5 productivity timer apps that go beyond Pomodoro

First created by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s, the Pomodoro Technique is used all around the world to beat procrastination. It suggests that working for 25 minutes, followed by a short 5-minute break, helps the mind stay on task.

After 40 years, Pomodoro has evolved from a simple kitchen timer to various digital apps. There are now innumerable options to choose from, each with features that overlap with competitors but never fully replace them. As work grew more complex in the modern age, so did timer apps. After sifting through these apps, I’ve found five productivity timer apps that go well beyond the simple Pomodoro.

5

Forest

Grow a virtual tree, plant real ones

Forest is a gamified timer app. For every second that passes in the Pomodoro timer, a little tree grows on your screen, giving you a sense of pride and accomplishment for staying focused. While it doesn’t lock out apps on your phone, leaving the app for too long (presumably with distractions) causes the tree to wither and die. And because the session progress is visualized in a forest, having too many dead trees is a sign of lack of commitment.

Beyond a countdown timer, Forest also tracks your timeline, offers stopwatch mode, and allows for group sessions with other Forest users. There’s a web browser extension that also blocks websites during a session, but it doesn’t carry all the features of the mobile app.

As you use Forest, you can unlock different trees to actually plant and earn other achievements, which can grant you coins that you can use towards in-app purchases. With the paid version, you can use the coins towards planting real trees through the Trees For The Future program.

4

Momentum

A browser extension with a focus timer

The Momentum extension replaces your browser’s default new tab page with a gorgeous photo slideshow. It’s clean, beautiful, and comes with useful productivity features, including a Pomodoro timer. Momentum is available for all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari.

Momentum’s Pomodoro timer is activated when you turn on Focus Mode, which also blocks a set of websites of your choosing while it’s active. It features a task list and integrates with other apps like Microsoft To Do, Asana, and Trello.

Note that the free version grants just one hour of Focus Mode per day. Unlocking all of Momentum’s features costs $3.33 per month or $19.99 per year.

3

Pomocat

The fun Pomodoro app

Most Pomodoro apps, in pursuit of reducing distractions, use minimalist clock styles – but not Pomocat. Instead, it features a cute animated cat that works just as hard as you do.

Beyond replacing the timer alerts with cat meows, Pomocat also includes a basic productivity tracking function that reports your daily focus time and gives you full control over focus time, focus cycles, and break time. Best of all, you can choose from a variety of animations, from kneading dough to working on a laptop.

The free version gets you the cat, one to-do task list, and a few background white noises. For $2.99 a month, you get even more timer customizations, multiple to-do lists, and more cat animations (priceless).

2

Focus To-Do

Stellar productivity tracking

Focus To-Do is a task management app with a built-in Pomodoro timer. It includes all the features of a standard time-tracking app, such as task lists, calendars, and event managers. You can set a different Pomodoro timer for each task, and tack on subtasks to them to help remember everything that needs done. Like Forest, it also has a tree-growing minigame and group work sessions.

Where Focus To-Do shines is its excellent productivity tracking. It monitors your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly time distribution to produce a detailed report on how you work. This is helpful for motivating yourself and adjusting how to best spend your time. You can also set focus goals to fight against procrastination.

The only downside is that after the 4-day free trial expires, the number of projects you can create will also be limited. And while it syncs progress between devices, it doesn’t integrate with services like Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and others. Unlocking the premium features costs $1.99 per month, or a one-time payment of $11.99 for lifetime access.

1

Discord

An unusual way to stay motivated

Discord is a group messaging service that allows users to host public servers. When in-person activities paused in 2020, those who yearned to study in groups created Discord server-based body-doubling: the idea of improving focus by working in proximity with others. Though the pandemic is now behind us, the idea stuck. Many of these servers are still active today.

Getting started is simple: join a server from the Discord server browser and help others (and yourself) stay productive by just being around. No verbal interaction is required; nearly all servers of this type emphasize silent productivity (though text chat is usually available). Group sizes can range from as small as two to over fifty. No matter your choice, it can be comforting to see real faces while studying or working alone.

This approach isn’t for everyone. Being observed by (or observing) strangers through a screen can feel intimidating, and we’ve all experienced the unpredictability of online discourse. But for those working alone without an outlet for their inner extrovert, it might be worth a try. Also, if you have friends who share the same woes, consider starting a private server with them.

Time to get productive

Almost all productivity timer apps share the same core features: keeping time, preventing distractions, and tracking tasks. To find the right app, the foremost consideration should be whether it can handle the complexity of your workload. Although remote and hybrid work have turned our homes into offices, productivity has never been more social, so prioritizing group features may be important, too. Finally, no matter how amazing the app may be, only you have the power to choose to be productive.

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