Pomodoro saved my butt in college one time, when simply "working hard with breaks" wouldn't have. I had to read a 200 page monograph in a single night and then write a book report on it.

With Pomodoro, I assigned each chapter one "pomodoro" (25-minute time period). At the end of that time, the chapter was done, whether I'd finished it or not. As the timer ticked down, I'd see it out of the corner of my eye and read faster, eventually just skimming the first sentence of each paragraph and maybe soaking in one or two details every couple paragraphs. When each chapter was done, I'd have a rough idea of what the main thrust was, and a fistful of details as well. I'm pretty sure I got a B+ on that book report, but I was just amazed I got it in on time at all.

So in this case, I found it useful as a way to complete a large, boring, segmented task in a quick-and-dirty-but-effective way. I wouldn't recommned it as a cure-all, but it's a good tool to have in your belt for certain kinds of tasks.