Break timer for Windows — a pomodoro in the tray, no account, no cloud | NeuroPomodoro
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NeuroPomodoro · break timer for Windows

A pomodoro that just sits in the tray and tells you when to stand up.

25 minutes of work, a 5-minute break, a long one every fourth cycle — and when the break comes, the screen shows what to do with it: look out of the window, loosen your wrists, breathe out a little longer. No sign-up, no subscription, no cloud. The timer never reads what you type and never goes anywhere.

Download for Windows See how it looks
  • Free
  • No account
  • Windows 10 / 11
  • Sends nothing
Break

Short break · 4:12 left

Look out of the window, at the furthest thing you can see.

20 seconds · the screen will dim
Work 25:00 Break 5:00 Long every 4

How it works

Switch it on in the tray, and it takes it from there.

No "start session", no "finish task". The timer runs on the ordinary clock: it counts out the work interval, shows a break, counts out the break, sends you back to work. If the laptop sleeps, the timer pauses rather than "completing" a break with the lid shut.

1

Turn breaks on

It ships off — nobody switches reminders on for you quietly. Turn it on from the tray: Breaks → Enable. The tray tooltip then shows how long until the next one.

2

Work for 25 minutes

The timer intercepts nothing and gets in the way of nothing: it does not read keys and does not look at windows. Which is why it behaves the same whether you type, dictate or read a document.

3

The break suggests something

A small window appears in the corner: a routine a couple of minutes long, step by step, counted for you. Want to just sit? Close it. Want it full screen? There is a button.

4

The long break gets you up

Every fourth break is long, and it opens by asking you to leave the chair — even if you have kept only seated routines. A break spent in the same position is not a break.

What the break shows

Twelve short routines — eyes, breathing, body, head.

Not a video course and not a content subscription: short, obvious things that genuinely fit into five minutes at a desk. Each routine is a sequence of steps with a cue and a timer, not a wall of text to read.

Eyes

The 20-20-20 rule, palming, refocusing on something far away. On the steps where the monitor is not wanted the screen dims or goes dark by itself, and a soft cue brings you back to the next step — so you do not have to peek.

Breathing

A calm rhythm with a longer exhale, paced by a circle that grows and shrinks. Nothing in the default set holds your breath at all — box breathing exists, but it is switched on by hand and only if you want it.

Body

Wrists and hands, neck and shoulders, and the one that the whole thing is for: get up and walk. Routines with repetitions count themselves — the counter leads you, there is nothing to click.

Head

A pause with no task in it: look out of the window, drop your shoulders. This is also where the personal photo pause lives — a break that shows your own pictures from a folder you point at.

Drawn, not only written

The routines come with illustrations, so "retract your shoulder blades" does not have to be parsed word by word. The pictures are files next to the application; nothing is fetched from the network.

Four languages

Cues, buttons and routine names are translated into English, Russian, German and Hebrew — right-to-left included, as it should be.

No medical promises: this is a stretch and a change of activity, not treatment. A permanent safety line is visible on every routine.

Not annoying

A reminder you will not want to uninstall on day three.

This was the main job. Software that jumps to full screen in the middle of a call lives on a computer exactly until the first time it does that.

A corner by defaultA small window bottom-right that does not take focus, so you can carry on typing. Want it stricter? There is a centred panel and a fullscreen mode — your choice, not ours.
Silent over fullscreenWhile a game, a call, a presentation or a screen share is in front, the break window does not appear at all. The timer keeps running underneath.
Quiet hoursA window in which breaks are never shown — the evening, say, or the morning block of calls.
"+5 min"You should not have to drop a thought halfway. The button postpones the break, and the same one comes back: a short break stays short, a long one stays long.
Skip, but not by reflexThe Skip button arms a couple of seconds late. That is enough to make skipping a decision rather than an automatic click at whatever popped up.
"Off for today"Kept separate from "off for good": silence today, back by itself tomorrow. The difference between "not now" and "never" matters.

Make it yours

Your intervals, your routines, your order.

