Timer Templates
Pomodoro Timer
Work in focused sprints with a break between each — the Pomodoro rhythm, ready to run for study, reading, or deep work.
Work in focused sprints with a break between each — the Pomodoro rhythm, ready to run for study, reading, or deep work.
One focus block repeated four times — 25:00 of work, a 5:00 break between rounds. The timer runs each sprint and break in turn and announces every change, so you can keep your eyes on the work.
The classic Pomodoro — 25 minutes of focus, a 5-minute break, four rounds.
The DeskTime ratio — 52 minutes of focus, a 17-minute break, four rounds.
A longer study rhythm — 45 minutes of focus, a 15-minute break, four rounds.
Study, then one episode — 40 minutes of focus, a 20-minute break, four rounds.
The Pomodoro Technique was devised by Francesco Cirillo as a university student in the late 1980s. Struggling to concentrate, he grabbed a tomato-shaped kitchen timer, wound it to a few minutes, and committed to staying on task until it rang. The timer is where the method gets its name — pomodoro is Italian for tomato.
The method that grew out of it is simple: work for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and call each cycle one pomodoro. After four pomodoros you take a longer break — 15 to 30 minutes — before starting the next set. The timer does the deciding, so you are never negotiating with yourself about when to stop.
A fixed, ticking deadline turns an open-ended task into a short, finite sprint. Twenty-five minutes is long enough to make real progress but short enough that starting feels easy — and the knowledge that a break is coming keeps you from drifting to your phone in the middle of the work.
The breaks matter as much as the work. Stepping away briefly lets attention recover, so the next sprint starts fresh instead of grinding through the fatigue that builds over a long unbroken session. The rhythm of work and rest is the whole point — not the exact number on the clock.
The classic 25/5 split is a starting point, not a rule. Deep work that takes a while to get into often suits a longer block: the 52/17 ratio comes from DeskTime, a time-tracking company that found its most productive users worked about 52 minutes then broke for about 17. A 45/15 split is a popular middle ground for study sessions, long enough to settle into a chapter or a problem set.
Longer focus blocks mean longer recovery — the break scales with the work so you can actually reset before the next round. Every preset here opens in the editor, so you can dial the focus and break to the lengths you can genuinely hold, then add or remove rounds to fit the time you have.
The technique was born in a library and it still fits study and reading best of all. Run a preset as a study timer for revision or problem sets, or as a reading sprint that keeps you turning pages instead of re-reading the same paragraph. The break is when you stretch, refill the coffee, and let what you just read settle.
The animedoro variant is the same idea with a longer break: focus for around 40 minutes, then watch one episode of something — roughly 20 minutes — before the next block. Whichever interval you choose, press start and the timer carries you from focus to break to focus without your having to watch the clock.
Fixed work/rest intervals, repeated for a set number of rounds.
Rotate through named exercises with optional breaks. Stations of any duration.
Back-to-back HIIT blocks — every round of one exercise, then on to the next.
Simple timed rounds with breaks. Boxing, MMA, sparring.
Build any interval sequence from scratch, one by one.
Stack other timers into a multi-block session, cycled as a whole.
The full Seconds experience — on iPhone, Apple Watch, and Android.