Reps has a focus timer built in, with four work-to-break splits and a longer break after every fourth completed block. It runs in the same app your cards are in.
The standard failure of a timer on a phone is that starting it means picking up the phone, and the phone is usually the reason you needed a timer. A separate timer app is one more thing to open, one more home screen to cross, and one more opportunity to end up somewhere else entirely.
A timer inside the app you are already studying in gets used. On an iPad or a Mac you can leave a block running beside the cards.
Work minutes over break minutes:
| Split | For |
|---|---|
| 15/3 | Nights when starting is the hard part and fifteen minutes is a bearable commitment |
| 25/5 | The standard working block |
| 20/10 | Heavier material that needs a longer recovery |
| 50/10 | Deep sessions where stopping costs more than continuing |
They work as a ladder rather than a menu. 15/3 gets you moving on a bad evening, and by the third or fourth block you are usually good for 25/5.
There are no custom durations. Given a number field, people tune it instead of using it, and a student who is behind will spend forty minutes reading about optimal interval lengths and do zero reviews.
Reps counts every block you complete and hands you a longer break after the fourth. That structure is the reason the method holds up over a three-hour session instead of burning out after forty minutes.
The home screen keeps the running totals: focus sessions today and minutes focused today. A session builds toward something visible rather than evaporating when you close the app.
The chime that ends each block can be muted, and the block then runs silently. Everything else works the same way.
Focus statistics and your study streak are recorded per device and do not sync. Your iPad counts its own sessions, your iPhone counts its own. Cards and schedules sync normally.
Start at 15/3 if beginning is the hard part, 25/5 for ordinary work, and 50/10 when you are deep in something.
The intended use is to start a block and put the device down rather than switch away from it. Leaving the app open is the reliable way to run a full block.
No. It is available from the home screen and ignorable if you do not want it.