Intervals25/5 with a long break every fourth is only the default. There are presets, and a "custom" row if your rhythm is your own.
A checkbox on every routineDo not like one? Untick it and it never comes up again. It works the other way too: what does not play by itself can be switched on by hand.
Three ways to pickVary them (no repeats, eyes off the screen often enough), walk your own order one per break, or always show the same one. That last one is the answer to "just show me my photos".
Accessibility"Seated only" — and you will not be asked to stand anywhere, long breaks included. Plus "no breath holds", "silent" and a reduced-motion mode.
Your own photosPoint at a folder and your pictures fill the break. They are read from disk when the break starts: never copied, never indexed, never uploaded.
Your own routine packsA routine is a folder with a description and its files beside it. You can build one: pictures, a slideshow, a clip, a background track. Import checks the whole pack and names the file when it refuses.

Privacy

We cannot see your statistics, because there is nowhere to send them.

Habit trackers usually work the other way round: an account, sync, productivity charts on somebody else's server. None of that is here, and that is a decision rather than an unfinished feature.

The timer does not read your typingIt runs on the clock, not on your activity. It knows nothing about keystrokes, open windows or how long you worked today.
The break screen has no networkNone at all. It gets pictures and sounds only from your disk, through a channel that cannot reach outside its own folder.
Settings are a file on your machineIntervals, the routines you chose and the path to your photo folder sit in an ordinary settings file. No account.
What does leaveThe application as a whole keeps only a technical link: a download and install count, the version, rare heartbeat events used to judge build quality, and a licence check. Typed text is never sent — see the privacy policy.

What else you get

The timer arrives with NeuroSwitcher — use it or don't.

Breaks are part of the free NeuroSwitcher, a keyboard helper for Windows. Putting it to work is optional: the timer is self-contained and switched on separately. But if you type in two languages, the interesting part is right here.

It fixes your layout

Typed ghbdtn when you meant "привет"? NeuroSwitcher notices and replaces it on the fly, or on the Pause key if you would rather decide yourself. English, Russian, Hebrew; German is experimental. About the layout switcher →

Voice input

Press a key and dictate into any application. Recognition runs on your PC by default, offline. About voice input →

AI assistant

Select text in any window and ask for a rewrite or an explanation — with the free cloud, your own key, or a local model. About the AI assistant →

One installer, one tray icon. If all you want is the timer, the rest can simply stay off.

FAQ

Common questions about the break timer.

Do I need an account or a subscription?

No. No account, no email, no payment. Every routine is free too: cutting them would be pointless, since they are the useful part.

Does the timer watch what I do?

No. It is a plain wall-clock timer: it does not read keystrokes, does not look at open applications and does not score your activity. Which is why it behaves the same when you type, when you dictate and when you are just reading the screen.

Does anything go out to the internet?

The timer and the break screen never touch the network: no settings sync, no statistics upload, no account. The application as a whole keeps a technical link — downloads, installs, version, rare heartbeat events and a licence check; typed text is never sent. Details in the privacy policy.

Can a break pop up during a call or a game?

No. While a fullscreen application is in front — a game, a call, a presentation, a screen share — the break window stays hidden and the timer simply keeps running. There are also quiet hours, a "+5 min" button and "off for today".

Can I change 25/5 to my own intervals?

Yes. Work, short break, long break and which break is the long one are all yours to set, and there are presets. Long breaks can be switched off entirely.

I do not want exercises, just a timer.

That works too: the break screen can be set to notification only. And if you want some routines but not all, untick the ones you do not want — or leave exactly one, which will then always be the one you get.

Is it heavy on resources?

No. Between breaks it is literally a counter of seconds. The break window exists only for the length of the break and closes with it.

What if I work on more than one computer?

There is no sync between machines — a direct consequence of there being no account. Each computer has its own timer with its own settings.

Free, no account

Install it, switch breaks on, and forget about it until the first "stand up".

NeuroPomodoro is part of NeuroSwitcher for Windows 10 and 11. One installer, one tray icon, a "Breaks" menu — switch it on and get back to work.

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