If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a student — and being a student is hard. It hasn’t been too long since I was a student so I can completely empathize with your current environment. I remember dealing with stress, balancing friends and school, and trying to study as hard and long as possible with the least number of distractions as possible.

I discovered the Pomodoro Technique and still use it to this day. It’s a game-changer for productivity. Here are 5 Pomodoro tools that helped me maximize my study marathons and still help me now during deep work.

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro technique is a popular productivity technique that works on the concept of time chunking. It’s perfect for breaking up study sessions into approachable pieces. It extends your focus, prevents burnout, and builds a habit.

The most official time breakdown is working for 25 minutes and breaking for 5 minutes. However, many students utilize the breakdown of working for 50 minutes and breaking for 10 minutes. Some students even break up their sessions with an episode of anime (coined animedoro). It’s really up to you and knowing how you work the best.

The 5 Best Pomodoro Tools for Students in 2024

1. Ahero

Try Ahero

Ahero is a web-based Pomodoro timer and distraction blocker. You can schedule and time Pomodoro sessions as well as any other custom interval. To make your study session as uninterrupted as possible, you can also block distracting sites and apps. So for example, if you find Youtube and Discord distracting, you can block them so you aren’t tempted. This is perfect if you have difficulty with online distractions or procrastination. It takes the guessing game out and encourages you to focus on your task. 

2. Study with Me

Try Abao in Tokyo’s Study With Me

Searching ‘Live study with me’ on Youtube will yield you thousands of aesthetic videos to every day people studying or working with pomodoro timers. Some sessions are even as long as 8 hours. Not only can following alone one of these videos time your own work session, but it could also help you feel like you’re not alone. There’s a community of other people studying with you acting like accountability partners. Plus, it’s soothing to the eyes and ears!

3. Flocus

Try Flocus

Flocus is a web-based browser that acts as a home for your productivity. It’s the perfect pomodoro timer if you’re looking for something aesthetically pleasing with built-in lo-fi music. It times your sessions with the classic Pomodoro interval or you can even switch to animedoro.  

4. Tomato Timers

Try Tomato Timers

Tomato Timers is a web-based and mobile app. Overall, it has a simple interface and experience. You can use the default Pomodoro timer or create custom intervals. You can easily reset or pause a session. This is great if you’re looking for something simple with no fuss.  

5. Forest

Try Forest

Forest is a mobile app revered by the productivity community. It was one of the first to gamify productivity and make it fun to study. Forest times your Pomodoro sessions and encourages you to keep the app open throughout your session. If you complete your session, you get rewarded a lovely digital tree to add to your forest. This is great because it prevents you from accessing distracting parts of your phone and keeps you on task. 

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I hope you get the chance to check some of these tools out and more importantly, that you find them helpful. Happy studying — you got this!