The Pomodoro Technique, developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, breaks work into short, timed focus sessions separated by deliberate breaks, the idea being that a hard deadline on a manageable chunk of time reduces the urge to drift off-task. This timer runs the classic cycle of focused work blocks, short breaks, and a longer break after every fourth session, with desktop notifications so you don't have to keep glancing at the clock, plus a session log and daily stats saved right in your browser.
25 minutes was Cirillo's original interval, chosen as a length long enough to make real progress but short enough that starting doesn't feel daunting. It's a starting point, not a law, the work, short-break, and long-break durations here are all configurable if a different rhythm suits your focus span better.
Short breaks (typically a few minutes) happen after every work session and are meant for a quick mental reset. The long break, taken after a set number of work sessions (four, in the traditional method), is longer and intended to let you recover more fully before starting a fresh set of cycles.
Yes, completed sessions are recorded in a session log and rolled up into daily focus stats, both saved locally in your browser so you can see your patterns over time without any account or sync required.