How to use the Pomodoro technique on a Mac

The Pomodoro technique is a simple way to work in timed blocks. Pick one task, work on it for 25 minutes, take a five minute break, and after four rounds take a longer one. On a Mac you can run it with a timer in the Clock app, or with the focus sessions in Notchpals, which come in 25 and 50 minute lengths.

The method was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, while he was a university student, and named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he used. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato. This post covers how it works, why it helps, how to set it up on a Mac, what to do in the breaks, and how to change the lengths when 25 minutes doesn't suit the work.

How the Pomodoro technique works

The classic version has six steps.

1. Choose one task.
2. Set a timer for 25 minutes.
3. Work on that task, and only that task, until the timer rings.
4. Mark that you finished one pomodoro. A tick on a piece of paper is the traditional way.
5. Take a short break of about five minutes.
6. After four pomodoros, take a longer break, somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes.

Two rules give the method its teeth. First, a pomodoro is meant to be indivisible. If you get pulled away for real, that one doesn't count, and you start a fresh one when you come back. Second, when a thought arrives in the middle of a pomodoro ("I should email Priya"), you write it down and go straight back to the task instead of acting on it. Cirillo's approach also covers interruptions from other people: tell them you are in the middle of something, agree on when you'll get back to them, and then do.

Why it helps

The idea is simple, and that is much of its appeal. A few things make it work for many people.

• Starting gets easier. Often the hardest part of a dreaded task is beginning it. Twenty-five minutes is a small, finite thing to agree to.
• Breaks happen on time. You don't have to decide when to stop. The timer decides, so you rest before you are worn out instead of after.
• Distraction gets an answer. When the urge to check something arrives, the timer gives you a reply: in eleven minutes.
• You learn how long things take. Counting the pomodoros a task needs gives you better estimates over time, which was one of the original aims of the method.

The technique itself has had fairly little formal study. Most of the research is about breaks in general, and it broadly suggests that regular short breaks help people feel less tired over a long day. The Pomodoro technique is one tidy way to make sure they happen.

Running it on a Mac

With the Clock app

Recent versions of macOS include a Clock app, in your Applications folder.

1. Open Clock and go to Timers.
2. Create a 25 minute timer and give it a label, such as "Pomodoro".
3. Start it, and start work. An alert tells you when it ends.
4. Start a five minute timer for the break. Clock keeps your recent timers, so after the first day both are a click away.

The Clock app is exact and handles any length, including the breaks. If you use a Focus mode while you work, check that Clock is allowed to notify you in that Focus, or the end of a timer may be easy to miss.

With Notchpals focus sessions

Notchpals puts characters in your Mac's notch to nudge you through the day, and its focus sessions happen to match the classic pomodoro length. They need Bolt, a retro robot and the app's one Focus character, in your crew. Click the pair of eyes Notchpals puts in the menu bar, choose "Start a focus session", then 25 minutes or 50 minutes. Bolt slides out of the notch to open the session.

BoltSession started. Entering silent mode. This is my silent face. Go.

A pomodoro is meant to be uninterrupted, and the session keeps the notch to that rule: a water or posture nudge that falls due mid-block doesn't come. The exceptions are Bolt itself, a battery close to empty and a meeting about to start, if your crew has the Tech care and Schedule characters for those. When the block is up, Bolt comes back to call time.

Be clear about what it doesn't do. A Notchpals session times the work block, not the whole method: it doesn't time your break, count your pomodoros or keep any stats, and the lengths are 25 or 50 minutes only. Pair it with a Clock timer if you want the break timed too. It also doesn't turn on a macOS Focus mode, so set your Focus separately if you use one. Once the session ends, the rest of the crew is free to visit again, and a water or stretch reminder turning up during your break is about the best timing it could have.

With paper

Cirillo's original kit was a kitchen timer and a sheet of paper: a list of the day's tasks, with a tick next to each one for every pomodoro it took. It still works. The paper also gives you somewhere to put the stray thoughts that arrive mid-block.

What to do in the breaks

The break is the half of the method people skip, and it's the half that keeps you going until evening. Five minutes is enough for one or two of these:

• Get up and walk to another room and back.
• Refill your water and drink some of it.
• Look out of a window at something far away, to rest your eyes.
• Stretch your neck, shoulders and wrists. A short desk stretch routine fits inside one break.
• Do nothing at all, which is underrated.

If you run your blocks with Notchpals, Bolt's sign-off at the end of a session sometimes makes the same suggestion.

BoltWork block finished. You may now stare at nothing. You earned it.

What doesn't work as a break is your inbox or a feed. Both keep your eyes and attention on the screen, and five minutes rarely stays five. If that's where your breaks tend to go, this post on doomscrolling at work has ways to catch it.

After four rounds, take the long break properly: eat something, go outside, or have a conversation with a person rather than a screen.

Adapting the length

Twenty-five minutes is a starting point, not a law. Cirillo chose it, but plenty of people who use the method change it, and the right length depends on the work.

A few situations call for changes:

• You're in flow when the timer rings. Finish the thought, write down the next step, then take the break. Some people let a good block run long, which is reasonable as long as the break still happens.
• A meeting is coming. Fit whole blocks into the gap. If a meeting is 40 minutes away, do one pomodoro and use the rest for small jobs.
• Your job is mostly other people. If you spend the day answering questions, pomodoros may only fit part of it. Protect two or three blocks for your own work and leave the rest of the day open.
• 25 minutes feels like a sprint you can't keep up. Try 50 minutes with a longer break. Notchpals' 50 minute session fits that rhythm.

Try the classic version for a week before changing anything, so you know what you're adjusting. If you want to make each block count for more, setting up your Mac for deep work covers the rest of the environment: the Focus mode, the notifications and the one window in front.