Focus
Short Break
Long Break
25:00
A free 20-minute study timer, one tap to start. Twenty minutes is where real studying begins: the shortest block long enough to settle into new material and actually learn it, while still short enough to keep your recall sharp. It is the reliable default for reading, working through problems, and getting through homework.
The shortest block long enough to properly get into new material. Twenty minutes lets your mind settle into the subject without dragging on until your recall starts to fade.
Twenty uninterrupted minutes is enough to get properly into a text and follow the argument, and the break afterwards helps it stick.
Work a problem set at a steady pace, then check your answers in the break. Long enough for real practice, short enough to stay sharp.
A clean 20-minute block per subject keeps homework moving and stops any one thing sprawling across the whole evening.
Twenty minutes is the point where studying starts to really work. Across his study guides, Tony Buzan put the ideal learning interval at roughly 20 to 40 minutes: long enough that your mind settles into the rhythm and organisation of the material, short enough that recall has not yet begun to decline[1]. Below 20 minutes you do not get the time to settle in; much past 40 and the returns fall away. Twenty sits at the floor of that window, which makes it the shortest block you can genuinely learn something new in.
There is a second reason to keep blocks this short. Your recall is highest at the very start and end of a study session and sags in the middle[2], so working in a few 20-minute blocks with breaks gives you far more high-recall moments than one long, unbroken stretch[1]. The break is not time off from learning; it is what keeps the next block's recall high. Twenty minutes on, a short break, then repeat, beats an hour of grinding.
“For normal purposes this point occurs in a time period of between 20 to 40 minutes. A shorter period does not give the mind enough time to appreciate the rhythm and organisation of the material, and a longer period results in the continuing decline of the amount recalled.[1]
It feels wrong to stop a study block just as it starts to click, and most people push on. But it is your recall, not your understanding, that fades without a break, so the moment the work is flowing is exactly when a short pause pays off most[1]. Trust the timer: stop, take five, and come back sharp.