What the Pomodoro Technique is
Francesco Cirillo came up with it as a university student, using a tomato-shaped kitchen timer (pomodoro is Italian for tomato). You work on one thing for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and after four rounds take a longer 15–30 minute break. A short, fixed block is easier to start than an open-ended study session, and a break you know is coming makes it easier to put distractions off.
How to use this timer
- Type what you are working on into Working on. Writing it down makes it easier to get back on track when your mind wanders.
- Press Start (or the spacebar). The ring counts down and the browser tab title shows the time left, so you can see it from another tab.
- When time is up you hear a chime and the timer moves to the next phase. Turn on Start the next phase automatically to let it run hands-free.
- Every completed focus session is added to Today. The count resets when the date changes.
How long is one full set?
With the defaults (25 min focus, 5 min short break, a 15 min long break after four sessions), one set takes 25 × 4 + 5 × 3 + 15 = 130 minutes, of which 100 minutes are focused work. That makes one set a handy unit for planning a two-hour study block.
For deep work such as writing or coding, many people stretch it to 50 minutes on and 10 off. Any change you make to the durations is saved in this browser.
Why it stays accurate in a background tab
The timer does not subtract one second at a time. It records when the phase should end and recalculates the time left on every tick, so switching tabs or a busy browser never pushes the end time back. The chime is scheduled on the browser’s audio clock for the exact end time as well. Phones may pause the browser when the screen turns off, so turn on Keep the screen on when you use it on a phone.
Common questions
- No notification? Allow notifications when your browser asks. Safari on iPhone only supports web notifications for sites added to the Home Screen, so elsewhere you get the sound only.
- Does skipping count? Only focus sessions that run to the end are logged. Skipping just moves you to the next phase.
- Where is my log kept? Only in this browser. Nothing is uploaded and it does not sync between devices.
For a one-off countdown, such as timing a workout or noodles, the Timer & Stopwatch is simpler.