My desktop is set up with a 32-inch 1440p display, and it suffices for most tasks, including work and play. I can get a lot done with the screen real estate because even with the space equally divided between four applications using FancyZones or split view on Windows, each individual window is still large enough for text and images to remain legible. I still struggle to work on smaller laptop screens because they feel cluttered and dense when text is scaled to a readable level.

It might be a classic case of preferring a bigger screen to reduce clutter, only to see the chaos grow through a patchwork of sticky notes, half-finished documents, and a dozen browser tabs for weather, stocks, your calendar, and that one playlist I keep meaning to listen to. I've found that a lot of the junk hogging my digital real estate, and attention by association, is stuff I tend to check several times a day. In search of a lasting cure, I found the TRMNL, a small 7.5-inch ePaper display running custom open-source firmware that promises to reduce distractions and help improve your focus. So, I decided to give it a try.

The TRMNL shares a lot with other ePaper displays such as the Seeed Studio Xiao Panel, with the key differentiator being firmware that allows you to create a looping playlist of items called Plugins. Any basic information that's available through a web hook or API can become a plugin, and you can even create your own using TRMNL's clean web UI. Combine that with Wi-Fi controls, custom refresh rates, sleep schedules, an everlasting battery, and several shell color choices, and it seems like the open-source community triumphs again. You could even finesse this firmware onto an ESP32-based development board or a Kindle. Here's how this little device changed my life in just a week.

7 Offloading current info

Shopping lists and weather info banished from my desktop

For me, the TRMNL's most immediate benefit came in its ability to completely offload the persistent, nagging bits of information from my 32-inch monitor. My main screen is for work—code editors, design software, and research documents. Yet, a corner of it was always reserved for a weather widget, another for a to-do list, and I’d constantly be opening a new tab to check my Google Calendar. It’s a classic case of digital clutter, where unrelated personal data encroaches on my primary workspace, creating a constant, low-level distraction.

The TRMNL elegantly solves this. I now have a dedicated space for my local weather forecast, my shared family calendar, and my daily to-do list from Google Tasks. This information sits quietly on my desk, always visible but never demanding attention while it radiates information. Surprisingly, this seems to improve my memory and retention as well, perhaps because my looping schedule shows the same shopping list once every couple of hours.

My TRMNL lives on my desk right beside my PC, but you can mount it centrally, like in the kitchen, and use it to display a shared shopping list or family appointments. For business customers, this could translate to a dedicated display outside a meeting room showing the schedule, or a dashboard on a manager's desk showing key sales metrics from Salesforce or Shopify storefronts without needing a browser tab open all the time. For work, I've added TechMeme headlines and custom RSS feed plugins, but you could also display YouTube channel metrics or code commits from a linked GitHub project.

My desktop is now a zen place for creating articles and laser focus, while the TRMNL is a silent dashboard for everything else that doesn't disturb or leave me battling a fear of missing out. I'm still polishing the plugin playlist, but the reduced digital noise is bound to boost my productivity.

6 Silent refresh

With custom plugins and screen splits

While glanceable information is already a welcome departure from digital overload, you might want more information visible at once, instead of just a single item on the TRMNL each time you look at it. The firmware provides eight different layouts, with the most dense one showing four plugins simultaneously. Of course, the readability of text-heavy information takes a hit, and you need to select the layout in each split wisely, but once that's set up, you'll have more information on display every time you look at the gadget.

The setup is incredibly simple. Through a web interface, you just point and click to select your plugins and arrange them in a layout. This ease of use, combined with the depth of available integrations, makes the TRMNL both accessible to the average user and powerful enough for the tech-savvy tinkerer. The ecosystem is vast and growing, with over 100 official apps and thousands of custom plugins available. You can connect everything from your Outlook or Google Calendar to productivity tools like Todoist and Basecamp, news sources like Hacker News, and even fun personal plugins like one that shows the daily Calvin and Hobbes comic. For business users, the ability to pull data from Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Salesforce makes it a powerful, at-a-glance business intelligence tool.

