The Pomodoro Technique, 25 minutes of focus and a 5-minute break, is the best-known way to split up a working day, but it isn't the only one, and it isn't always the best. For deep work, 25 minutes can end right as you're getting somewhere. Here are six intervals people use, what each is good for, and how to choose.
Six focus intervals compared
| Method | Focus / break | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pomodoro | 25 / 5, long break every 4 | Starting, admin, tasks you dread | Ends just as deep work warms up |
| Double Pomodoro | 50 / 10 | Writing, study, most knowledge work | Harder to start on bad days |
| 52/17 | 52 / 17 | Steady, focused days | Long breaks need discipline |
| Ultradian block | 90 / 20 | Hard problems, code, design | Tiring; two or three a day at most |
| Flowtime | Work until you flag; rest about a fifth | Creative work, flow | Easy to drift with no timer |
| Ten-minute start | 10, then decide | Procrastination, low energy | Not a system on its own |
1. The classic Pomodoro (25/5)
Francesco Cirillo's method, from the late 1980s: 25 minutes on one task, a 5-minute break, and a longer break after four. Its great strength is how easy it makes starting. Its weakness is the same short length. More on the technique, or start one on the Pomodoro timer.
2. The double Pomodoro (50/10)
Two Pomodoros stuck together, with a longer break. It gives hard work room to warm up while keeping the rhythm. For most desk work, it's the best default.
3. The 52/17 rule
From a 2014 analysis by the time-tracking app DeskTime of its most productive users, who averaged 52 minutes of work and 17 of rest. The long break is the point: real rest, away from the desk. Read the full story.
4. The 90-minute block (90/20)
Based on the idea of a roughly 90-minute ultradian rhythm, and on how expert performers practise. Best for the hardest problems, when you need to hold a lot in your head at once. What the research says.
5. Flowtime
No fixed timer: start a stopwatch, work until you notice your focus fading, and then take a break in proportion, often about a fifth of the time you worked. It suits creative work where an alarm would break a flow state, but without a fixed end it's easy to drift.
6. The ten-minute start
Not a system, a door-opener: commit to ten minutes, then decide whether to keep going. On a bad day it gets you moving when nothing else will. See how to stop procrastinating.
How to choose
- Can't start? Ten minutes, then a Pomodoro.
- Normal work day? 50/10 or 52/17.
- A big, hard problem and a fresh mind? 90/20, once or twice.
- Creative and absorbed? Flowtime, with a gentle alarm as a backstop.
You can mix them in one day: a 90-minute block in the morning, 25-minute Pomodoros for the admin after lunch. The deep work timer has 52/17, 50/10 and 90/20 built in, and the Pomodoro calculator plans a day in any of them.
A seventh option: the length of a flight
Flight lets the session be as long as a real trip from London: 55m to Paris, 1h 27m to Zurich, 3h 25m to Athens. Choose the length by choosing where to fly.