Set the timer, pick one subject, and study until it rings. Most students do well on 25/5 for reading and problem sets, or 50/10 for essays and past papers. Four sessions run 1 hour 55 minutes, which is a realistic evening of revision rather than the six hours you planned.
Presets for different study work
Start a 25/5 session for reading, flashcards, problem sets and lecture notes. The classic length, and the right default when you are avoiding the subject.
Start a 50/10 session for essays, past papers and anything where the first fifteen minutes go on remembering where you were. One long break after three sessions.
Start a 15/5 session when you cannot start. Fifteen minutes of a subject you dread beats an hour of rearranging your desk, and momentum usually arrives somewhere in the second session.
Start a 90/20 session for a timed mock paper or a long piece of coursework. Two of these is a serious day.
The study timer page opens with the 50/10 preset and the task list already in view if you would rather not set anything up.
A revision evening that works
Four sessions, three subjects, one plan.
Session one goes to the subject you like least. Not because of discipline, but because at 7pm you still have the patience for it and at 10pm you will not.
Session two is the same subject or the next one, depending on whether you got anywhere. Take the break either way.
Session three is practice, not reading. Past paper questions, problems, anything with an answer you can check.
Session four is light: rewriting messy notes, sorting flashcards, listing what you did not understand so tomorrow has a starting point.
That is 1 hour 55 minutes of clock time, so a 7pm start finishes before 10. Planning eight sessions on a school night is how people end up doing two.
Put active recall inside the session
The timer decides how long you study. It has no opinion about what you do in there, and that part matters more.
Rereading notes feels productive and is one of the weakest methods available. In their 2013 review for Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Dunlosky and colleagues rated practice testing and distributed practice as high utility across ages, subjects and criterion tasks, while rereading, highlighting and summarising came out low (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
A session built on that looks like: close the book, write down everything you remember about the topic, then open the book and find out what you missed. Uncomfortable, and roughly twice as useful as reading the chapter again.
Spread the same topic across several days rather than doing it all in one evening. Two sessions on Monday and two on Thursday beat four on Wednesday, which is the distributed practice half of the finding.
Use the task list and the history
Write the session’s task before you start: “past paper Q4 to Q7”, not “revise chemistry”. A task you can finish tells you when the session worked.
Add an estimate in sessions next to each item. A week of comparing estimates against reality is the fastest cure for a revision timetable built on wishful thinking.
The timer keeps your completed sessions in your browser, so you can see how many hours a subject has actually had. The subject you are avoiding shows up immediately, usually with a number that surprises you.
Group study
Send a preset link to whoever you are studying with and you are all on the same clock, whether you are in the same room or on a call. Breaks land together, which is the difference between a break and one person talking while the other reads.
Phones face down and in a bag for the focus block. The break is long enough for both of you to check them.
FAQ
Is the pomodoro technique good for studying?
It works well for reading, problem sets and revision, mainly because it gets you started and stops sessions turning into four-hour slogs. A 2023 study of 87 university students found fixed breaks reduced reported fatigue and distraction compared with self-chosen breaks, with no loss in work completed (Biwer and colleagues).
How many pomodoros should I do when studying?
Four to six on a weeknight, eight to ten on a full study day. Four sessions take 1 hour 55 minutes of real time including breaks. Plan fewer than you think you can manage, since finishing the plan matters more than the size of it.
Is 25 or 50 minutes better for studying?
Twenty-five for reading, flashcards and anything you are avoiding. Fifty for essays, past papers and long problems where reloading the context is expensive. Most students end up using both, chosen by the kind of work rather than by preference.
Should I study one subject per session?
Yes, within a session. Switching subjects mid-block costs you the run-up twice. Across a whole evening, rotating subjects is fine and probably helps, since spacing and interleaving are both associated with better long-term retention than blocking one topic into a single sitting.
Can I use this timer during exam revision?
That is what it is for. Use 90-minute blocks when practising a timed paper so the session matches the exam, and shorter blocks for content revision. Everything is stored in your browser, so nothing needs setting up on a borrowed laptop.
More on planning a term of revision is in the pomodoro technique for studying guide. When you are ready to start, start a 25/5 session and write the first task above the ring.