing. Read the log once a week for three numbers only: days studied, hours per subject, and when your first session of the day began. A log is for catching drift early, not for admiring the total. ## Questions ### Can I use it on iPhone, iPad, or desktop? Yes. Visit gravitropic.org in any browser. On iPhone and iPad, tap Share in Safari and select "Add to Home Screen" to install it directly to your home screen with full offline support. ### Does it work without internet? Yes. The timer, the answer-writing clock, your tags, to-dos and analytics all run on the device. Background visuals stream once and are cached, and anything you favourite is pinned so it never gets evicted. ### Do I need an account? No. It opens straight into a working timer and keeps your log on the device. Google sign-in is optional, and only so a phone and a laptop can show the same log. ### Is it free? Are there ads? Free, no ads, no subscription. There is no advertising SDK in the app and no part of the timer is behind a paywall. ### Why does the day start at 5am? Because someone at the desk until 1am is still working on the day they sat down for. A midnight boundary splits that session across two days and gets both of them wrong. Every total, streak and calendar cell in the app uses the 5am boundary. ### What happens to my streak if I take a day off? Nothing, if you mark it. Set your weekly rest day in Settings, or mark one day from the calendar, and the streak steps over it rather than resetting. ### How is the answer-writing timer different from a normal one? It separates thinking from writing, so you can see which half is costing you the time, and it has laps for working through a set at Mains pace. The default targets are UPSC targets, and you can change them. ### Can I get my data out? Any time, as JSON or CSV, from Your data in the app. It is your study log; you should not need permission to keep a copy. ### How do I get help or send feedback? Message me on Telegram — that is the quickest, and it reaches me directly. Email works too if you would rather. ## Policies and contact - [Privacy policy](https://gravitropic.org/privacy) - [Terms](https://gravitropic.org/terms) - [Delete your account](https://gravitropic.org/delete-account) - Support: support@gravitropic.org