EthicalFusion

Pomodoro Timer

A free Pomodoro timer — 25-minute focus sessions with 5-minute breaks to help you get more done.

Runs entirely in your browser. Keep this tab open; a sound plays when the time is up.

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This Pomodoro timer alternates 25-minute focus sessions with 5-minute breaks, switching between them by itself and playing a tone at each change. A badge shows whether you are in Focus time or Break time, and a counter keeps track of completed focus sessions. Press Start and work until the tone tells you to stop.

How this timer runs

  1. Start begins a 25:00 focus session.
  2. At zero, a short beep plays, the completed-sessions counter goes up by one and a 5:00 break starts straight away.
  3. When the break ends, another beep plays and the next focus session begins.

The Start button becomes Pause while running, so you can stop for a phone call and resume later. Reset returns to a fresh 25-minute focus session and sets the counter back to zero. The 25 and 5 minute lengths are fixed.

The technique in brief

Francesco Cirillo developed the method in the late 1980s as a university student, using a tomato-shaped kitchen timer; pomodoro is Italian for tomato. The rules are simple: choose one task, work on only that until the timer rings, take a short break, and after four pomodoros take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.

This timer does not schedule the long break for you; every break is 5 minutes. When the counter reaches 4, press Pause during the break that follows, take your long break, then press Start to finish the break and carry on into the next focus session.

Planning a study day in pomodoros

A set of four pomodoros with three short breaks takes 115 minutes (4 × 25 + 3 × 5), before the long break. Eight pomodoros give 200 minutes, or 3 hours 20 minutes, of genuinely focused work, which is a solid day of revision alongside school or coaching. Estimating tasks in pomodoros ("organic chemistry notes: 3 pomodoros") makes a study plan concrete and shows quickly whether it fits the days left before an exam, which the countdown days calculator can tell you.

Making each session count

  • Silence the phone and put it out of reach for the 25 minutes.
  • Park distractions on paper. When a thought like "reply to that message" pops up, jot it down and deal with it in the break.
  • Really break. Stand up, drink water, look out of a window. Scrolling a feed does not rest the same attention you have been using.
  • Finished early? Use the remaining minutes to review what you just did rather than starting something new.

Keep the timer where it can run

Sessions count down one second at a time within the page, and browsers throttle hidden tabs while phones may freeze a page when the screen turns off. Leave the timer visible, perhaps on a second screen or a propped-up phone with a longer screen timeout, so sessions end on time. The tone is short and plays once, so keep the volume at a level you will notice. For a single timed block of any length, use the countdown timer instead.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Pomodoro Technique?
A time-management method in which you work on one task for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes after four rounds.
Does the timer switch between focus and break automatically?
Yes. Each phase starts the next one as soon as it ends, with a short beep at every switch.
Can I change the 25-minute and 5-minute lengths?
No, the lengths are fixed at the classic 25 and 5 minutes. Use the countdown timer if you need a different block length.
Does this timer include the long break?
No, every break is 5 minutes. After your fourth session, pause during the break and take a longer rest before resuming.
What does the completed sessions counter show?
It counts how many 25-minute focus sessions you have finished since starting or last pressing Reset.

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