Pomodoro Timer
Twenty-five minutes of work, then five off, with a longer break after the fourth round. It moves between phases on its own, so the only thing you have to do is press start.
Focus
25:00
About the pomodoro technique
The idea is that a fixed, short, uninterruptible block of work is easier to start than an open-ended one. Twenty-five minutes is short enough that beginning does not feel like a commitment, and long enough to get somewhere. The break afterwards is not a reward for finishing — it is part of the method, and skipping it is what makes the fourth hour worse than the first.
Francesco Cirillo named it after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he used as a student in the late 1980s. The mechanical timer mattered to the original: winding it was a small physical commitment, and its ticking was a constant reminder that the block was running.
The rule that does the work is the one about interruptions. If something comes up during a block, you write it down and deal with it in the break rather than switching to it. Most of what feels urgent turns out to be able to wait twenty minutes, and the cost of task-switching is far higher than people estimate.
The twenty-five is a starting point rather than a law. Plenty of people work better on fifty minutes with a ten minute break, particularly on work that takes a while to get into, and the fields here are editable for that reason. What matters is that the block has an end you agreed to in advance.
What people use it for
- Studying, revision and coursework
- Writing, where starting is the hard part
- Clearing a backlog of small tasks
- Deep work in an environment full of interruptions
- Pacing a long day so the last hour is still usable
How it works
The phases run one into the next automatically — focus, break, focus, break, and a longer break after the last round. A beep marks each change, so you do not have to watch it.
Each phase records the moment it should end and then reads the clock, rather than counting its own ticks. That matters more here than on a short timer: browsers throttle background tabs hard, and a pomodoro spent in another tab is exactly the case where a counting timer loses minutes.
Changing the lengths mid-session does nothing until you reset, deliberately. Moving the goalposts under a running block is the opposite of what the technique is for.
- Space
- Start or pause.
- R
- Reset.
- Tab title
- Shows the time left, so a background tab still tells you.
Questions
How long is a pomodoro?
Twenty-five minutes of focused work, followed by a five minute break. After four of them you take a longer break of fifteen to thirty minutes.
Why 25 minutes?
It is short enough that starting does not feel like a commitment and long enough to make progress. There is nothing magic about the number — Cirillo picked it because it was what his kitchen timer was set to — and plenty of people do better on 50 minutes.
What do I do if I am interrupted?
Write down whatever came up and deal with it in the break rather than switching to it. That single rule is most of what the technique is. If the interruption genuinely cannot wait, abandon the block and start a fresh one afterwards.
Should I stop when the timer goes off mid-flow?
The strict answer is yes, on the grounds that the break is what keeps you working all day. In practice most people finish the thought and take the break immediately after. Skipping breaks entirely is the version that stops working by the afternoon.
Can I change the lengths?
Yes — focus, break, long break and the number of rounds are all editable above. The changes take effect from the next reset rather than mid-block.
Does it keep time if I switch tabs?
Yes. It reads the wall clock rather than counting ticks, so background throttling cannot make it drift. This is the case a lot of pomodoro timers get wrong, and it is the case that matters most.
How many pomodoros in a day?
Eight to twelve is a realistic full day of focused work for most people, which is four to six hours. If you are managing sixteen, the blocks are probably not as focused as they feel.
Will it beep if I am in another tab?
It should — the alarm is scheduled on the audio clock when you press start, rather than fired by a JavaScript timer that a background tab may not run. Allowing notifications gives you a second, independent signal.