FocusPomo · Pomodoro Timer

I love collecting the tomatoes, but it makes me really mad when I have to pause the timer because of someone else. I didn’t know that it would give me a sad-faced tomato! I wish that I could pause the timer without punishment. I know when it’s my fault or someone else’s fault for having to stop my focus. If it was mine, I would take the L/ sad tomato willingly. But when it comes to someone else forcing me off, I don’t deserve to be “punished” with a sad tomato for that. I have a work-study job, so interruptions are always inevitable. I don’t want to keep the timer running while I’m helping a client, because I don’t deserve to be rewarded with a happy-faced tomato when I didn’t actually focus for my chosen amount of time, but I don’t deserve to be punished either because it wasn’t of my choosing to get interrupted. Life happens, and this app should give us the option to reflect that. (Another feature I like about this app: I get to choose the amount of time I want to focus for each session. So I can start small at 15 minutes, then as I get better at focusing, I can increase the duration to 25 or more minutes.)

This app is great for the standard pomodoro user, and i love watching my tomatoes collect on the main screen after each session. It is very satisfying and motivating! There are some features i think should be added. Under the pomodoro technique section of the settings, there are options to change the length of the short and long breaks, but no way to change the length of the focus sessions. This would make the app alot more customizable and usable by more people for more purposes. I also find the labeling confusing for the focus session settings. The default setting of “3” i believe has 3 short breaks before the long break but the wording is odd and confusing and should offer a description or change to reflect its true meaning. I know more color themes are in development now but the devs should consider maybe different fruits/characters to accumulate on your screen as well if at all possible. overall, this app is my personal favorite for tracking my use of the pomodoro method and i hope to watch the app continue to grow and expand.

Love the app! Been using it around 2 weeks now and it makes it much easier for me to focus on tasks that don’t necessarily have end dates/times. I’ve always struggled with ongoing things like cleaning or responding to work emails but this helps me give tasks like these a finite amount of time as opposed to feeling like they’re looking over me indefinitely. Instead of being like “oh no I have 100 emails I need to get through” I can instead just be like “I am spending the next 25 minutes on emails.” I get so much more done with so much less existential dread. And it gives me a sense of accomplishment that just powering through part my inbox doesn’t. I also like that the app doesn’t force you to shut everything down to use it. I’ve used apps like that in the past and found them helpful but not the right fit for me.