Who would have thought that a mere “tomato” would inspire millions to be more productive?
Now one of the most popular time tracking methods, the Pomodoro timer calls for breaking work into manageable chunks and alternating it with short breaks to keep your mind sharp and ready.
The Paymo widget allows you to track time using the Pomodoro technique too. Let’s see how it works.
How to use the Pomodoro timer in Paymo
The Pomodoro option is available in the desktop widget, you can download it here. Get started by opening the desktop widget. As usual, choose the project and task you want to track time for.
Only this time – besides the start/stop, bulk, and interval options – select the Pomodoro timer to get into focus mode.
The interface features a default 25 minutes timer that works counterclockwise when you start it. As time passes, the Pomodoro (tomato) beneath will fill up to visually signal the progress of your work session.
Pomodoro timer – Paymo
NOTE: A Pomodoro session is a “sacred” time block – you can’t afford to get distracted during its length. That’s why if you stop the Pomodoro timer, the Pomodoro visual percentage will reset itself. However, the time entry will still be registered and available on your timesheet.
Once the work session is over, the default 5 minutes short break will start automatically, giving you a much-needed break. Your task then is to start a new Pomodoro session.
Pomodoro short break – Paymo
After 4 Pomodoro sessions, the default 20 minutes long break will kick in to help you regroup your thoughts and prepare for the next batch of work.
Pomodoro long break – Paymo
NOTE: You can enable desktop notifications to get alerts when a work session or break is over.
Pomodoro timer settings
In terms of the Pomodoro timer settings, you can customize each of the following in order to fit your working style:
- Pomodoro session
- Short Break
- Long break
You can enable sound alerts when a work session or break is over.
Pomodoro settings – Paymo
Other time-tracking improvements and beyond
To make this feature even more accessible, we’ve replaced the Mark as complete checkbox with three ellipses that allow you to start the Pomodoro timer for recent tasks and set your task to complete or resume it.
Quick start pomodoro timer – Paymo
We’ve also made it possible to display the client name to eliminate confusion if you work on tasks with the same name but for different clients.
Display client name – Paymo
We hope you put it to good use when you want to motivate yourself or get hyper-focused on a single task. We hope this update will ultimately bring you closer to what most of us are struggling with in our daily lives: working with time, not against it.
Feel free to write us in the support chat what you think about it and what you intend to use it for ????
Watch here how you can use Pomodoro technique in Paymo
Andrei Țiț
Author
Andrei Țiț is a product marketer at Ahrefs. He has been involved in product marketing at various SaaS companies for over six years, specializing in content marketing and short-form video. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and traveling.
