52/17 timer

Facts about DeskTime's figures were verified on 8 November 2026.

This page opens Moment's timer at 52 minutes of focus and 17-minute breaks, and it explains where those numbers come from. The 52/17 rule began as a figure from DeskTime's data in 2014, and DeskTime has since reported 112/26 for 2021 and 75/33 for 2024. The timer is free and needs no account.

Timer

Open the timer at 52/17

This link opens Moment's timer with the dial at 52 minutes and breaks at 17 minutes. Press Start focusing when you're ready. The length and the break apply to this visit and aren't saved.

If a session is running or a break is due, the timer stays as it is and ignores the link. The dial on this site moves in steps of 5 minutes, so if you turn it, it won't return to 52 until you open the link again.

DeskTime's data

DeskTime makes software that records how employees use their computers. According to DeskTime's 2024 account, it “isolated the top 10% of most productive employees” in 2014 and “analyzed their computer-use behavior during one workday”. DeskTime defines that group as the employees with “the highest ratio of using productive applications”. The result was 52 minutes of work followed by a 17-minute break.

DeskTime has reported different figures from later data, and this table lists each one.

The address of DeskTime's 2014 post now shows its 2024 rewrite, so the quotations about 2014 come from that rewrite. The 2024 analysis covers a top 10% “amounting to 6,000 individuals”. DeskTime writes that “there is no one-size-fits-all approach”, and in its 2025 post it says that the changes “may be linked” to remote work and offices. The latest figure we found is 75/33.

What the data can't show

• Cause. The figures are averages observed in one group of users, with no comparison group, so they can't show that a break of any length causes anything.
• Other people. The top 10% was chosen by its use of productive applications, so the figures describe those users and not people in general.
• Quality of the work. DeskTime's measure is which applications were in use, so it can't show how good the work was.
• Sample and definitions. DeskTime's posts give no sample size for 2014 or 2021, and they don't define a break.
• Reach. VentureBeat reported in 2014 that the results “can't be compared to the results found in university research” and that they reach only companies that bought the software.

We searched for independent tests of the 52/17 rule and found none. We also found no Cambridge study behind it, although some searches name one.

52/17 and Pomodoro

A Pomodoro round in Moment is a 25-minute session and a 5-minute break, which makes 30 minutes. Those are the lengths Moment starts with until you change them. A 52/17 round is 69 minutes, a little more than two Pomodoro rounds, and focus takes up about 75% of it, compared with about 83% of a Pomodoro round. With 52/17 you stop less often, and each stop lasts longer.

We found no study that compares 52/17 with Pomodoro, so this page doesn't say which one will suit you.

Research on breaks

A 2022 meta-analysis by Albulescu and colleagues combined studies of breaks of up to 10 minutes, with 2,335 participants in all. It found small effects on vigour and fatigue and no significant effect on performance. Within that range, longer breaks went with larger gains in performance, and the authors write that “highly depleting tasks may need more than 10-minute breaks”.

The review didn't test 52/17. Its breaks stop at 10 minutes, so it doesn't show that 17 minutes is the right length.

Moment

With this link, Moment runs a 52-minute session and then waits for you. You press Start break for the 17-minute break, and you press Start focusing when you want the next session. After your fourth session Moment offers the long break, which is 20 minutes unless you've changed it in Breaks. The long break is Moment's own setting and isn't part of DeskTime's figures.

In the Moment app on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro, you can turn the dial to 52 minutes and set a 17-minute short break in Breaks. On a Mac, the typed field and the arrow keys move in steps of 5 minutes, so the dial is the way to reach 52. On Apple Watch, the Digital Crown also moves in steps of 5 minutes, so you can't set 52 minutes there, although you can set a 17-minute break.

Moment has no trees, coins or streaks. In the app, you can mark how each session felt on a scale from scattered to flowing, and Stats shows your totals.

Facts about DeskTime's figures and the research are from the pages linked above, verified on 8 November 2026. If something here is out of date, email hi@momenttimer.com.

Moment for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro

The timer and breaks are free in the app, and the dial sets 52 minutes on each of these devices.