 When you have a large project, like a major paper or exam to study for, thinking about the whole project can be overwhelming. The Pomodoro effect can be a great way to break your project down into smaller tasks that feel more manageable. Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato, which was the shape of the timer that Crieto Francisco Cirullo used to measure out 25 minute blocks of time. You of course can use any sort of timer and even choose a block of time that works for you. The idea is to commit to working on just one task with no distractions for 25 minutes, with a scheduled break between each Pomodoro or work period. After a couple of Pomodoros, take a longer break and marvel at how much you've accomplished and how much closer you are to your goal. If you find that you get distracted while you work, consider using a software program that blocks distracting websites when your own self-control isn't enough. One of these programs for the Mac is actually called Self-Control. The program prevents you from accessing any website that keeps you from finishing your work. A related app, Anti-Social, will block you from accessing a designated site on your Mac or PC. If you need to keep yourself off the web altogether, you can use an app called Freedom which works on Macs, PCs, and Android devices. If writer's block is keeping you from finishing your work, try a tool like 750Words.com. Writer Die 750Words.com encourages you to write just 750Words each day until you're doing so every day. After several days of writing, you should have lots of text to edit and incorporate into your final project. Writer Die is a little more serious as the name suggests, but can seriously help if you need to get words on paper. If you take too long a break from writing, the app will start deleting your words or play an obnoxious noise. Finally, if you're working on a writing project with citations, we highly recommend that you embrace the power of a citation manager. We officially support Zotero, a free tool that works with your browser to collect citation information as you search in library databases or the open web. But there are many citation tools out there, surely one that will work with your workflow. The last but not least writing program is for those of you with major projects or who like to work on your paper in different sections rather than creating one long document. Scrivener has lots of cool tools, but one of the best is the ability to break your own writing project up into smaller sections that can be moved around and compiled together later in a Word document for final presentation. Other useful features include the ability to pull in research files like PDF documents and view them along with your writing area in a split screen mode and a word count goal that will tell you how many words you need to write each day to meet your goal.