Increase Your Productivity with This DIY E Ink Pomodoro Timer
To help their friend overcome time management issues and become more productivity, Rukenshia built this E Ink Pomodoro timer device.
An obsession with productivity can, ironically, reduce your output and definitely your happiness. But if you practice moderation, you use productivity “hacks” to help overcome distractions and use your time more efficiently. One popular method is the Pomodoro Technique, which emphasizes bursts of activity broken up by frequent short breaks. Those breaks are crucial to success and so practitioners need a way to track time. The classic solution is a kitchen timer, but Jan C., AKA Rukenshia, built this E Ink Pomodoro Timer designed specifically for the job.
Rukenshia built this device for a friend who struggles with time management. Rukenshia likes to experiment with productivity hacks and thought that the Pomodoro Technique would benefit their friend. Because it was intended for another person’s use, Rukenshia set three primary goals for the device:
1. It should be a physical device (rather than a smartphone app or desktop software).
2. Interaction with the device should be fun.
3. The interface and controls should be user-friendly and intuitive.
The result is a simple device with a large E Ink screen, a control knob, and an RGB LED status light. The control knob is a rotary encoder with a button function, so it is enough for interacting with the device. Through the custom firmware, the user can enter settings for different tasks, such as the activity time and break time for reading emails. Then, during the day, they can select an activity to start working. When the activity time elapses, the device will tell the user to take a break.
That all happens under the control of a knockoff ESP32 NodeMCU development board. The screen is a 4.26” Waveshare e-paper HAT. While that is designed for use with a Raspberry Pi, it can also connect to the ESP32 via an SPI connection. The control knob is a KY-040 rotary encoder and the status light is a WS2812B RGB LED. Those components all fit into a minimalist, but still attractive, 3D-printed enclosure.
With the help of Claude AI, Rukenshia programmed the ESP32 with an Arduino sketch through PlatformIO. That firmware includes the basic timer functionality, but Rukenshia also added some secret easter eggs for their friend to find.
The code and files are available on GitHub, if you’d like to build your own Pomodoro Timer. However, Rukenshia does say that the code isn’t exactly turn-key, so you may need to tweak it to get everything working.