Pomodoro Timer
Classic 25/5 pomodoro focus timer with audio + browser notification, customisable intervals, and session counter.
Pomodoro Timer
Settings
How to use the pomodoro timer
Click Start focus
A 25-minute work session begins. The ring fills and the time counts down. The browser tab title shows the remaining time so you can see it in any tab. The timer keeps running even if you switch tabs or your screen sleeps — it uses real-time deltas, not setInterval drift.
Work for the whole 25 minutes
The classic rule: no email, no Slack, no Twitter, no "quick check". If something urgent comes in, jot it on paper and address it during the break. The point isn't to be inflexible — it's that pulling out of focus mid-session has a real cost (typically 15-20 minutes to fully re-engage).
Take the break when it chimes
At the end of 25 minutes you get a two-tone chime + browser notification + the timer flips to a 5-minute short break. Stand up, walk, stretch, get water — actively rest your eyes and posture. Don't doom-scroll.
Long break every 4 sessions
After every 4th completed work session (about 2 hours of focused work), the timer gives you a 15-minute long break instead of a short one. Use this for lunch, a walk, or a real reset. Adjust the intervals to your preference in Settings — some people find 50/10 or 90/15 works better for deep work.
The Pomodoro Technique — old idea, still works
Francesco Cirillo was a university student in Rome in the late 1980s, struggling to focus on his exam preparation. He set a tomato-shaped kitchen timer (pomodoro is Italian for tomato) for 10 minutes and challenged himself to work uninterrupted until it rang. The trick worked. He gradually extended the interval to 25 minutes and codified the surrounding rules — short break after each pomodoro, longer break after four — into what he later called the Pomodoro Technique. It has since become one of the most-tested productivity methods in the world, with studies in Italy, Japan, Korea, and the US confirming the basic finding: breaking work into time-bounded chunks with mandatory recovery breaks meaningfully reduces fatigue and increases sustained output for most knowledge workers.
Why 25 minutes works
The 25-minute interval isn't magical — it's a useful default that hits three psychological sweet spots at once. It's long enough to get into flow: most cognitive tasks take 8-15 minutes of focused attention before the brain is fully engaged, and 25 minutes gives you 10 minutes of "real" working time after that ramp-up. It's short enough to be non-threatening: starting a 25-minute task is psychologically easier than starting a 2-hour task, and the timer's count-down gives a finish line in sight. It fits the limit of comfortable sustained focus: research on attention residue (the "attention hangover" of context-switching) shows that beyond about 30 minutes, focus quality degrades and the recovery break needed grows non-linearly. 25/5 keeps the recovery cost constant.
The break isn't optional. Studies of "no-break" coders show productivity drops 15-20% after the third hour vs evenly-broken work — the breaks pay for themselves several times over.
Variants that work better for some tasks
Deep technical work — writing code, designing systems, drafting long documents — often benefits from longer intervals. The "Animedoro" variant (60/20) and the "ultradian" cycle (90/15-30) both reflect biological rhythms — humans naturally cycle through alertness peaks of about 90 minutes (called BRAC cycles) followed by 20-30 minute troughs. Adjust the intervals in Settings to match your task. Conversely, for boring or hated tasks, the original 25/5 (or even shorter, like 15/5) reduces the psychological barrier to starting. Many ADHD coaches recommend 15/5 or 20/5 as the entry-level pomodoro for people who struggle with task initiation.
The APAC productivity landscape
Pomodoro practice varies sharply across APAC working cultures. Japan developed the related "Ichi-go ichi-e" focus philosophy and pomodoro adoption is strong in tech and academia, often combined with the Toggl-style time tracking that Japanese consultancies popularised. South Korea's intense study culture (especially in hagwon prep) has pomodoro built into many self-study apps; Korean students often run 50/10 for university entrance exam prep. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan have heavy adoption among freelancers and remote workers — co-working spaces routinely play pomodoro-themed lo-fi music. India sees rapid pomodoro growth in the BPO and IT services sectors, where many KPIs are tracked in 30-minute units. China uses 番茄 (fanqie, "tomato") in productivity apps like Forest and Tide, both wildly popular among college students. Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia have growing adoption in remote-first companies and creator economies; the WFH boom of 2020+ embedded pomodoro in many digital workers' daily routines. Australia, New Zealand have pomodoro embedded in many university study skills programs. Wherever you are, the technique is portable — it works in every language and every working culture.
