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Pomodoro timer

Work in focus blocks with breaks, and see each finished block on today's strip with what it was for.

Ready for your first block

25:00

Today

Block 0

Settings and your data

Lengths

Cirillo's original: 25-minute blocks, 3 to 5-minute breaks, and 15 to 30 minutes after every four. Changes apply from the next block.

The next block always waits for you.

Everything here is saved in this browser on this device only. Export a copy to keep it safe or move it.

Importing replaces what's here. The data it replaces is kept on this device, below.

One row per block, oldest first, for a spreadsheet.

Saved on this device.

How it works

This timer follows Francesco Cirillo's original method. A block of focus is 25 minutes; after it comes a 5-minute break, and after every fourth block a 15-minute one. His paper allows 3 to 5 minutes for short breaks and 15 to 30 for long ones, and you can change all of it in Settings. Nothing proves 25 minutes is best; it's simply where he set his kitchen timer.

When a block's time runs out it lands on today's strip with what you worked on, the way Cirillo marked an X on his day's sheet. If you stop a block, it doesn't count, as in the original, but it stays as a mark so you can see the interruptions. There's no "finish early": his rule is that once a Pomodoro starts, it has to ring.

The end of each block is a fixed time on the clock, so switching tabs doesn't slow it down. A phone pauses web pages when it locks, so there the bell waits until you look; a block that ended meanwhile is still logged at the right time. The day starts at 4 AM, so late-night blocks count for the evening they belong to. Everything stays in this browser; export it any time.

Questions people ask

What is the Pomodoro Technique?
A way of working in 25-minute blocks with a short break after each and a longer break after every four, created by Francesco Cirillo and named after his tomato-shaped kitchen timer. He marked each finished block with an X on the day's to-do sheet; this timer puts it on today's strip.
How long should the breaks be?
Cirillo's paper says 3 to 5 minutes after each block, and 15 to 30 minutes after every four. This timer uses 5 and 15 by default; change both in Settings.
Is 25 minutes the best length?
Nobody has shown that. 25 minutes is the length Cirillo used, and the popular 52/17 split comes from one company's app data, not a study. Student studies are small and mixed: in one, fixed 24-and-6 breaks left students less tired than breaks they chose; in another, 25-and-5 breaks made no overall difference to what got done.
What happens if I stop a block early?
It doesn't count, as in the original, where an interrupted Pomodoro is void. The strip still shows a mark where it happened, the way Cirillo records one with an apostrophe, so you can see how often you were interrupted.
Will it ring if I switch tabs?
Yes: the end time is fixed by the clock and the bell is scheduled for it, so another tab doesn't delay it. A locked phone pauses web pages, so there the bell waits until you look; on a computer or an Android phone, turn on Notify me.

Sources

  1. Francesco Cirillo, The Pomodoro Technique (paper, v1.3), copy hosted by the University of Maryland
  2. Francesco Cirillo: the Pomodoro Technique book and origin
  3. Biwer et al. 2023, "Understanding effort regulation: Comparing 'Pomodoro' breaks and self-regulated breaks"
  4. Smits, Wenzel and de Bruin 2025, self-regulated, Pomodoro and Flowtime breaks
  5. DeskTime: the 52/17 research (company data)
  6. Chrome for Developers: timer throttling in Chrome 88
  7. MDN: ServiceWorkerRegistration.showNotification()
  8. Apple Developer Forums: JavaScript in Safari in the background