How to use a pomodoro timer
- Pick one task. Write it on a sticky note if that helps you stay on it.
- Press Start and work on it for 25 minutes. If something else pops into your head, jot it down and go back to the task.
- When the chime plays, stop and take the 5-minute break, away from the screen if you can.
- Repeat. After four focus rounds, the timer switches to a 15-minute long break.
Why it's called a tomato timer
Francesco Cirillo created the Pomodoro Technique in the late 1980s. He timed his study sessions with a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato, and pomodoro is Italian for tomato. Each 25-minute round is called a pomodoro, which is why you'll also hear it called a tomato timer. There's more in our guide to the Pomodoro Technique.
Use it as a study timer or a work timer
The rhythm works for revision, writing, coding, admin or clearing your inbox. Students use it as a study timer and spend the breaks stretching or getting water. If 25 minutes feels too short once you're in the flow, the focus timer has 50 and 90 minute sessions.
Dayflint for iPhone and Android
One pomodoro a day, on the thing that matters.
Dayflint is a focus app for iPhone and Android built around one question: if you only got one thing done today, what would it be? You pick it the night before. In the morning you press and hold to start a 25-minute focus session, put your phone face down, and Dayflint keeps time.
- 25-minute focus sessions, free
- 50 and 90 minute sessions with Dayflint Plus
- A weekly rest day, so one missed day doesn't reset your streak
Dayflint times your focus rounds and leaves the breaks to you, so keep this page for the full pomodoro cycle.
Free to start · No account · iPhone (iOS 17+) and Android (8.0+) · See what Plus adds
Pomodoro® and Pomodoro Technique® are registered trademarks of Francesco Cirillo. Dayflint is not affiliated with him.
