#RockTomato ##Pomodoro Timer on the Pebble Watch PennApps hackathon in January 2015. Members: Noah MacCallum, Akshay Bakshi, M. Fay Wu, Lowell Bander

##Motivation From facebook to gmail to Hacker News, today’s world is filled with juicy distractions, and focused attention is the scarcest resource we have. Multi-tasking is ineffective, and procrastination can waste massive amounts of time without us even realizing; prolonged focus on a single task is so elusive yet so important. After extensive experimentation, all four of our team members independently found the Pomodoro technique to be the most effective method to solve this problem. All of the current solutions suck in some way, and we wanted to make one that was awesome. In short, we made a pebble and a companion iOS app, and distilled as much of our learning to make our ideal pomodoro experience. Everyone who wants to focus better and meet their daily productivity goals will benefit from RockTomato.

##Why RockTomato Rocks RockTomato has a few key features that make it superior to currently available pomodoro apps. These apps are generally available on mobile and include a simple 25/5 minute timer functionality - only a halting beginning into the world of pomdoro productivity. RockTomato has a customizable Task list with goal setting and goal tracking for each, so at the start of your day day can say, “I want to study algorithms for 6 pomodoros today” and watch your progress as you knock off the pomodoros one at a time. Also, the timer can be run and observed on your Pebble watch! This makes doing pomodoro tasks throughout the day much easier since you no longer have to pull out your mobile phone in between every pomodoro. Trust us, this is a big deal.

##Our Team We’re a group of engineering students from UCLA and Waterloo who are passionate about experimenting with life and finding ways to maximize our productivity. Feel free to get in touch, we’d love to hear your feedback!

##How The Pomodoro Method Works The pomodoro method is a great way to achieve focus on a single task in a sustainable and easily tracked way. Put simply, you work in cycles of 25 minutes of work periods separated by 5 minute breaks, all with a visible timer to keep you honest. When you get the urge to check facebook or email, it’s easy resist until your 5 minute break comes around. Before you know it, your day will be filled with pomodoros and you will meet your productivity goals of the day. Note that we didn’t invent the Pomodoro Technique (Francisco Cirillo did in the late 1980s), and there are great resources out there that can give you a more full description (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique).