Study
timer

The Pomodoro Technique is one rule with a stopwatch attached: work in one unbroken stretch, then stop whether you feel like stopping or not. Twenty-five minutes is the usual number, five minutes off between them, and a longer break after four. Change any of those lengths in LENGTHS & SOUND if your subject wants a different rhythm — long-form reading likes fifty, flashcards like fifteen.

The part that actually does the work isn't the timer, it's the ending. A session that has to end at a known minute stops you from drifting into a fourth hour of half-attention, and the break stops the hour after it from being wasted. Four honest sprints beats a whole evening of having the book open.

Leave the page open and it'll ask your browser to keep the display on, so the clock is still readable when your hands are on a pen instead of the keyboard. Not every browser allows that — the line under the buttons tells you which one you're in, and never claims a lit screen it didn't get. Hit BIG CLOCK to blow the countdown up to fill the screen.

Everything saves to your browser the moment you type it — no sign-up, no email, nothing in the way of using it. If you'd rather it followed you around, sign in with Google and your list, session counts and timer lengths save to your account instead: start on the laptop, finish on your phone. Same free tool either way.

Planning the week rather than the evening? The time management matrix is the other half of this — it decides what deserves the hours, and this page spends them. The rest of them are on the tools page.