Developer
Pomodoro Timer
A focus timer with work and break intervals that keeps running in the background tab.
The Pomodoro technique is twenty-five minutes of single-tasked work followed by a short break, repeated, with a longer break every few rounds. The method is not magic; the timer is what makes it work, because deciding to stop is the hard part.
This timer is built so the countdown stays accurate when you switch tabs or your machine sleeps. Browsers throttle timers in background tabs, so a naive implementation drifts and eventually lies to you. This one stores the wall-clock end time and recalculates on every tick, so what you see is what is left.
The ring, the mode tabs and the background are new; the timekeeping underneath is unchanged — it still stores the wall-clock end time rather than counting ticks, so a backgrounded tab cannot make it drift.
How to use it
- Set your work length, short break and long break. The defaults are 25, 5 and 15 minutes.
- Press Start. The ring fills as the interval runs, and the tab title shows the remaining time so you can see it without this tab in front.
- Work on one thing until the alert sounds. That constraint is the whole point.
- Take the break it offers, or press Skip if you are mid-flow and want to bank the break.
- Every four completed work intervals trigger a long break instead of a short one.
- The session log below counts what you have actually finished, which is more motivating than a streak you have to maintain.
Questions
Does the timer keep running when I switch tabs?
Yes. Background tabs have their timers throttled to roughly once a second or less, so this timer does not count ticks — it stores the exact end time and recalculates the remainder whenever it updates. Switching tabs, locking the screen or sleeping the machine does not change the time remaining.
Will the alarm sound if I am in another application?
The chime plays when the interval ends if the browser is allowed to play audio. Browsers block audio before any user interaction, so press Start at least once with the page in front and audio will be permitted for the session.
Can I change the lengths?
Yes, all three intervals are adjustable and your values are remembered in this browser. There is no forced 25-minute rule — some work suits 50 minutes of focus with a 10-minute break, and the technique still works.
Why is my browser tab title changing?
So you can read the countdown from another tab. It reverts to the page title when the timer is stopped.