Marcel Masque developed an app to help teenagers manage homework schedules.
Camera IconMarcel Masque developed an app to help teenagers manage homework schedules. Credit: Supplied/Gloria Salgado Gispert

BreakItUp: Hillarys teen develops app to help manage homework

Lucy JarvisWanneroo Times

A HILLARYS teenager has created a mobile phone app to help teenagers manage time spent on homework.

To manage his own workload, Marcel Masque (16) developed the free BreakItUp app, which is available for iOS devices through the App Store.

“I started Year 11, and like a lot of my friends, I felt the workload increase rapidly, and I started finding it hard to concentrate and work efficiently,” he said.

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“I was trying to work for long periods of time, and often, social media distracted me from what I was meant to be doing.

“So I made an app to organize my time and avoid social media distractions.”

The Greenwood College student said the app allowed users to manage how they spent their homework time.

“Users can set work and break intervals, and how much time they would like to work for, and the app times them as they work, allowing them to focus until the time is up, and then take short breaks,” he said.

“BreakItUp has a ‘punishment mode’, that when turned on, adds five minutes to the user’s work time every time they leave the app.

“This keeps the users from distracting social media and messages while they do their homework.”

Marcel said his father Pere was distributing the app to meet legal requirements.