Pomodoro Block Tracks Work Intervals

The Pomodoro time management method was developed 1980s, and has become quite popular today. This technique, named after Francesco Cirillo's tomato-shaped kitchen timer – pomodoro is tomato in Italian – that he used in college. The basic idea is to perform work in manageable chunks, broken up with short breaks, and regulated by a simple timer. CoderOK decided to create his own customizable pomodoro timer in the form of a question mark block from Super Mario Brothers.

The timing block features just one input, in the form of a button poking out of the top of the block. Short clicks are used to change the length of the timer, while a long click starts the Pomodoro cycle. Inside, an Arduino Pro Mini is programmed to provide overall control of the device while an RTC is implemented to keep better time than the Pro Mini could on its own. A small buzzer emits sounds, and visual output is shown on a four-digit, seven-segment display.

The housing itself a nice shade of yellow, along with white bolts and question mark accents. The block was downloaded from Thingiverse, and modified for button, display, and power cable holes before being printed. The device looks very useful and functional, and there’s some mention of tracking stats, which would be stored locally.

One might also consider using an ESP, Pico W, or similar, allowing for wireless data transmission and control. It’s a neat potential innovation, though perhaps it would also take away from the device’s elegant simplicity.