Meet Pomodachi, the Productivity “Tamagotchi”

Like many, dropopuli started working remotely during the recent pandemic, and – also like many – had difficulty staying focused. One popular method for managing workflow and distractions is known as the Pomodoro technique, which breaks the workday up into manageable ~25 minute increments of focused work. Of course, to pull this off correctly means you need some sort of timepiece.

In order to make the Pomodoro workflow more interesting than using an egg (or tomato) shaped timer, dropopuli instead constructed a sort of productivity Tamagotchi called “Pomodachi.” The device runs on an Adafruit HalloWing M4 express board, which provides a display, and processing capabilities via an ATSAMD51J19 microcontroller. The build also adds an RTC unit for accurate timekeeping, so you won’t be left second-guessing if you worked just a little too long, or not long enough.

The Pomodachi electronics sit inside of a nicely 3D-printed frame (models available on GitHub), with keyswitch controls jutting out of the top of the console. Onscreen, a Tamagotchi-like character named “Pomo” is fed by pressing either top button. When you run out of virtual food, both buttons must be pressed to start him searching for more, during which time you’re meant to work on the task at hand. When it returns, it then suggests a break time activity for you to try.

It looks like a fun and useful build right now, and dropopuli has a few more ideas for improvements, so it may get even better with time!