A Pomodoro timer with a dog in it

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

It’s a way of working in short, timed rounds with a break after each one. Francesco Cirillo created it, and it takes its name from a tomato-shaped kitchen timer: pomodoro is Italian for tomato.

The classic version, as Oregon State University’s Academic Success Center lays it out, goes like this. Pick one task. Work on it for 25 minutes. Take a 3–5 minute break. After four rounds, take a longer one. Each round is a pomodoro. There’s a longer walk through it in the Pomodoro Technique, done gently.

The number 25 isn’t magic. The useful part is that a short, fixed stretch is easier to begin than an open-ended afternoon, and the break turns up whether or not you feel you’ve earned it.

How do I use this timer?

Press Start, or the space bar, and work until the ring runs out. The chips under the timer change the focus length. Pause stops the clock, Reset starts the round again, and Skip moves on to the next phase.

The countdown sits in the browser tab’s title, so you can work in another tab and still see it. Away from the computer, a timer started in the iPhone’s Clock app can sit on your Lock Screen. The timer keeps time by the clock rather than counting ticks, so a tab left in the background still finishes on time. A soft chime marks the end, and you can switch it off.

It remembers the length you chose and whether you want the chime, in your own browser only. There’s no account, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Why is there a dog in it?

Because a bare countdown is a number you end up staring at, and a dog is company. Patches sits on his sofa in a small watercolour room. A few minutes into a focus he settles and dozes off, the same habit the Bull Arab has in the app.

When the round ends, a card tells you how it went: “25 minutes. Patches dozed off around minute 4.”

There’s no science claim here. It’s simply nicer to glance up and find a sleeping dog than a ticking digit, and a dog who’s nodded off makes a fair case for staying put. On the web he’s always Patches. The iPhone app has ten breeds to choose from, and you name yours.

Why take a long break after four rounds?

Short breaks top you up; a longer one gives you room to recover. A 2022 meta-analysis of micro-breaks found that breaks of ten minutes or less gave small boosts to vigour and eased fatigue, but the authors concluded that recovering from demanding work may need more than ten minutes.

So here, every fourth focus is followed by a 15-minute long break, and the counter above the timer shows which round you’re on. Use the long one properly: get up, eat something, go outside.

Which timer length should I use?

Start with 25 minutes, the classic. For work that needs a long run-up, try 50 minutes or, on a big day, 90 minutes. If you can’t make yourself begin, 15 minutes is easier to say yes to.

There’s a study timer with notes on revising, a visual timer with shorter rounds for anyone who loses track of time, and a 5 minute break timer for when the break is the whole point.

Only in the app

This page is the timer and Patches. Doggydoro for iPhone is the rest of the room:

• Ten breeds to choose from, and a name of your own for yours
• Finds at the end of a session, kept in a collection
• Other apps kept out of the way while you focus, and a bedtime lock
• The countdown on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island
• A room you furnish with bones earned by focusing
• Eleven sounds to work under, sticky-note tasks, Logs and your streak

Other timers

• A 25 minute timer: 25 minutes on, 5 off
• A 50 minute timer: 50 minutes on, 10 off
• A 90 minute timer: 90 minutes on, 20 off
• A 15 minute timer: 15 minutes on, 5 off
• A study timer with a dog in it: 25 minutes on, 5 off
• A visual timer, with a dog for company: 15 minutes on, 5 off
• A 5 minute break timer: 5 minutes on, 5 off

Updated 6 October 2026