Breaks are the part people skip, so this page is only the break: 5 minutes between short blocks, 10 after a long one, 15 or 20 when you need food and a walk. Press start, leave the desk, and the tab title counts down until the moment you come back.
5 minutes after a 25-minute block, 10 after a 50, and 15–30 every two hours if you are still going. That is the standard pomodoro shape, and it survives contact with real studying because the short break is small enough that you actually take it. The failure mode is not taking breaks — it is taking one 45-minute break that begins on your phone and ends the study day. A break should restore the ability to start again, so measure it by that: if coming back felt hard, the break was too long or was screen-shaped.
| After this much work | Break | What to do in it |
|---|---|---|
| 25 min (one pomodoro) | 5 min | Stand, water, window. Stay off feeds |
| 50 min (deep block) | 10 min | Walk a few minutes; the return is easier after movement |
| 90 min (exam-length) | 15–20 min | Eat something, then restart with one specific task |
| Four blocks in a row | 30+ min | Treat it as the end of a session, not a pause inside one |
The claim usually sold is that breaks "renew willpower". The better-evidenced part is simpler: a boundary lets you close a task mentally, and standing up changes blood flow and eye focus in a way that sitting through does not. The pomodoro literature is thin — Francisco Cirillo's method was built from his own experience in the 1980s, not from trials — so treat the specific numbers as a good default rather than physiology. What is not in doubt: four uninterrupted hours of studying produces worse retention per hour than four hours with boundaries, mostly because the last hour runs on drift. The why 25 minutes works page goes through the evidence and its limits.
Three patterns reliably leave you less able to return: scrolling (the next task now competes with an endless variable-reward feed), starting something with its own endpoint (a video essay is not a 5-minute break), and "just one more section" that turns the break into unstudied study. The two that consistently work are walking and looking out of a window — both because nothing is asking for your attention. If you cannot tell whether your break restored you, use the practical test: press start, and when it rings, notice whether sitting back down took an argument.
This one. Open the page, pick 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes and press start. No account, no email, no install.
Five minutes after a 25-minute block and ten after a 50-minute one. Beyond about 20 minutes, returning gets harder, so treat that as the end of a session instead.
Usually not. Feeds are the break most likely to make the next block harder to start; walking, eating, or a window are the safer five minutes.
Boundaries and standing up clearly help; the exact pomodoro numbers are a convention rather than a proven optimum. The honest test is whether coming back took an argument.
Yes — pair the 5-minute setting with the 25 minute timer, or let the main app run work and break automatically.