How It Works
Twenty-five minutes of focused work. Five-minute break. After four rounds, a longer break. Francesco Cirillo invented this in the late 1980s using a tomato-shaped kitchen timer. The system is almost comically simple, which is precisely why it works.
Sustained attention degrades after about 20 to 25 minutes. The Pomodoro break lands right at that boundary, resetting your focus instead of grinding past it.
Customizing Sessions
The classic intervals are 25/5/15. Click Settings to adjust. Work duration runs from 15 to 50 minutes. Short breaks, 3 to 10. Long breaks, 15 to 30. Cycles before a long break, typically 3 to 6.
Start with the defaults. If you consistently feel fried before the work timer ends, shorten your sessions. If breaks feel like interruptions, try longer work blocks.
Common Variations
The 52/17 pattern: 52 minutes of work, 17 off. Popular with people who find 25 minutes too short for deep work. The 90-minute block mirrors the body's ultradian rhythm, though it needs a proper 20-minute recovery afterward.
Some people run 15-minute Pomodoros for tasks they keep avoiding. Low commitment, high starting rate. The timer doesn't care about your feelings. It just counts.
Tracking & Export
Every completed session records with a timestamp. Click History to review, Export CSV to download. Over time, you'll learn how many Pomodoros a given task actually costs. That's surprisingly useful information.
Everything stays in your browser. Nothing leaves the device.
Getting the Most Out of It
Know what you'll work on before you press Start. Vague goals produce vague sessions. Protect the interval: if something interrupts you, note it and return. If the interruption wins, reset and start fresh. Partial credit doesn't count.
Take the breaks. Actually take them. Stand up, look away from the screen, move. The break is part of the system, not a suggestion.