Chronobreak For Linux

Invented by Francesco Cirillo, a man who allegedly struggled with maintaining high productivity and focus during his work for long periods of time, the Pomodoro technique is probably the most popular time management technique out there.

The whole premise of the Pomodoro technique is that taking various types of breaks between short stints of hard work is actually very good for productivity, even though it may appear quite counter-productive at first.

There are many Pomodoro-type of apps out there, and most of them allow you to customize the technique according to your style. This is not the case with Chronobreak, a somewhat interesting Electron-based app that's all about faithfully replicating the original technique.

If you really believe that the original version of the Pomodoro technique works for you, then there's a good chance you'll enjoy Chronobreak. As for the app's name, one can only assume that it's an homage to Ekko's ultimate ability from League of Legends, even though there isn't much information in order to fully support this (our) theory.

The way you operate the app is also quite different than most other apps of this sort. To start a Pomodoro session, you have to drag/slide the clock numbers (using your mouse cursor). This may seem strange, but the philosophy behind this is that it makes you interact with the app in a physical way, arguably allowing you to reach that nice state of flow and focus thanks to both visual and audio cues. In short, it should provide an increased sense of purpose, and it makes the app feel more interactive (which is not a bad thing).

The timer completion is also accompanied by various audio cues, as well as the optional ticking of the timer upon restarting sessions.

As an app that replicates the original formula invented by Francesco Cirillo, Chronobreak gets the job done nicely. Looks-wise, the app is also not what one might call stylish, but it's not dreadful either. It all depends on taste.

Speaking of taste, the app has a lot of audio cues that might not be to everyone's liking. This wouldn't be much of a problem if only users could change them, or at least if there was an option of turning them off. All of these are not possible, at least not in this version of the app.

Last but not least, there's no option to actually pause the timer. Granted, that would actually defeat the whole purpose of using the Pomodoro technique in the first place. However, if you do happen to skip work for a bit, you'll probably have to discard the Pomodoro altogether (from the tray menu).

Chronobreak is an app that faithfully recreates the Pomodoro technique's recipe, and it does so without compromise. Objectively speaking, this is a very correct philosophy, as the technique itself is all about proper time management.

And, while there's nothing wrong with Chronobreak, it might come across as being a bit too "rigid" for some users who would prefer a bit more leeway, a bit more flexibility towards customizing their Pomodoros. Then there's the issue of the audio queues. They're there for a good reason, but it would have been nice if you could have the option to change them up a bit.

A very interesting, and definitely different Pomodoro app that's worth exploring if you're a fan of the technique.