That's long enough that you can stay engaged and make real progress, without feeling like it's a grind, while the 5-minute breaks, which never feel far off, give you a chance to freely check Twitter or look at some emails without overly disrupting your workflow.

The work blocks are just 25 minutes long. What makes the Pomodoro Technique so effective is just how easy it is to implement. I'm using it right now to write this article. As a professional writer, it's the tool I bust out whenever I need to hit a deadline or just get work done without dawdling. While it didn't single-handedly get me through my college degrees, it helped me get better grades with less effort. I've used the Pomodoro Technique (or variations on it that we'll look at later) for more than a decade. After that, you take a 15- to 30-minute break, depending on how you feel. Here's what you do: You set a timer for 25 minutes, work until it's up, then take a 5-minute break-and repeat the whole process three more times. The Pomodoro Technique sounds unbelievably basic, but it works far better than you'd think. Toggl Track for combining Pomodoro with time-tracking

Session for the best possible Pomodoro app for Apple users MarinaraTimer for a shareable web-based Pomodoro timer Pomodor for a simple web-based Pomodoro timer So, let's look at the best Pomodoro timers. While any timer (or timer app) will work for the Pomodoro Technique, a dedicated Pomodoro app can make the already simple technique even simpler by automatically alternating between work and break periods, tracking how many different periods you've completed, and generally just smoothing out the hassle of winding up a manual timer or constantly checking the clock.

Free pomodoro app