What pomodoro doesn't fix
It doesn't help with task selection — you still need to know what to work on. It doesn't help with creative problem-solving that requires open-ended thinking; some breakthroughs come only when you let your mind wander past a clock. It doesn't help with meetings, calls, or anything else that's externally time-bounded already. And it can backfire for high-flow tasks where 25 minutes is a frustrating interruption rather than a natural break — that's when ultradian (90/20) is the better fit. Use the technique where it helps; don't fetishise it.
10 Things You Didn't Know About the Pomodoro Technique
Francesco Cirillo developed the Pomodoro Technique in the late 1980s while preparing for university exams in Rome, using a tomato-shaped kitchen timer.
The original interval Cirillo used was 10 minutes — he gradually extended to 25 after experimenting with what felt sustainable.
The Forest app (pomodoro-based, with virtual tree-growing as gamification) is the #1 productivity app in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan — more popular than even regional alternatives.
Ultradian rhythms (~90-minute cycles of alertness) were discovered by Nathan Kleitman in 1953 — the same researcher who discovered REM sleep.
A 2014 study at Microsoft Research found that workers using time-boxed focus periods reported 30% less end-of-day fatigue than those working without structured breaks.
The "20-20-20 rule" for eye strain (every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for 20 seconds) was designed specifically to fit into pomodoro break patterns.
Many productivity researchers consider attention residue — the drop in focus quality after context-switching — to be the single largest hidden cost in knowledge work.
Cirillo's official Pomodoro Technique book has sold over 2 million copies in 20+ languages, including Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, and Bahasa Indonesia.
Some ADHD researchers recommend the "Pomodoro Minus" — 15/5 or even 10/5 intervals — for people who struggle with task initiation more than focus duration.
The technique works in any culture and any language — studies in Italy, Germany, US, Japan, Korea, and Australia have all replicated the same productivity finding.
FAQ
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Yes — the timer uses real-time deltas (Date.now()) rather than tick counters, so it stays accurate even when the tab is backgrounded or your screen sleeps. The countdown is also shown in the browser tab title so you can monitor it from another tab.
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It's the original Cirillo interval and it hits a sweet spot: long enough to enter flow (typically 8-15 min) plus 10+ minutes of productive work, short enough to feel non-threatening at the start. But it's not magical — adjust to whatever works for your task and energy level.
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Change the Focus value in Settings. Common variants: 50/10 (Animedoro), 60/15 (university study), 90/20 (ultradian — matches biological alertness cycles). For very deep technical work like coding or writing, 90/20 often works better than 25/5.
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Only if you want OS-level notification chimes when intervals end. The audio chime (via WebAudio) works without any permission. Browser notification adds a popup that appears even if the tab is in the background. You can use either or both.
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In your browser's localStorage — never uploaded. They persist between sessions on the same device + browser. Clear browser data resets them. The session counter resets on page reload (intentionally — focus sessions are per-day, not lifetime).
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By default, when a focus session ends, the break is queued but doesn't start until you click — same after the break, you manually start the next focus. Auto-start removes the manual click — useful if you've internalised the rhythm and don't want to break flow with extra clicks.
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The original Cirillo rule: no. Breaks are for physical reset (stand, water, eyes-off-screen), not more screen time. Checking email during the break can pull you out of the rhythm and starts the attention-residue clock again. Save email for between groups of pomodoros.
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Cirillo's advice: use the remaining time to review or refine what you just did. Don't start a new task — that defeats the time-boxing benefit. If you genuinely have nothing related to do, take the early break and start fresh.
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Yes. iOS Safari and Chrome on Android both support the audio chime. Browser notifications work on Android Chrome but iOS Safari is more restricted. Keep the tab open and unmuted for full functionality.
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It shouldn't — the timer uses Date.now() deltas, not setInterval ticks. If you see drift, your system clock may be adjusting (NTP sync, timezone change). Reset the timer if you notice an issue.
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