How to Add a Pomodoro Timer to Obsidian
Obsidian is where a lot of people think, plan, and write. The catch is that your timer usually lives in another window, so starting a session means leaving your notes. You can close that gap by embedding the Tomatoro widget directly in a note — no community plugins, no extra setup.
Embed it with an HTML block
Obsidian renders raw HTML inside Markdown, so an iframe is all you need. Paste this into any note (in either editing or reading view):
<iframe
src="https://tomatoro.com/widget"
width="460"
height="620"
style="border: 0; border-radius: 24px;"
title="Tomatoro Pomodoro timer"
></iframe>
Switch to reading view and the timer is live, sitting right under your task list.
Match your vault theme
Most Obsidian vaults run dark. Pin the widget to match instead of letting it follow the OS:
https://tomatoro.com/widget?theme=dark
Use ?theme=light for a light vault, or ?theme=system to follow the OS
setting (the default).
Where to put it
The widget earns its place on whichever note you open first each day:
- The top of your daily note template, so it's there before you start
- A pinned "Today" dashboard note alongside your tasks
- Your writing project note, so the timer travels with the work
Because the embed is just text in the note, it syncs across devices like everything else in your vault.
No account needed
The widget runs entirely in the browser. Settings and today's progress live in local storage, so it works the moment the note loads — no login. If you're already signed in to Tomatoro elsewhere, your sessions sync automatically, but it's never required.
This technique works better with the right tool. Tomatoro handles the timing so you can stay locked in. Free to use, always.
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