Pomodoro Timer

How this Pomodoro timer works

• Focus, Short break, Long break: the three buttons at the top switch modes by hand. Normally you don't need them — the timer moves to the right break by itself when a focus session ends, and back to focus after the break.
• Start, Pause, Reset: Pause keeps the remaining time. Reset restarts the current session from the beginning.
• Skip ends the current session early and moves to the next one. A skipped focus session isn't counted.
• Long breaks: by default every 4th completed focus session is followed by a long break. Change that number under Settings.
• Auto-start: tick "Start the next session automatically" if you want breaks and focus sessions to follow each other without pressing Start.
• Today's count: the number of focus sessions you completed today. It starts again at zero the next day.

A chime marks the end of each session, and the remaining time shows in the browser tab's title. Settings and the daily count are stored in this browser only.

Where the Pomodoro Technique comes from

The Pomodoro Technique was created by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s, when he was struggling to focus on his university studies. He started with a tomato-shaped kitchen timer and a modest question: could he study for just two minutes without interruption? Pomodoro is Italian for tomato, and the work sessions took the name of the timer.

The version most people know — work for 25 minutes, then take a short break — is only the visible part. Cirillo himself points out that the 25-minute sessions aren't the whole technique. The method also involves planning what you will work on, keeping track of the sessions you complete and interruptions you get, and reviewing that record to plan better. The timer on this page handles the timing; a notebook or a to-do list does the rest.

Pomodoro® is a registered trademark of Francesco Cirillo. This page is an independent timer and isn't affiliated with him.

What a morning of pomodoros looks like

With the default settings, one full cycle — four focus sessions, three short breaks and a long break — takes 130 minutes, or 2 hours 10 minutes. Starting at 9:00 a.m.:

That is 100 minutes of focused work by 11:10 a.m.. A second cycle would end at 1:20 p.m. — which is around when most workplaces expect a meal break anyway.

Pomodoro breaks and your legal breaks at work

The five-minute Pomodoro breaks are your own short pauses. They don't replace the meal or rest breaks that employment standards guarantee. The rules depend on who regulates your workplace:

Under the federal rules, managers and some professionals (architects, dentists, engineers, lawyers and medical doctors) are excluded from the break provision, and an employer can postpone or cancel a break only to deal with an unforeseeable situation that threatens life, health, safety, property or the operation of the workplace. Other provinces and territories have their own rules; check your provincial employment standards office. This is general information, not legal advice.

A practical combination: run your pomodoros inside each stretch of work and take your full legal break at the end of a cycle or two, instead of one of the long Pomodoro breaks.

Choosing your own lengths

Twenty-five minutes is a starting point, not a rule. Adjust the settings to fit the work:

• Deep work (writing, coding, studying hard material): longer sessions such as 45 or 50 minutes with a 10-minute break let you get into a problem before the timer interrupts you.
• Hard-to-start tasks (the email you've been avoiding, a messy spreadsheet): shorter sessions — 10 or 15 minutes — make starting easier. Cirillo's own first experiment was two minutes.
• Study for exams: keep sessions the same length as the sections of the exam you're preparing for, so you practise focusing for that long.

Use the breaks to move. Canada's 24-Hour Movement Guidelines recommend breaking up long periods of sitting as often as possible, and a Pomodoro break is a natural moment to stand, stretch or walk to refill your water.

Tips that make it work

1. Decide the task before you press Start. Write it down. A session spent choosing what to do isn't a focus session.
2. Silence notifications on your phone and computer for the length of the session.
3. Note interruptions instead of acting on them. If something comes to mind, jot it down and get back to the task; deal with the list during the break.
4. If a session gets derailed, restart it. Press Reset and begin a fresh 25 minutes rather than counting a session that was mostly interruptions.
5. Review at the end of the day. The session count tells you how much focused time you actually had — often less than it felt like, and a better basis for planning tomorrow.