Focus Session
Preset: 25 min study blocks, tuned for exam prep and reading
Space starts or pauses. R resets.
Studying in fixed blocks solves a problem most students run into: sitting down to "study for a while" with no real endpoint, which makes it easy to drift into checking your phone or re-reading the same paragraph without absorbing it. A 25-minute block is short enough that starting doesn't feel like a big commitment, and long enough to actually get through a meaningful chunk of material — a full past-paper question, a dense textbook section, or a solid set of flashcards.
The break matters as much as the study block. Five minutes is enough to physically stand up, refill water, and let your eyes rest from a screen or page, without being long enough to fall into a different activity that's hard to leave — a quick video, a game, a long scroll. After four rounds, a fifteen-minute break is a natural point to switch subjects entirely, which itself helps retention through a technique called interleaving.
Before your first study block, decide exactly what you're covering — "chapter 4, sections 1 through 3" rather than "biology." Vague goals make it hard to know when a block succeeded, and that ambiguity is usually what causes study sessions to fizzle out after the first round.
Is 25 minutes long enough to study effectively?
For most subjects, yes — 25 minutes is long enough to complete a focused unit of work (a problem set, a reading section) without the fatigue that causes attention to drift. If you're doing deep work like an essay draft, you can extend focus blocks to 45–50 minutes and keep the same 5-minute break ratio.
Should I use Pomodoro for exam revision or just new material?
Both work well, but revision benefits especially, since it's easy to under-estimate how long "quickly reviewing" a topic actually takes. Timed blocks force you to notice when a topic is taking three times longer than planned — useful information before exam day, not after.
What should I do during the break?
Something that doesn't require screen focus: stretching, walking to another room, or just closing your eyes. Avoid switching to another screen-based task, since it tends to extend well past five minutes and makes it harder to return to studying.
Want the full-featured version instead? Use the standard Pomodoro timer, or see the ADHD-friendly preset.
Your session has finished.