Timer

The Timer is a Pomodoro-style focus timer: a work session, then a break, repeated for a set number of cycles. A ring shows how far through the current session or break you are, and a counter shows which cycle you’re on.

The buttons down the left edge of the timer switch it to a Reverse pomodoro, which counts up instead — see below. The mode you’re in is named beside the page title, and you can switch whenever the timer on screen isn’t running.

Presets

A preset sets the session length, the break length, the number of cycles and the reward for each session. Three come built in: 25/5 × 4, 45/15 × 2 and 50/10 × 2. You can edit them, and reset them to the defaults, or add your own with +. A session can be up to 24 hours (1440 minutes), a break up to 60 minutes, and a preset up to 10 cycles. To try a setup without saving it, use Start once (don’t save) in the preset editor.

Presets are kept in the browser you made them in, and can’t be changed while the timer is running.

Running a session

Before you start, you can write what you’re working on in the box under the timer, add categories, and change the reward. Then press play.

When a session ends, its reward is paid and it’s saved to the History below the timer with its name, length, reward and categories. The break starts on its own. When the break ends, the next session waits for you to press play, unless Auto-start next session is on in Settings → Timer. Resetting partway through a session saves nothing and pays nothing.

The name box clears after each session. To keep it for the next one, turn on Keep session description.

You can also schedule a start with the alarm-clock button: pick a time, and the timer counts down to it and starts itself.

Reverse pomodoro

The reverse pomodoro is for work you can’t size in advance: press play and it counts up until you stop it. Each stretch it times is an entry, saved to the History and paid the way a session is.

Instead of presets it has targets: how long you’re aiming to work, and the reward for getting there. Three come built in — 25, 45 and 50 minutes — and you edit, reset and add them the same way as presets. The ring closes as you approach the target. Reaching it stops nothing: the timer says the target is reached and keeps counting.

The reward is earned by reaching the target. By default it repeats: with a 25-minute target, an entry earns the reward at 25 minutes, again at 50, again at 75, and the ring starts over each time. To have a target pay only once, switch off the repeat button in its editor. An entry stopped short of its target is still saved, at the length it ran, but pays nothing.

• Stop and save saves the entry and ends the run.
• Save and start the next entry saves the entry and starts timing a new one straight away, so you can move from one piece of work to the next without a gap. The entry you just finished stays on the dial as Previous.
• Reset without saving throws the current entry away. Once there’s more than a minute on the clock, it asks first.

The description, categories and reward are saved with an entry at the moment it ends, so you can fill them in, or change them, while the timer is running. The description clears after each saved entry unless Keep session description is on. An entry shorter than a minute isn’t saved.

A reverse pomodoro keeps counting until you stop it, even through a reload or with the tab closed: when you come back, it shows all the time that has passed. Like presets, targets and a running reverse pomodoro are kept in the browser they were made in. Targets can’t be changed while it’s running, and the scheduled start belongs to the Pomodoro timer alone.

Staying in view

The timer keeps running while you move around the app. In browsers that support it, the Picture-in-Picture button opens it in a small floating window that stays visible when you switch to another tab or app.

On larger screens, the Timer page shows your task list alongside, so you can tick things off without leaving.

Logging to the calendar

Turn on Log cycles to calendar in Settings → Timer, and each finished cycle — a session and its break — is added to the calendar as an entry with the session’s name and categories. These entries don’t pay, because the session already did. If you reset partway through a cycle, the part that ran is logged too, as long as it lasted at least a minute. Reverse pomodoro entries are logged as well, each as its own calendar entry.

Finished sessions and reverse pomodoro entries feed the Timer tab in Analytics.