Tomatino
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Free · open source · macOS 26+, Apple silicon

Give it
25 minutes.

That is all Tomatino asks for. A Pomodoro timer for the macOS menu bar that switches your Focus mode and your music with you.

Download for macOS Why I built this

Signed and notarised · no account, no telemetry

17:42running 17:42paused 04:58break 25:00ready
The Tomatino overview: a Time Timer dial counting down a focus session, with the cycle and the controls below it
One glance

The whole session in one dial

The elapsed time fills a scale, so one glance tells you how far in you are. Focus is red, breaks are teal, and the colour alone tells you which phase is running.

Underneath: where you are in the cycle, and how long the next break will be. Everything in the same small window.

The Tomatino app icon: a red dial on a white tile
Focus & music

Two fewer decisions, every single time

Starting a session turns on a Focus mode and starts your playlist. The break turns Focus off and pauses the music. Afterwards it picks up where it left off instead of starting the playlist over.

This is the part I kept missing, and the reason Tomatino exists at all. The longer story is further down.

2 min in
halfway
almost done
Lives in the menu bar

No Dock icon, no window in the way

A capsule in the menu bar, and that is it. Filled while running, outlined while paused, coloured by phase. A glance up tells you the state along with the time.

Click it for the overview. ⌥-click, right-click or a global shortcut start and pause without opening anything.

What else it does

Times to fit the work15 to 90 minutes, sessions per cycle, auto-start for sessions and breaks. Or neither, if you would rather start every phase yourself.
Sound and notificationAt the end of every phase, both optional.
Global shortcutStart and pause from anywhere, without switching windows first.
Pauses when the Mac sleepsAnd when the screen locks. Breaks keep running, because a break away from the desk is still a break.
Updates itselfA new version arrives in the app, instead of being a download you have to go and find.
German and EnglishFollowing your system language. Launches at login, if you want it there every morning.

No account, no telemetry, no analytics, no ads. The only network connection Tomatino makes is the update check against GitHub. It sends no personal data, and you can turn it off in the settings.

The two Focus shortcuts

macOS has no public API for setting a Focus mode; the supported route is the Shortcuts app. So Tomatino runs two shortcuts: one that turns a Focus mode on, one that turns it off again.

Add “Tomatino Focus On” Add “Tomatino Focus Off”

Each button opens the Shortcuts app, which asks whether to add the shortcut. The Focus mode is preset to Do Not Disturb — open the shortcut afterwards if you would rather protect a different one. Then turn on Control macOS Focus under Settings → Focus. Tomatino carries both shortcuts itself as well: if one is missing, the overview offers a button that adds them — so you do not have to remember any of this.

Rather create them yourself?
  1. Open Shortcuts.
  2. Create a shortcut named Tomatino Focus On with a single action: Set Focus → your preferred mode → On.
  3. Create a second one named Tomatino Focus Off with Set Focus → Off.
  4. In Tomatino, open Settings → Focus and turn on Control macOS Focus.

The names are configurable, in case you already have shortcuts you would rather reuse.

Why I built this

I have never been able to concentrate on one thing for long.

It was never for lack of interest. I would sit down, start, drift off, and an hour later have little to show for it.

The Pomodoro technique was the first thing that changed that for me, because it takes the decision away from me: the timer says when I work and when I stop, and I stopped having to negotiate with myself about it.

What the existing timers were missing was the part that actually protects a session. Starting one means two more things for me every time: turn on a Focus mode so nothing interrupts, and start the music I concentrate to. Two steps at the beginning, two at the end, and every one of them a chance to drift off again. So Tomatino does both itself, and undoes them when the break starts. Setting that up takes about a minute.

It is free and it stays free. If it earns its place in your day, you can buy me a coffee or sponsor it on GitHub.

What Pomodoro is, and why it helps

Francesco Cirillo came up with it in the late 1980s and named it after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he used. Hence the name of this app. The method fits in one line: work for a set time, then take a break, and repeat. Classically 25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of break, and a longer break after four rounds.

What makes it work is not the number, but these three things:

One honest caveat: the 25 minutes are a convention, not a physiological constant. There is good evidence that breaks aid recovery and that attention wanes over long stretches, but no study says the ideal work block is exactly 25 minutes. Take it as a starting point and adjust it to the kind of work you do.

25 or 50 minutes?

Take 25 minutes when starting is the hard part

When you keep putting the task off, when you are tired, when the work is small-grained: email, admin, tidying up. The short block lowers the hurdle. Half an hour is over before the resistance kicks in properly. This is also the length to start with if you have never worked this way.

Take 50 minutes when the work needs a run-up

Programming, writing, design. Anything where you spend the first ten minutes just getting back into where you were. 25 minutes is barely enough to get properly into the problem before the timer goes off, and every interruption costs you that run-up again.

Make it longer if you are annoyed when the timer rings because you were finally in it.
Make it shorter if you feel resistance before you even start.

Tomatino offers 15 to 90 minutes, and the Timer tab shows what a full cycle adds up to before you commit to it.

And if it does not help?

Then it was 25 minutes. That is all you promised.

Download for macOS 
brew tap missaq/tap
brew install --cask tomatino