FocusBlock Guides
“Focus for 25, rest for 5” is simple to say and hard to keep up. These guides cover everything from using FocusBlock to the habits that make focus stick.
There are 12 articles. Rather than a pile of near-identical posts, each one takes a single topic all the way through. Start wherever fits your goal — every article is free, with no sign-up required.
Start with the basics
How the technique works, how to pick your interval, which timer to use, and how FocusBlock works.
- What is the Pomodoro TechniqueWhat the Pomodoro Technique is, where it came from, the 25/5 cycle, why short intervals actually raise focus, and how to run your first one. Plus the part most guides skip: how to pick 15, 25, 50 or 90 minutes when 25 doesn’t fit you, and how to stop breaks from running long.
- Using a Pomodoro timerHow to use a free Pomodoro timer: the 25/5 rhythm, how to run it for study and for work, why background tabs don’t make the clock drift, and exactly which devices can deliver a notification. Open FocusBlock in a browser and every minute of focus stacks up as a block.
- Choosing a timerWhich Pomodoro timer should you use? Compare kitchen timers, your phone’s built-in timer, browser timers and installed apps on setup cost, records, ads and price. What derails people is never accuracy — it’s quitting. Five criteria that matter, plus an honest look at who FocusBlock is wrong for.
- How to use FocusBlockHow to use FocusBlock, shown with real screenshots of the app. Setting your intervals, the blocks that stack as you focus, the jar collection and how skins unlock, tracking hours by topic, scheduling a session, and adding it to your home screen. Free, no sign-up, works in any browser.
For studying
Diagnosing why you can’t focus, school and exams, memorization, and tracking your hours.
- When you can’t focusWhy you can’t focus, split into five causes — the wrong interval, breaks you never come back from, a distracting environment, perfectionism, and a genuinely restless mind — with a different fix for each. Includes how long to work per type of task and how to start from a single minute.
- StudyingFor students who lose focus to their phone or to fatigue. The 25/5 basics, how long to spend per subject, building an exam timetable in rounds rather than hours, breaking a college paper into 25-minute pieces, and using it in a library or café — all in one guide. Free, no sign-up.
- MemorizationWhy short 15–25 minute rounds beat long cramming sessions for memorization, how to structure a round so review happens automatically, why recalling beats re-reading, spacing your reviews before you forget, and using commute time and the minutes before sleep. Free, no sign-up.
- Tracking study timeStudy logs fail because logging takes effort. Compare paper, spreadsheets and automatic timer tracking, learn the three conditions for a log that lasts, how to review it in five minutes a week, and where the data actually lives. Free, no signup.
For work, and for days you can’t start
Interruptions, working from home, deep work — and how to begin when motivation isn’t there.
- Focus at workFor anyone whose focus dies at work. Protecting attention from interruptions and email, the right interval for each kind of task, beating the distractions of working from home, scheduling deep work so it survives the calendar, and keeping flow intact while coding or designing — in one guide.
- Motivation & procrastinationNothing to do with willpower — procrastination is a starting problem. Why motivation arrives after you move rather than before, how to lower the cost of beginning, what procrastination is really protecting you from, and how to end a day that was never going to work. For the days you can’t get going.
Environment & breaks
Desk, light, background sound and coffee build the base. Then make the 5 minutes count.
- Setting up your spacePoor focus is often the room, not you. Where to put your phone, what to leave on the desk, light, temperature and posture — plus choosing background sound (lyrics-free, ambient, silence) and the timing that makes caffeine actually work. Set it up once and it pays every day.
- Better breaksWhat should you actually do in a 5-minute Pomodoro break? Leaving the screen, stretching, breathing, looking into the distance, water — plus the breaks that make things worse, how to stop a break from running long, and what the longer break after four rounds is for.