The other significant advantage of the TRMNL comes through its silent and automated operation. Once configured with the desired plugins playing on loop, I can rest assured the display will update with current information as long as my Wi-Fi doesn't die. Sure, it flashes white and black when the e-ink refreshes between plugins, but that's also how the battery can last for months on a single charge. There are no glowing pixels like a typical attention-hungry emissive display flashing at me either.

5 Support for open APIs

Code your own plugins, even for other users

The open-source firmware and web UI set the TRMNL apart from other similar gadgets because if a plugin for a service you rely on doesn't exist, you just need the $20 Developer Edition upgrade to make your own. Since the device pulls information from a web server, you'll need to pull the information using a web hook that pulls data from an endpoint reliant on public APIs for updates. A more complicated yet private approach supported on the device involves hosting that backend yourself so you aren't reliant on their cloud service.

The company provides open-source firmware, a well-documented REST API, and a powerful templating system that lets you build your own private plugins with just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The folks behind TRMNL also provide multiple open-source server clients in different languages, like Ruby, PHP, and JavaScript, simplifying the aforementioned setup of a custom backend. The one-way communication architecture, where the device requests an image from the server, is also a smart, privacy-first design choice that prevents outsiders from accessing your local network.

This openness ensures the TRMNL will never become obsolete. As new services and APIs emerge, the community can build plugins to support them. It’s a device that can grow with my needs and I don't think it will go obsolete if the firmware isn't maintained due to unfortunate circumstances. For anyone with even a basic understanding of webhooks and APIs, the TRMNL is less of a product and more of a platform for creativity. I'm still figuring out a Google Keep custom plugin because Google doesn't offer ready access via APIs and authentication, but so long as you have an accessible source of data you track frequently, TRMNL can be a great companion.

4 Fewer distractions

Less time spent repetitively checking the same thing

It might seem repetitive to bring up how the TRMNL reduces time spent checking the same stock prices and news headlines compulsively all day, but there's a lot more than that to it. We rarely ever pull up a browser tab just to look at the headlines — it usually spirals into reading an article or two, and scrolling way past what we intended to do. With the TRMNL, all that is gone. The problem is that our phones are designed to be attention traps. Each of these "phone pulls" is a potential rabbit hole that shatters my focus.

Instead of actively seeking information and risking distraction, the information is just passively there on my TRMNL — everything from a new word to learn for the day, to the weather. As for me, there's no scope for interacting with the presented information besides just consuming it and returning to the task I was handling. This principle extends to the desktop experience as well. Before, if I wanted to see my upcoming appointments, I’d have to Alt-Tab to my browser, find the right tab, and then resist the urge to check my email while I was there. Now, I just glance at the TRMNL on my desk. The information is delivered without the cognitive load of a context switch and without the accompanying temptation of digital distractions.

The device is intentionally simple. It shows you what you need to know and nothing more. The calm technology seems to respect your attention span. Even the amount of data on the tiny screen doesn't take more than a minute to consume.

3 A return to passive consumption

With no scope for interaction

I often liken TRMNL to a digital book when people ask me about it. Even though the content updates at set intervals and the display cycles through the playlist of plugins, there is no force refreshing, an option to scroll further, or to interact with the displayed content— just like a book. As such, the TRMNL is the antithesis of every interaction-hungry app and website on the internet quantifying value in active users and audience engagement.

I can see some of you reaching for the comments suggesting I switch to a printed tear-off calendar instead of forcing an ePaper display to take that role if I love passive consumption so much. However, it is not as limiting as I feared initially. This lack of interactivity forces a more mindful relationship with your data. The act of consumption is separated from the act of interaction. You consume by glancing, but if you want to act on that information (like replying to a calendar invite), I have to make a conscious decision to move to an interactive device like your phone or PC. This makes every reply I send out a deliberate action that isn't a knee-jerk reaction to what I saw.

