Pomodoro questions and answers

One unbroken stretch of timed work on a single task, classically 25 minutes long, followed by a short break. The word is Italian for tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer used by Francesco Cirillo, who created the method.

It is short enough to promise on a bad day and long enough to finish something real. It is a convention, not a law. After a fair trial you can use longer or shorter rounds; the timers page compares four rhythms.

You take a long break of 15 to 30 minutes and then begin a new set of four. The long break is what makes a second and third set possible.

Use the remaining minutes to check and improve what you did, or to note the next step. If tasks often finish very early, group several small ones into a single round.

If you can, note the matter and give the person a time. If you have to leave the task, the round is cancelled and you start a fresh one later. A round is never counted in halves.

No. It is used for office work, programming, writing, household paperwork and any solitary task that needs attention. It suits meetings and reactive work less.

Yes. It is free, needs no account and has no paid version. Advertisements on the guide pages pay for the site; the timer pages themselves carry none.

In your own browser, on your own device. They are not sent to us and are not shared between your devices. Clearing the browser's site data removes them.

Once a page has been opened, your browser keeps a copy, and the timer goes on working if the connection drops. Open the timer page once while online first.

Phones often silence or pause web pages when the screen is locked or the browser is in the background. Keep the page open with "Keep the screen on" ticked, turn the media volume up, and allow notifications if you want a message as well.

Yes. Open Settings under the timer and type any focus, short break and long break length, and how many rounds come before a long break.

It moves to the next step without counting the current round. Use it if you start a break early or decide to end a break and return to work.

Each focus round that runs to the bell adds one to today's count and its minutes to today's focus time. Rounds that are reset or skipped are not counted. The bars show the last seven days.

There is no correct number. On a free day, 8 to 12 real rounds is a full day for most people; on a school or office day, 4 to 8. Start with what you can repeat daily and raise it slowly.

Leave the screen. Stand, walk, drink water, stretch, look at something far away. Social media and messages are poor breaks because they rarely end in five minutes.

For routine practice, quiet music without words does little harm. For reading and memorising, most people do better in silence. Try each for a week and compare your counts.

Often, because it shrinks the promise from "finish the task" to "work on it for one round". The guide on getting started explains how.

No. The site gives practical suggestions about study and work habits. If concentration, mood or sleep are a lasting problem, please speak to a doctor or counsellor.