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Show HN: Physical Pomodoro Timer with ESP32 and e-paper screen

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315 points rukenshia | 4 comments | 29 Mar 25 10:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.217s | source
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teddyh ◴[29 Mar 25 12:54 UTC] No.43515162[source]▶
Physical pomodoro: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Il_pomod...>
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ISL ◴[29 Mar 25 14:37 UTC] No.43515912[source]▶
Yep. Any timer will do.

If you find yourself programming an eInk display and a microchip in order to improve your procrastination, it is time to stop working on the project, get a physical timer, and work on the thing.

If you feel inclined to shop around for a timer before getting to work, I'll save you the search. These work great. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TLC9SFZ (but any timer will do).

Go do the thing. You're worth it.

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1. jfim ◴[29 Mar 25 16:30 UTC] No.43516677[source]▶
They also sell physical hourglasses if you don't want to be interrupted by a distracting beeping thing once the timer is over, especially if the activity you're trying to start with a pomodoro requires concentration like coding.
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2. loloquwowndueo ◴[29 Mar 25 17:33 UTC] No.43517114[source]▶
But then you have to glance at the thing every few minutes to ensure it didn’t run out
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3. j45 ◴[29 Mar 25 18:06 UTC] No.43517345[source]▶
It builds muscle memory over time.

Analysis paralysis and getting it perfect before beginning is the enemy of good.

4. cwmoore ◴[29 Mar 25 18:33 UTC] No.43517515[source]▶
I attached an ESP32 and accelerometer to an hourglass for this purpose, calling back to https://pypi.org/project/gitime/ to log pomodoros on my dev machine.

If it was overengineered and trivially redundant, it was relatable and tactile.