Flow - Focus & Pomodoro Timer

What is Flow app?

Pomodoro is Italian for tomato and is also a common shape for wind-up kitchen timers. These two facts come together in the Pomodoro Technique, which works with your natural attention span to help you work more productively. 

The technique’s creator popularised the approach and named it after the tomato-shaped timer he used while developing it to help his studies. Since then, it has attracted devotees.

Essentially, the Pomodoro Technique involves working for twenty-five minute periods, called Pomodoros, with a five-minute break between them. After every fourth Pomodoro, there is a longer, thirty-minute break. Adherents of the technique work exclusively on a single task in each Pomodoro.

Flow app is a more convenient timer than a wind-up tomato and is set up to help users build their work and studies around the Pomodoro method. What it lacks in physicality, it makes up for in ease of use, flexibility, and customisation options.

This review of Flow app is based upon the Pro version, which is available for a low monthly fee or single one-off price.

What we love about Flow app.

If you’re going to make an app to replace a mechanical tomato, you need to make one with its own charm, and Flow has this. Its calm, minimalism has no distracting elements. Each option and feature has a purpose but once set to a preferred selection, there’s no reason it would need to be revisited.

Flow helps you focus, but it is also focused. Each feature and setting it has are there for a reason not to pad out the app. You might choose to use them or not, but the option makes sense.

The whole approach of Flow suits the Pomodoro Technique perfectly. Purists might like a physical timer, but those who don’t want to carry anything extra, least of all a kitchen timer, won’t feel they are losing out with an app.

What skills does it improve?

Flow’s design facilitates studying and productivity. The Pomodoro approach is meant to help people get things done, and these things can be the improvement of a multitude of skills. Flow users should gain insight into task management and how to focus on and complete work.

What age is it appropriate for?

There is nothing unsuitable in Flow for young kids but the repeated 25-minute sessions and time discipline are not likely to appeal to younger children.

Is Flow app easy to use?

Using Flow is as effortless as using a mechanical timer. Starting and managing sessions is quick and easy, and all of the options in the app are self-explanatory.

How will students benefit?

It has become difficult for everyone to concentrate due to the constant stream of new information on the internet. Social media streams, news posts and more compete for attention and nag us to check-in frequently. Although the Pomodoro Technique predates this technology, it realistically accommodates these distractions.

While using the app to control their sessions and focus their minds, kids will always know that there is a countdown towards five minutes when they can browse the web and look at their social media. For many, this approaching time will be enough to allow them to focus on the task at hand.

Procrastination and lack of focus often result in kids getting less enjoyment from leisure and poorer outcomes in their studies. Using Flow should show them that an effective workflow divides leisure and work to improve both.

Flow also tracks users’ statistics which students are likely to enjoy monitoring. It lets them see patterns in their work and encourages a healthy balance between studies and leisure.

How will teachers benefit?

We all have ways in which we prefer to work, but we often forget that we didn’t find what worked for us straight away. Our workflows evolve as we discover what works for us.

Teachers who feel that they have students whose working methods are not effective or productive can use Flow to introduce them to a different approach. The structure of the Pomodoro Technique with this app’s support is easy to pick up and try.

The Pomodoro Technique is also well-suited to teachers. Planning, marking, and admin work are discrete aspects of their workload that can fit into a Pomodoro and reward the single-minded focus of such a session.

How will parents benefit?

Just as teachers might feel that some of their students have not found a work approach that suits them, parents might think their kids have an inefficient working method. The Pomodoro technique, combined with the Flow app, is an easy way for parents to make a suggestion and simple enough to provide support.

What can Flow app improve on?

If you already know of the Pomodoro Technique, you might know that its creator advocated for a low-tech approach.

The winding of a timer, the ticking as it unwinds, and the ring of the bell all have a part to play in making the approach effective. Flow does a good job of replicating these features with its methods and optional metronome to mark the passage of time, but purists might not feel that is enough.

Clearly, an app can’t improve itself by becoming a physical timer, and apps have convenience and usability benefits that a mechanical timer does not, but it is something that you should think about if you are a Pomodoro purist.

How much does Flow app cost?

The free version of Flow offers a great introduction to using the Pomodoro Technique with an app. It may be all they need for many people, but if they want more customisable settings or extra features for use on a Mac, they can take out a subscription to the Pro version.

What is included with the free version vs. paid?

The Pro version of Flow lets users tailor the workflow more to their preferences and helps Mac users on the same account avoid distractions through a web page blocker.

The best way to try out this app is to download and use the free version. If it works for you, try a couple of months subscription and if you’re a fan, pay a one-off fee for lifetime access. Fans of this type of app tend to be either committed to long-term use while others drift away in the short term, so the above approach will reward you with early flexibility or long-term value.

Is Flow app safe to use?

Flow has no advertisements even in the free version, and it does not ask for user data beyond that it records as part of its statistics generation.

Overall rating of the app.

There are two main questions to answer in this review:

• Is the Pomodoro Technique effective?
• Does Flow support and deliver the Pomodoro Technique effectively?

The first question is subjective. There are many fans of the technique, so, for whatever reason, it has certainly helped them. Of course, some have tried it and drifted away from it. Fortunately, the Pomodoro Technique is easy to understand and so imagine whether you or your kids could work that way.

Flow is a great way to test it out if you feel that the Pomodoro Technique could work. The app introduces the technique well and supports its use effectively. The free version is more than capable of helping you ascertain the approach’s benefits.

Flow, then, gives you the chance to answer the first question. Flow is likely to become a long-term addition to your work tools if you decide it is effective for you or your kids. Try out the free version for a few days, it won’t cost you anything, but it might make all the difference to your students’ or your productivity.

If the Pomodoro Technique works for you, Flow is a five-star app.

You can download Flow - Focus & Pomodoro Timer on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.