Moreover, I'm not overloaded with data from my TRMNL. On a phone, a weather forecast is surrounded by interactive elements like Google's weather frog, animation, the seven-day forecast, wind speed, air quality, etc. On the TRMNL, the weather forecast is just the weather forecast. It strips away the digital noise and presents the pure data, allowing for clearer and faster comprehension. I see what I need to see, and my brain doesn't have to filter out a dozen other competing elements. I'm hoping this surgical precision in data presentation paired with the passive display will eventually teach me to satiate curiosity without getting sucked into a time-diluting vortex.

2 Memorization made easy

I keep staring at it all day

Notable authors like Johann Hari have associated an improvement in attention span with better and more vivid memory in their book Stolen Focus, and also tied it to taking a step back from digital consumption. While the TRMNL team only advertises that users should have an easier time focusing, I found that memorizing things quickly is a happy byproduct. It isn't simply due to the focused usage of your desktop, though.

My TRMNL updates every 30 minutes, cycling through about 6 plugins. So, a plugin repeats itself every three hours. In a standard nine-hour workday, I'll probably see each plugin thrice as a result, for 30 minutes each time. Some data like stock prices and headlines are updated, but comic strips and words of the day are only updated only once a day. I've found that committing that word of the day to memory is far easier because I'll inadvertently glance at it several times in the 90 minutes it's visible when I'm at my desk each day.

It's the same purpose for which I'd use flashcards and sticky notes — only this one updates automatically. Add custom flash cards, notes, memos, and other plugins to the mix, and you have a lot more you could silently learn without even realizing. A student could use it to display key formulas or historical dates while studying. A programmer could display a tricky code snippet or a new keyboard shortcut they are trying to learn. The information is always there, subtly embedding itself in your long-term memory through spaced repetition without you even trying. With plugins ready for Duolingo, I suppose picking up a new language would be easier when the TRMNL reinforces your memory instead of straining it in the five minutes you'd spend parroting the word to learn it.

To have these things you wish to learn in your line of sight for longer than the nine hours I do, you could set the TRMNL up in a living space, right next to a clock. I love that the designers included a hole to hang the device up on a wall beside your clock, as well as a flip-out stand like the ones you see in picture frames.

1 Easy on the eyes

Like all ePaper screens

This might seem obvious since all ePaper displays share this leg-up over standard LCDs, but the former is certainly easier on the eyes. Unlike conventional LCD or OLED screens that are emissive, e-ink screens are reflective. They work just like traditional paper, reflecting the ambient light in the room back to your eyes. This fundamental difference has a massive impact on eye comfort. The TRMNL is an ideal companion for a PC monitor, providing a visual break while still being informative.

Since this isn't an emissive screen, I also leave it powered on at night without a care because the battery lasts months, regardless. I also opted for the Clarity Kit add-on that includes a screen protector that further helps cut reflection from ambient light sources. You may not need the other accessories in the box, such as the branded and braided USB-C to C cable for charging, and a cleaning cloth.

I didn't know I needed a second, smaller ePaper screen

Ultimately, the TRMNL is a worthwhile investment because it’s not just another gadget; it's a tool designed to solve a fundamental problem of the modern digital experience: the constant battle for our focus. For a one-time cost starting at $139, you get a device that helps you reclaim your attention by decluttering your primary workspace. Like me, there's a good chance you'll get hooked on the convenience of having your calendar, weather, and to-do lists available at a calm, silent glance, freeing up your main monitor for work that truly matters.

With its incredible battery life, vast plugin library, and an open architecture that encourages development and tinkering, the TRMNL fills a gap between getting bigger PC monitors and managing the screen real estate you already have. It adds a new layer of functionality to your setup by creating a "calm-tech" dashboard for your life. By moving key information to a dedicated, passive, and eye-friendly display, you’re not just buying a cool e-ink screen; you’re investing in a more focused, less distracted, and more intentional way of living and having tech work alongside you.