I always have a jam-packed schedule, yet I always end up procrastinating and feeling guilty about it. Given that the combination doesn’t do me any favors, I’m always on the lookout for productivity hacks, which is how I stumbled on one on Reddit—a Reddit hack that actually works.
I ditched classic pomodoro for reverse pomodoro
I’ve tried every productivity hack you’ll catch people talking about. I’m usually the first to download productivity apps, I’ve tried time-blocking, creating a comprehensive to-do list the moment I wake up, the five-minute rule, and more. Strangely, none of them seem to do the trick for me.
The only productivity hacks that have ever worked for me are ones that lean toward the odd side, like locking my phone (or any other distracting device) in a cupboard, listening to video game soundtracks like the Subway Surfers soundtrack, and filming myself working in a time-lapse.
I also relied on the Pomodoro technique for the longest time, and that’s how I survived my high school years. However, it eventually started to feel too rigid. Just when I’d finally get into a groove, the timer would yell at me to stop, forcing me to break my flow and lose all the momentum I had built up.
Sure, missing the break was an option, but that would ultimately mean I was no longer practicing the Pomodoro technique properly. When I was scrolling on Reddit, I saw a post that mentioned “Reverse Pomodoro Timer” in the title, and it immediately caught my attention and stopped me from scrolling.
I’ve always been up-to-date with productivity tools and trends, but I’d never heard of anything called Reverse Pomodoro. And frankly, I was confused about what it even meant at first. Would you do exactly the opposite of the standard Pomodoro method?
Like, work for 5 minutes and then take a 25-minute break—the exact opposite of the usual 25/5 setup? Surprisingly, that isn’t quite how it works. Instead of forcing you to stop after a set time, Reverse Pomodoro lets you work as long as you want and then gives you a break proportional to how long you’ve stayed focused.
For example, if you work for 20 minutes, you get a 2-minute break. If you focus for 45 minutes, you earn a 10-minute break. And if you go full grind mode and focus for an hour, you’re rewarded with a 30-minute break.
The customodoro website is all you need to get started
While you can manually track Reverse Pomodoro with a stopwatch or your device’s timer app, the Reddit post mentioned the Customdoro website, which lets you use both the Classic Pomodoro and the Reverse Pomodoro methods within a single interface. The app has an incredibly easy-to-use design, is minimalistic, and runs directly in your browser without needing any downloads.
The best part about this particular website is that you can customize pretty much everything. By default, the maximum time you can focus without taking a break is an hour. Depending on the task I’m doing, there are times when I know I won’t be able to finish within an hour, and taking a break mid-task would only slow me down. In those cases, I prefer focusing for a longer stretch of time and then taking a longer break once I’m actually done.
That’s where Customdoro shines. Instead of forcing me into rigid focus blocks, it lets me extend my sessions to 90 minutes, two hours, or however long I realistically need.
I can also tweak how long my breaks last based on how long I’ve focused in the settings.
For instance, after a two-hour focus session, I can set myself up with a well-earned 45-minute break.
If you choose to go with a Custom Timer rather than the standard 1-hour, you’ll need to adjust the break durations manually. Instead of coming up with break times that felt proportional, I just prompted ChatGPT to generate a list of balanced work-to-break ratios.
Instead of noting the tasks you need to work on in a separate app, you can list everything you want to focus on directly within the website.
You can reorder your task list, focus on one by clicking on it, and even check off completed ones as you go. When I’m studying or working, I often switch between my Mac and iPad. The problem with most Pomodoro websites I’ve tried is that my progress doesn’t sync across devices. Customdoro doesn’t have this issue and lets you sync your data simply by entering your email address.
You can also customize the alert sound, timer sound, choose whether you’d like breaks to auto-start, change the theme, and more.
Reverse Pomodoro helped me get more done (without burning out)
As I mentioned above, I’ve tried a lot of productivity hacks, and I have a good idea of what sticks and what doesn’t. Reverse Pomodoro has been one of the few methods that actually fits into my natural workflow instead of forcing me to adapt around it.
When I’m using it to focus on a task like completing an article or studying an entire topic, I know that the longer I focus, the longer my break will be afterward. That little trade-off keeps me motivated to push through without constantly watching the clock. By the end of a longer focus session, not only do I get a longer break, I often also finish the entire task in one sitting.
This almost never happened with the standard Pomodoro method. I’d stop mid-task just because the timer told me to, even when I wasn’t actually tired. With Reverse Pomodoro, I keep going until my momentum naturally runs out. That way, when I finally take a break, it feels like I genuinely earned it.
Reverse Pomodoro has quickly become one of my favorite productivity methods, and I’ve found it works especially well when tackling deep-focused tasks. And the fact that there’s a website dedicated.
