Focus in timed sprints with breaks that actually arrive on time.
Focus
One thing, no tabs you did not open on purpose.
The countdown tracks a real deadline rather than counting ticks, so it stays accurate when this tab is in the background or your phone locks. It does keep running only while the page is open — closing the tab ends the session, and the count resets.
The Pomodoro technique breaks work into focused stretches — classically 25 minutes — separated by short breaks, with a longer break after every fourth. This timer tracks a real deadline rather than counting ticks, so it stays accurate when the tab is in the background or your phone locks.
Twenty-five minutes with a five-minute break is the classic setting and a good default. Longer stretches suit work with a heavy warm-up cost, like debugging or writing; shorter ones suit revision and problem sets. The intervals are adjustable here because the right length is the one you will actually keep to.
Yes. Browsers throttle background timers to once a minute, so a countdown built by decrementing a counter finishes minutes late. This one stores the finish time and recomputes what is left, so it is right whenever you look at it — including after your phone has been locked.
The break is what makes the next session possible; sustained attention degrades without one whether or not it feels that way at the time. If you are genuinely in flow, skipping one break is fine — the technique only fails when you skip all of them.
If you allow it. The bell button asks your browser for notification permission, which is granted per site and can be revoked at any time. Without it the timer still works — you just need the tab visible to see the phase change.
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