
Show HN: Tomato – Pomodoro Timer - jastr
http://stripenight.com/tomato/
======
decasteve
Years ago a Buddhist monk recommended to me to set a bell every 30 minutes as
a mindfulness practice. When you hear the bell, look up, bring your
consciousness back to your breath for a few breaths, make sure you are aware
of your body posture, especially when sitting in front of a computer, and then
go back to what you were doing.

The pomodoro technique always reminds me of this.

~~~
lozf
If you have sox installed, simply

    
    
          while true; do sleep 1800; play -n synth 0.15 sine 800; done

~~~
FungalRaincloud
Or, in powershell (sans sox),

    
    
         while($true){(New-Object Media.SoundPlayer "C:\YourPreferredSound.wav").Play(); sleep 1800;}
    

I'm using the Single Hit Tibetan singing bowl from: [http://www.sound-effects-
hunter.com/tibetan-bowl-sound/](http://www.sound-effects-hunter.com/tibetan-
bowl-sound/)

~~~
kzisme
Does this help you mentally? What changes have you seen since starting this
'mindfulness' practice?

~~~
FungalRaincloud
I'm hesitant to say anything about mental effects, since I'm far from able to
objectively measure such things, especially since I haven't been keeping any
kind of measurements or records. But it certainly keeps me from slouching
quite as much.

------
Briel
Here's a productivity tricks that works for me:

Reason why I stop working on a project is because after a while (or 10
minutes...), it just gets boring.

So I toggle between 3-4 similarly important projects a day. The excitement of
doing something new when I switch helps me keep working (just on a different
project).

Yes there is a cost to mentally switching regularly but it's worth it to avoid
the much higher cost of watching Youtube instead!

~~~
ohadron
Very similar to the highly effective Structured Procrastination method -
[http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/](http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/)

------
otto_ortega
My favorite Pomodoro Timer is:

[http://tomato-timer.com/](http://tomato-timer.com/)

This one is lacking some features (I understand it aims to be minimalistic,
but it cut flexibility on the process...)

~~~
macavity23
I find [http://moosti.com](http://moosti.com) to be the best of the web tomato
timers

------
conception
Plug for [https://complice.co/](https://complice.co/) for group pomodoro's.
There's a hacker news channel. Pretty interesting concept, especially for
mobile workers who still want to "chat" with someone.

------
welanes
Nice. For those who'd like a todo list to go with their Pomodoro* timer, I've
created Lanes: [https://lanes.io](https://lanes.io).

It tracks how many pomodoros you complete each day and how long you spent
being productive. Plus you can see the aggregate # of poms completed by all
users of the app (which I find motivating).

*Not strictly a Pomodoro as the timer can be adjusted, but hey that's what the users wanted.

------
jastr
OP here - interesting to see not only how many developers on HN use the
Pomodoro Technique but also how many have built their own app!

~~~
christiangenco
I made my own timer after trying almost everything else out there.

The one I have now is a tomato emoji in my Mac menubar. When I tell it I'm
working, it asks what I'm working on (so I can keep it in a logfile and do fun
analytics on it later), then plays my work playlist in iTunes and updates a
webpage[1] that lets my wife know I'm working for the next 25 minutes.

When the time is up, it stops the music and asks how the pom went (also for
the logfile).

It's absolutely the perfect solution for me. I can't imagine finding an app
that does these things that someone else had built. The ROI on building tools
for myself that help my workflow has been extremely positive.

1\. [http://gen.co/ischristianworking/](http://gen.co/ischristianworking/)

------
asciimo
I just set a 25 minute time and forgot about it. The gong sound terrified me.

------
Scarblac
Another Pomodoro timer that assumes that a Pomodoro is 25 minutes, even though
that was only an example that worked for the author.

------
dcousens
I just use `notify-send` every 30 minutes...
[https://github.com/dcousens/dotfiles/blob/master/.xinitstatu...](https://github.com/dcousens/dotfiles/blob/master/.xinitstatusbar#L88-L94).

------
esseti
I use this
[http://martakostova.github.io/timer/](http://martakostova.github.io/timer/)
(compiled by myself) . It's good becuase it can run script, so i can sete
myself to a DND status on slack when the pomodoro is running and turn back
online after that. E.g.f for start you can use a script like this

do shell script "curl
'[https://slack.com/api/dnd.setSnooze?token=<yourtoken>&num_mi...](https://slack.com/api/dnd.setSnooze?token=<yourtoken>&num_minutes=$duration'")

------
gourou
I thought this was gonna be a post about cooking, I'm still not sure what this
is

~~~
LoSboccacc
Pseudoscience based time management

~~~
Blaque
Despite the snark of your answer, I'd be interested to know if you have any
examples of science-based time management. It seems that this field is mostly
trial-and-error, the techniques either work for you or don't.

~~~
LoSboccacc
Eh it's not like I intended pseudoscience as pejorative, but as in there some
evidence in cognitive science that defocusing and refocusing on tasks help
efficiency, but as all thing in this field reproducibility and other issues
make it a tall order to call it scientific.

------
alexose
I love it! Doesn't get much more minimal than that.

Here's my relatively bloated pomodoro tracker:
[http://alexose.github.io/pomodoro/](http://alexose.github.io/pomodoro/)

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gianc
Hi, nice one!

Just a suggestion, check the behaviour of the "do_it" div. If I click on it
and then click outside without writing anything, the div will collapse leaving
a blank area, and it will not be possible (or it will be very hard) to open it
again.

