Pomodoro timer
Focus in short, timed sprints with automatic breaks. Customisable lengths, sound alerts and desktop notifications — all in your browser.
About the Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique is one of the best-known time-management methods in the world, built on a simple idea: concentration is easier to sustain in short, protected bursts than across a long, open-ended stretch. You pick one task, work on it with undivided attention for a set interval — a pomodoro — and then rest briefly before the next one. The timer does the discipline for you. Instead of asking whether you feel like working, you only have to commit to a single 25-minute block, which is short enough that starting feels manageable even when the overall task is daunting. The regular breaks are not a reward tacked on the end; they are part of the method, giving your attention time to recover so each block is as sharp as the last.
History of the Pomodoro Technique
The technique was created in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, then a university student in Italy struggling to concentrate on his studies. He challenged himself to focus for just ten minutes and grabbed the tomato-shaped kitchen timer on his desk to measure it — and because the Italian word for tomato is pomodoro, the method and its intervals took that name. Cirillo refined the approach over the following years, settling on the now-familiar 25-minute work blocks with short breaks, and published it more widely in the 2000s. It spread rapidly through the software-development and productivity communities and has since become a staple studied in books, apps and classrooms around the world, all traceable back to one student and a kitchen timer.
How the Pomodoro Technique works
The classic cycle has four steps. First, choose a single task and start a 25-minute focus session, working only on that task until the timer rings. Second, take a five-minute short break to step away completely. Third, repeat — each completed 25-minute block is one pomodoro. Fourth, after four pomodoros, take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes before starting the cycle again. This timer automates the whole loop: it moves you from focus to break and back, counts your completed pomodoros, and inserts the long break at the right point, so you never have to reset anything by hand. If a distraction pops into your head mid-session, the traditional advice is to jot it down and deal with it later rather than breaking focus.
What the Pomodoro Technique is used for
Students use it to study for exams without burning out, breaking dense material into blocks with recovery time between them. Writers and creators use it to get past the blank page, since committing to a single 25-minute session is far less intimidating than committing to "write the chapter". Developers and knowledge workers use it to protect deep-focus time from the constant pull of messages and meetings, and to make large projects feel measurable — progress becomes a countable stack of pomodoros rather than a vague sense of effort. Anyone prone to procrastination benefits from the way the technique lowers the barrier to starting, which is usually the hardest part of any task.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Pomodoro Technique?
The Pomodoro Technique is a time-management method that breaks work into focused intervals — traditionally 25 minutes — separated by short breaks. Each interval is called a pomodoro. You work with full concentration until the timer rings, take a five-minute break, and after four pomodoros you take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes. The structure turns a vague, intimidating task into a series of short, winnable sprints, and the regular breaks keep your attention fresh instead of letting it drain away over a long unbroken stretch.
Can I change the length of the focus and break periods?
Yes. While 25 minutes of focus with 5-minute short breaks and a 15-minute long break is the classic setup, this timer lets you adjust every interval in the settings, along with how many pomodoros come before a long break. Some people focus better with 50-minute deep-work blocks and 10-minute breaks, while others prefer shorter 15-minute sprints. Your settings are saved in your browser, so your preferred configuration is remembered the next time you open the timer.
Does the timer keep accurate time if I switch tabs or lock my screen?
Yes. The countdown is calculated from a fixed end time rather than by counting ticks, so even when a background tab is slowed down by the browser to save power, the display snaps back to the correct remaining time the moment you return, and a session that should have finished will be marked complete. The one thing a heavily throttled background tab can delay is the exact instant the end-of-session sound plays, so keeping the tab visible, or enabling desktop notifications, gives you the most reliable alert.
Will I get an alert when a session ends?
When a focus or break period finishes, the timer plays a short chime generated in your browser — no sound file is downloaded — and you can turn that sound off in the settings if you prefer to work silently. You can also enable desktop notifications, which ask your permission once and then pop up a system notification when each session ends, so you can look away from the tab and still know exactly when it is time to switch between working and resting.
What should I do during the breaks?
The break is for genuinely disengaging from the task so your mind can recover, which is what makes the next pomodoro productive. Stand up, stretch, look at something far away to rest your eyes, get water, or walk around — anything that is not the work you were just doing. It is best to avoid starting something absorbing like social media or email during a five-minute break, because those rarely stop cleanly at five minutes and pull your attention away from the rhythm the technique depends on.
Is my data private and does the timer work offline?
Completely private. The timer runs entirely in your browser, and your settings and today's completed count are stored only in your own browser's local storage — nothing is sent to a server or shared with anyone. Because there is no server involved, the timer also keeps working if you lose your internet connection: once the page has loaded you can go offline and it will run exactly the same, which makes it handy for focused work without distractions.