How many times have you sat down to work and 3 minutes in been distracted by your cellphone? It is insane how difficult it seems sometimes. I’ve had stints of time where I sit down and open a workflow application and then just leave it blank and scroll through some social media. If this sounds familiar, and I KNOW it does…don’t lie to me Thomas, then I’m here to show you a solution to this common problem. This solution will never be the be all end all of course, but for a large majority of people (myself included) it has proven to be very beneficial to my study and work sessions.
Pomodoro Technique Origin
po·mo·do·ro
/ˌpäməˈdôrō/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
adjective: pomodoro; noun: pomodoro; plural noun: pomodoros
denoting a sauce made from tomatoes, typically served with pasta.
“a low-calorie pomodoro sauce is the way to go if you’re planning on enjoying some pasta”
Don’t let the definition put you off, it is of course an interesting one if you consider that your productivity hack is named after a tomato sauce…but it does have a purpose.
The phrase pomodoro timer is in reference to the idea that many kitchen timers were shaped as little tomatoes. Thus, you set your “tomato timer” and went to work around the kitchen and prepped and cooked your food and when the timer went off it signaled the food was done cooking. It is the idea that after a length of time at work, something good is born. After something has been cooking a while, you can eat it. It’s this very concept that spawned the entire pomodoro method.
How tomato’s and pasta sauce correlate to productivity?
The pomodoro method is the act of taking a timer of some sort, setting it for a period of time (25 minutes is the generally accepted number) and committing to being productive throughout that steady period of time. Once the timer ends, you have a break period (generally 5 minutes if you are using a traditional timer) where you are able to be as lazy and distracted as you want. I’ll be using 25 and 5 minutes respectively in this example, but you really can set whatever works for you! After your break period ends, you commit to another 25 minute long window where you are strictly productive.
This method gives you a reward for putting in the hard work, rather than simply bingeing the reward without every being productive. The benefit of this is you’ll always be working for 50 minutes out of every hour. If you are strict with it and be sure not to fall prey to any distractions, you genuinely accomplish a lot.
The productivity tool is very convenient as well. Often you may only have 30 minutes or an hour to work, and so the beauty of this is that you can easily fit 2 pomodoro sessions in an hour which may be the guarantee that you get that last minute assignment done.
After doing 4 pomodoros you are generally supposed to take a longer 10 minute break, though I generally continue with just the 5 minute breaks, unless I need to get a snack or take care of some other business. It’s also very important to be moving around while studying or working, so something I want to implement is during every 5 minute break, I take a minute or 2 to get up and stretch and walk around a bit. Perhaps I’ll update my break time to 7 minutes and then always use 2 minutes for exercise ?. Something for me to consider!
Our brains and productivity
Something I have noticed over the past few months is whenever I sit down to work, my investment in the work is very shallow. I’m easily distracted, I’ll hop over to something else quickly, or I’ll do something that is still “productive” but way less difficult and often less important. BUT if I set a short term goal of simply starting and working on a project for 25 minutes, I often get immersed into it and have a much larger passion for staying involved. For example, writing this blog post. I knew I wanted to write this article, I knew I HAD to for my day 1 National Novel Writing Month challenge, but I was still struggling to find the motivation to just start. So I pulled out my phone and started a Forest pomodoro timer for 25 minutes. It is just now finishing up and I have written 577 words. Of course, I could take a break now…but my brain has engaged into this writing process and I have ideas that I want to get down as fast as possible. so I just started another timer 🙂
It’s an interesting concept to see the level of involvement people have with the work they are doing from when they say they are going to do it, to when they take the first step. It’s similar to you being the smartest man or woman in the world but never communicating with anyone. How is anybody ever going to know you are so intelligent? Likewise, you might have a great idea or plan for a job or class….but if you never actually start then how will it ever come to fruition?
The app I recommend
**DISCLAIMER* I have only used this app for about a week now. My study buddy also installed it so we sync our app sometimes but I have not tested any other Pomodoro Apps. This is only my personal recommendation from the experience I have had so far*
The pomodoro android app I like to use at the moment is called Forest. It’s a $2 application that lets you set time limits in the form of growing trees. As you grow more trees and have more productive study periods, all of the trees go together into a forest. (Hence the name ;P)
What I like about forest is the minimalistic design of the application, the “friends” mode, and the price.
Price: for only $2 thes app is a steal of a deal. And I’d say just about anyone of you could come up with $2 in less than 5 minutes. There are free alternatives of course, but if the next 2 features interest you, Forest might be the option to go with.
Friends Mode: Forest also has the option to add friends. When you’ve added a friend, you can see their forest size, the amount of time they have spent using the timer, and some other statistics about them. But my favorite part is if you have a friend who is using Forest, you can create a pomodoro room where you both sync your devices and work at the same time and take a break at the same time. This is great for working in a live session with someone, because you can both work for 25 minutes and then break for 5 and talk about what you achieved. Highly recommend this feature!
Lastly, minimalistic design: The overall design of Forest is very clean. With muted, natural colors and tones, simplistic but powerful UI, and a very easy to learn system…Forest’s application is simply a beauty to use.
How to remember important distractions while pomodoring?
This one is very important to note. The key reason being there are certainly important distractions! What if your mom texts you and asks you to pick up your sister from school? Or perhaps a friend of yours messages you about an unrelated school project you are supposed to work on tomorrow? Or maybe you just have a great idea that you want to theorize about but somehow discussing whether Zealots charge upgrade should deal damage or make them Sonic is simply not beneficial to your current workflow.
Well, here is my main solution:
Always have a note taking surface readily available. For me, it’s generally a small pad of paper and pen that I carry in my portfolio, or an Evernote tab open to my Evernote inbox.
Then, whenever you have some brilliant idea or distraction that you want to return to, you simply write it down on your notepad. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just some key element of the thought that will trigger it back to memory. Once you’ve finished your 25 minute hustle and are ready to relax for 5, you can return to the notes you wrote down and take any short term action on them. If it is a large item, maybe you just take 30 seconds and add it to your ToDo list. Or perhaps you simply shoot off a closing response text and continue on with life. Either way, you keep that distraction from pulling you away from your productivity. This is ESPECIALLY useful when working in a pomodoro group. You don’t want to disturb your neighbors workflow, and of course you don’t want yours interrupted, so simply scribbling down the idea to discuss during break period is very helpful to everyone involved.
Start TODAY!!!
I’d like to encourage y’all to go create a timer or install a pomodoro app, sit down somewhere and open something you’ve been putting off, and just work on it for 25 minutes. It’s totally okay to work longer than 25 minutes, but just make it to at least 25 before you take a break! The amount of work you will be able to achieve will genuinely surprise you.
As always if you DO decide to try this, or you have any questions, feel free tweet me @geoffreyburdo and let me know how it worked out for you! I’d love to hear your opinion on the technique. Also check out my YouTube channel where I will be uploading “The chrome extensions that make me the most productive” soon!
Thanks for reading, go hustle!!
Call it cheating but I need 24 more words for my NaNoWriMo Challenge to be completed. So here we are. I don’t hate that I’m doing this though because I just thought I’d like to keep track of the challenge and year of the challenge for each of these posts I do. Soooooo
NaNoWriMo #1 – Nov 1, 2019 (1701 words)