Catena is a cute aesthetic pomodoro timer where you cook alongside Maple, a cat chef, while you study or work. Set a focus length and choose a recipe using the settings, press Cook, and Maple gets busy in the kitchen until your session ends. Finish a session and you get a printed receipt showing the dishes you made and the coins you earned.
The Catena iOS app is coming out soon, in September 2026.
Whether you came here looking for a pomodoro cat timer, a cat study timer, or just a cuter way to stop procrastinating, it works the same way: pick how long you want to focus, and a small cat keeps you company until the time is up.
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that breaks work into focused intervals separated by short breaks. A classic round is 25 minutes of focus followed by a 5 minute break. Working in fixed intervals makes it easier to start a difficult task, because you are only committing to one short block at a time rather than an open-ended stretch of work.
A plain countdown gives you nothing to look forward to, so it is easy to quit halfway through. Watching a pomodoro cat cook while the clock runs gives the session a small reward at the end, and the receipt that prints afterwards turns an abstract “I studied for a while” into something you can actually look at. If a study kitty on screen is what keeps you at your desk for another 25 minutes, that counts as a productivity system.
Maple, the pomodoro kitty in the middle of the screen, kneads dough for as long as you stay focused, and curls up to sleep when the timer is stopped or you are on a break. The ring around her fills as the session goes, so you can see your progress without staring at the numbers.
No. It runs in any modern web browser on desktop, tablet, or phone. Nothing to download and nothing to install.
Twenty-five minutes is the traditional length and a good starting point. You can set anything from 5 minutes up to 2 hours here, so shorten it if you are struggling to begin, or lengthen it for deep work.
Not in this web version. Coins and dishes are counted for the session you just finished. Saving progress over time, focus analytics, and decorating your cafe are part of the Catena iOS app, which is coming out soon, in September 2026.
Three students made it. Audrey Shin and Lilymoon Whalen are students at Wellesley College, and Luna Yuan went to Rhode Island School of Design. An app for students, built by students. The music and sound effects come from student composers at Berklee College of Music, and the timer is published by Julienne Studios. You can meet the whole team on the Catena site.
Yes. Click the headphones icon in the top right to pick a music track, or switch to the ambient mix to blend cafe ambience, light rain, and white noise at your own levels.
Made by Catena · Enjoying the timer? You can support us on Ko-fi or follow @catenafocus on Instagram.