Finding Tools in Unexpected Places

Lately, I find myself juggling a lot of personal and professional projects that wildly differ in complexity and shape. To keep my focus sharp while also allowing for inevitable context switches, I have been happily using James Lyons’ Pomodoro. However, having to open a browser to start a corner stone of my productivity has always felt a bit off.

Because I am a sucker for dedicated, well-designed gear, my mind almost immediately wanders off to buying a physical pomodoro watch. Wait, stop, control the impulse! Isn’t there something you already own that could do the job? Turns out, there is. And not in a place I would have expected. Enter Pomodoro by Pip Turner, a beautifully minimalist app for the Playdate. This little gaming handheld is a permanent resident of my desk anyway, because fiddling with this playful, yellow fella gets all kinds of gears turning in my head.

So I sideloaded the app onto my Playdate, put the device on a mini canvas stand, and have enjoyed the support of a fuss-free tool with a soothing sound design since. Thanks for this piece of software, Pip, and thank you, Panic, for a versatile piece of hardware.