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Focus Timer is a Pomodoro-style work timer with XP for completed sessions. It is not a game and it does not test anything — it is a tool for getting work done in fixed blocks. The Pomodoro technique was devised by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s and the standard block is twenty-five minutes of work followed by a short break.
Set your session length, or keep the default block.
Press Start and work until the timer sounds.
Take the short break — the break is part of the method, not optional.
Completed sessions earn XP and build your streak.
Take a longer break after four sessions.
The defaults are 25 minutes of work, 5-minute breaks and a 15-minute long break after every fourth work session; all three can be changed. Pause keeps the time left; reset returns to the start of a work block.
Each completed work block earns 20 XP and adds to your session count. There is no score to beat, because the point is the work you did during the block.
Nothing cognitive. It is a scheduling aid. What it changes is the structure of your working time, which is often the actual bottleneck rather than any attentional capacity. More focus games to try next: Minefield and Paint Match.
The Pomodoro technique — fixed blocks of focused work separated by short breaks — was devised by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The research case for it is about breaks rather than tomatoes: a 2011 experiment found that people who were briefly diverted from a long vigilance task twice kept their performance steady, while those who worked straight through declined.
A 2022 meta-analysis of micro-breaks found they reliably improve reported vigour and reduce fatigue, with a smaller and less consistent effect on performance. Treat the timer as a structure for your working time, not as a cognitive exercise.
Pick one task before you start the timer. A block spent deciding what to do is a wasted block.
Put the phone in another room, not face down on the desk. Proximity alone costs attention.
If you are interrupted, note it and continue. Restarting the timer every time turns the method into a ritual.
Take the break away from the screen. A break spent scrolling does not restore attention.
It is the length Cirillo settled on — short enough to start without dread, long enough to get into a task. There is nothing magic about the number; adjust it to fit your work.
There is good general evidence that breaks help sustained performance. Evidence for this specific interval structure over other reasonable ones is thin. Use it because it helps you start, not because the number is optimal.
Yes. Many people do better at fifty minutes with a ten-minute break once they are warmed up.
Completed sessions earn XP like any other activity on the site.
Each finished focus block earns 20 XP, four dots under the clock fill in as you complete a round of four sessions, and the fourth session is followed by a longer break (15 minutes by default) instead of the short one. The timer itself is a plain Pomodoro clock — the game layer is there to make starting the next block feel like progress rather than a chore.