I did one too before summer. Here's mine
[http://codepen.io/gianc/full/oLdGAv](http://codepen.io/gianc/full/oLdGAv)

I'm still learning, any criticism and/or advice is appreciated.

------
criddell
This is great. Now good luck resisting the urge to add just one more feature.

I really hope you don't because there are other more feature-bloated timers
out there. This seems perfect to me.

~~~
criddell
After looking again, I realized uBlock was reporting that it had blocked
something and so I took a look and it is Google Analytics. Just out of
curiosity, why include that?

~~~
dougblack
I would imagine the creator would find usage stats interesting.

~~~
jastr
Yup!

~~~
criddell
Thanks for making it. Like I said, I really appreciate how sharply focused the
timer page is. If I were to suggest anything, it would be to get rid of the
analytics tracking. Is Google telling you anything useful? From my point of
view, it consumes resources, doesn't add any functionality, and leaks data
about your visitors.

------
wodenokoto
Is there an article outlining the idea behind these tomato timers, similarly
to GTD or is it in reality just a simple system that I am trying to read too
much into?

~~~
Walkman
[http://pomodorotechnique.com/](http://pomodorotechnique.com/)

~~~
mysterypie
Anyone else getting a black screen that says, "Sorry -- Because of its privacy
settings, this video cannot be played here"?

I can't tell what it's complaining about. I'm allowing tracking, DRM, cookies,
everything I can think of.

Oddly enough, I was able to easily download the video using youtube-dl, a
general-purpose command-line video downloader for Unix/Linux/Windows/Mac[1].

The video was well done and informative, but I still don't understand why it
doesn't play on their web page.

[1] [https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl](https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl)

------
andyjohnson0
Nice work! A good, minimalist solution.

\----

My personal favourite is Strict Workflow [1], which is a Chrome extension. It
has the added benefit of preventing idle website browsing during a work phase.

[1] [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/strict-
workflow/cg...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/strict-
workflow/cgmnfnmlficgeijcalkgnnkigkefkbhd)

------
pedasmith
I get distracted by shiny things, so I made a low-distraction work timer
[https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/low-distraction-
work...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/low-distraction-work-
timer/9nblggh5r6z1)

It moves pretty much imperceptibly so that it doesn't distract from the task
at hand.

------
prawn
I use Timebar, which is unfortunately no longer available through the Mac App
Store. [http://lifehacker.com/timebar-turns-your-macs-menubar-
into-a...](http://lifehacker.com/timebar-turns-your-macs-menubar-into-a-
timer-484724310)

It turns your entire top menu bar into a countdown bar which you can keep an
eye on peripherally as you work.

------
f_allwein
My preferred behaviour for pomodoro timers is: start the break countdown
automatically at the end of a pomodoro, but wait for the user to click to
start the next pomodoro. Does it do that?

For everyone who has not tried the pomodoro technique (25 minutes focused
work, 5 minutes everything else): give it a try! I'm constantly surprised at
how much I can get done in 25 minutes.

~~~
jastr
Developer here - it doesnt auto-start the break timer.

Interesting that you would want to start the break countdown but not the next
work timer.

~~~
Veen
I prefer this too. I'm strict about work intervals but flexible about break
intervals. Usually so that I can use the break to chat to my gf, go for a
short walk, or make a cup of tea or whatnot without worrying about going over
by a couple of minutes and having to reset the timer.

~~~
f_allwein
Yes, that's what I meant. If the break does not start automatically, I tend to
forget to trigger it, whereas if the next pomodoro does start automatically,
it may catch me in the middle of doing something else.

------
sc4les
I have a simple PS script to use at work (so I don't have to install any extra
applications, plus I can customize it easily). It shows the remaining time as
well as a desktop notfication: [https://github.com/maxlorenz/ps-
pomodoro](https://github.com/maxlorenz/ps-pomodoro)

------
amasad
For a minimal OS X native app check out Pomodoro One. So simple and clean yet
had a great impact on my productivity.

------
h2hn
I made a pomodoro app for Linux based on taskwarrior. I have been using it for
a while with free sync online ...
[https://github.com/liloman/pomodoroTasks](https://github.com/liloman/pomodoroTasks)

------
Derbasti
Ah, memories. I did one of those, too, a few years ago: [http://pomodoro-
timer.org/](http://pomodoro-timer.org/)

It even has an animated tomato, uses localstorage to save your work record,
and makes ding in the end!

------
gerbal
I really dig the aesthetic and simplicity of
[http://luckyshot.github.io/twentyfive/](http://luckyshot.github.io/twentyfive/)

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Numberwang
I like and am at the same time annoyed that it is so simple.

One the one hand I have a doze features I'd like to have. On the other I know
those are mostly time wastes.

------
fomq
Yay. Here's mine: [http://xcvfd.com/pomodoro](http://xcvfd.com/pomodoro)

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tianshuo
My favorite timer is pomotodo.com which merges a todo list with a pomodoro
timer, and gives stats on completion rates.

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kinleyd
I use Pymodoro in a dzen bar in a minimalist tiling windows manager. Really
nice.

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Gnarl
Can it send email?

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Walkman
Why is this on front page? It has two buttons and one text input.

~~~
ohadron
The 'Flappy Bird' effect.

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
Has anyone tried shocking themselves? I feel like this pomodoro idea is ripe
for creative disruption.

~~~
gunn
[http://pavlok.com/](http://pavlok.com/)

~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
Oh boy.

