Sep 10

My Favorite Pomodoro Timers

Posted by: in Reviews.

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The Pomodoro Technique is a simple system for helping you stay focused throughout the work day.

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that can be used for any kind of task. For many people, time is an enemy. The anxiety triggered by “the ticking clock”, especially when a deadline is involved, leads to ineffective work and study habits which in turn lead to procrastination.

The aim of the Pomodoro Technique is to use time as a valuable ally in accomplishing what we want to do in the way we want to do it, and to enable us to continually improve the way we work or study.

Read more about the technique, and download the book for free.

My Favorite Pomodoro Timers

  • The Real McCoy – The timer that inspired it all, a physical wind-up kitchen timer that you sit on your desk. A bit too primitive for my geek personality, but works very well.
  • The Dashboard Widget – If you are on OSX, there’s a decent dashboard widget that sends growl notifications when time is up.
  • The iPhone App – This is the only iPhone timer I’ve used that understands the essence of the technique. A simple, tactile motion is used to wind-up the timer, just like the real thing. It also let’s you leave a tiny note about the task you are currently focusing on.

In the end, I use the iPhone Pomodoro Timer by Navel Labs for my everyday work. It’s the most elegant and most convenient for me.

Pomodoro Technique Main Screen
Pomodoro Technique Focus
Pomodoro Timer Focus 2
Pomodoro Timer Settings


What have you used?

About Josh Walsh

Josh Walsh is a Managing Partner at Designing Interactive. He's also an award winning designer, author and speaker on the topics of User Experience Design, User Interface Design and Usability Research. You can follow him on twitter at: @joshwalsh

25 Comments »

  1. Brad C

    Sweet icon ;)

    September 10, 2009

  2. Bonnie Domeny

    I’ve been using the Pomodoro technique for several months now and it works. I use Sphere Timer Widget for Vista.

    September 10, 2009

  3. ugol

    I use mine :)
    http://pomodoro.ugolandini.com

    But there are many other sw pomodoros around, see for example:

    http://blog.staffannoteberg.com/2009/05/28/screen-timer-for-pomodoro-technique/

    September 10, 2009

  4. João Almeida

    Funny thing: we have much more interesting timers for Mac than Windows or Linux (like ugol’s Pomodoro)

    September 23, 2009

  5. Antonio Fischetti

    I use mine, it has also a To-do editable sheet.

    Current version is 1.1. In the next version also statistics will be available.
    You can download it for free at

    http://xoring.altervista.org

    Bye.

    September 28, 2009

  6. Antonio Fischetti

    Just a quick update: the right website address is

    http://www.xoring.com

    You can find the last version of PomoTime which has also Statistics.

    Thank you.

    October 14, 2009

  7. Mark M.

    I’ve been using Minuteur, even before I heard of Pomodoro…
    multiple configurable countdowns, stopwatch up, accounting for $$ by time logged, etc. And it’s nice looking of course.

    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23013

    thank you for making this page!

    October 25, 2009

  8. Mark M.

    previous version: (free donation, not shareware) for those of us stuck in 10.4.11 for other reasons:
    http://www.phg-home.com/mac_minuteur4.html

    October 25, 2009

  9. Weekly Roundup

    [...] you can download to your computer, which seems to us a bit more discreet than a kitchen timer; this article also rounds up timers for the iPhone and [...]

    November 20, 2009

  10. Weekly Roundup | Fashion & Lifestyle

    [...] you can download to your computer, which seems to us a bit more discreet than a kitchen timer; this article also rounds up timers for the iPhone and [...]

    November 20, 2009

  11. Denis

    I use PomodoroPro – http://pomodoropro.com

    November 26, 2009

  12. Sheldon Conaty

    I’ve tried the Pomodoro Timer and Pomodoro (on the Mac) but http://pomodoropro.com is the one I keep going back to.

    December 3, 2009

  13. Michael Leddy

    I’m newly interested in the Pomodoro Technique and find this post (and the comments) very helpful. Thanks!

    @Mark M.: the most recent Minuteur works with 10.4.11. The new shareware version lets the user create sequences, 25/4/25/4, and so on, which makes it well suited to the Pomodoro Technique. It lacks the egg-topped column displaying the time but adds a menu bar icon with a counter, ruler, or time bar.

    December 13, 2009

  14. Dmitry Kandalov

    I use this one http://www.focusboosterapp.com It’s very simple, but not annoying enough to keep it above other windows

    December 23, 2009

  15. chris marx

    I’m looking for a good android app similar to the iphone pomodoro timer. Any ideas?

    January 19, 2010

  16. Josh Walsh

    Chris – I haven’t found anything that I really like on the Android. Granted, I’m an iPhone user, but a quick look around doesn’t show anything really polished.

    January 19, 2010

  17. leslie

    I really like the iphone app but I wish the time were configurable.

    January 19, 2010

  18. Josh Walsh

    Leslie – The iPhone app time is configurable. Just wind it up to the number you want. Am I misunderstanding something?

    January 20, 2010

  19. Gary Chiro

    I have just come across the Pomodoro Technique and found some windows based timers:

    http://www.focusboosterapp.com/
    http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Clocks-Time-Management/My-Rest-Break.shtml

    If I had a Mac I would use:

    http://www.dejal.com/timeout/

    April 2, 2010

  20. Etienne Segonzac

    Hello everyone !

    I would love to have a chat with other Pomodoro users (and the mailing list is quite slow).

    The thing is for me the main takeaways of the technique are the rhythm + the motivation of visualizing my progress.

    BTW, the Navel Labs app is quite gorgeous (and the compliment is coming from a concurrent in a way :)

    Cheers

    July 27, 2010

  21. Yes, Too Much Sitting is Bad for Your Health | Exercise Now

    [...] is a time management tool using a clock to remind you to take short break. Try out different pomodoro timers here, there is even one for your Apple iphone.Just Start Walking – this a new [...]

    October 8, 2010

  22. Windows Phone App Challenge #1: The Pomodoro Timer — Global Nerdy

    [...] Break away from the digital readout and make it look and feel more like a tomato-shaped kitchen timer? (See this article for inspriation.) [...]

    October 14, 2010

  23. Todd Molloy

    I wasn’t happy with the “pomodoro” apps available on the iphone so I created my own based on a similar concept which is time-boxing. It has helped me improve my productivity 10-fold. If anyone is interested you can find out more here: http://coreapphq.com

    August 29, 2011

  24. Just Bill

    Todd … the underlying link got mangled to coreqpphq. Might want to look into that.

    September 12, 2011

  25. Just Bill

    Okay … we’ve got for Mac and Windows so far. I’m off to look for an app that will work for Linux because the idea sounds appealing.

    September 12, 2011

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