Pomodoro Timer
How the cycle runs
Twenty-five minutes of work, five minutes off, and after four rounds a longer break — press start once and the timer moves between the phases on its own, with a row of dots tracking how many focus rounds you’ve completed.
All of it is editable. The classic 25/5 split suits tasks with obvious seams — email, revision, admin — but there’s no rule forcing you to keep it if your own work fits a different rhythm better.
Where the technique actually comes from
Francesco Cirillo devised it as a university student in the late 1980s, using a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato — pomodoro, in Italian — which is the entire reason for the name.
The twenty-five minutes gets most of the attention, but the rule that actually does the work is different: an interrupted round doesn’t count. Knowing a phone call voids the whole round is what makes people willing to let it ring.
Questions people ask
Why twenty-five minutes specifically?
Cirillo picked it as a student mainly because it was short enough to start on a day nothing felt startable. The number itself isn’t sacred — a length you’ll actually begin beats a theoretically better one you keep avoiding.
What happens after four rounds?
A longer break follows, fifteen minutes by default, and the count resets. Both the round count and every length here can be changed.
Should I keep working if I’m mid-thought when the bell rings?
If the work is genuinely flowing, finishing the thought before the break is usually the better call — the technique is a scaffold, not a rulebook.