A free 52/17 timer that runs in your browser: 52 minutes of focused work followed by a 17-minute break, again and again. Add your tasks, press Start and let the timer keep the rhythm.
What is the 52/17 rule?
The 52/17 rule says: work with full focus for 52 minutes, then take a complete break for 17 minutes. The idea became popular after an analysis of time-tracking data suggested that some of the most productive people worked in blocks of roughly this length, followed by real rest. It is a rule of thumb that many people find useful, not a law.
Compared with the classic Pomodoro Technique® rhythm of 25 minutes of focus and 5 minutes of rest, 52/17 gives you longer stretches of work and much longer breaks. There is no separate long break: every break is 17 minutes.
How this timer is set up
- Focus: 52 minutes.
- Break: 17 minutes after every session. The long break is also set to 17 minutes, so every break is the same.
- Tasks, reports, sounds and shortcuts work exactly as on the main timer, and your history is shared.
Everything can be changed in Settings, from 1 to 180 minutes. If you want to go back to the classic rhythm, use the 25 / 5 preset.
52/17 vs 25/5 vs 50/10
- 25 / 5: short sessions and quick breaks. Easy to start, good for tiring or unpleasant tasks, frequent interruptions.
- 50 / 10: long sessions with a short but real break. Good for deep work when you want to keep the momentum.
- 52 / 17: long sessions with a long break. Good when you want to fully recover between blocks, for example on a long day of writing, coding or studying.
- Over a working day, 52/17 gives you less total focus time than 50/10, but more rest.
Who 52/17 suits
It fits people who can stay with one task for close to an hour and tend to push through breaks until they are exhausted. The long, fixed break forces a real stop. It fits less well if you struggle to start at all, or if your work is broken up by meetings every half hour; shorter sessions are usually easier then.
What to do with 17 minutes
Seventeen minutes is long enough to leave the desk completely. The point is to rest your attention, not to switch to another screen.
- Take a short walk outside or around the building.
- Make a proper coffee or tea and drink it away from your desk.
- Stretch, do a few exercises or simply lie down for a few minutes.
- Tidy up or do a small chore that needs your hands, not your eyes.
- Before the break, write one line on where to pick up.
Other rhythms
Frequently asked questions
What does 52/17 mean?
Fifty-two minutes of focused work followed by a seventeen-minute break, repeated through the day.
Is 52/17 better than the Pomodoro Technique®?
Not better, just different. 52/17 has longer sessions and much longer breaks. Try both for a few days and compare your reports: the rhythm you actually keep is the right one.
Why is there no long break?
In the 52/17 rule every break is already long. On this page the long break is set to 17 minutes as well, so every break is the same length.
Can I change the numbers?
Yes. In Settings you can set focus and break lengths from 1 to 180 minutes. Your choice is saved in this browser and shared with the other timer pages.
Will the alert play if I switch to another tab?
Tomatock is designed to keep the alert on time even in a background tab: the sound is scheduled in advance and a background worker wakes the page when time is up. On phones, keep the page on screen.
Written and maintained by the Tomatock team · Last reviewed