The Pomodoro Technique for boosting productivity

Day 4 / 365

Today’s story is not about a Ted Talk. I did watch a Ted Talk today, but it didn’t felt blog worthy so I thought of trying something different. Pomodoro technique was something I had heard about from a few people but never looked it up in detail, so today I gave it a go

What’s pomodoro?

In a nutshell, the pomodoro technique involves doing a task in small time intervals (usually 25 minutes) with short breaks in between.

Fun Fact — pomodoro is Italian for tomatoes. The guy who came up with this technique used a kitchen timer that was shaped like a tomato. Which is why each time interval is called a pomodoro, and the process is called the pomodoro technique.

pomodoro in a nutshell. get it??

How to do it?

To use this technique you need -

• A pen and a paper
• A timer, preferably mechanical but an app would work as well

And follow these steps

1. Specify the task you will be doing
2. Remove anything that might distract you, put your mobile phone away.
3. Start the timer and get to work
4. When the timer goes off, make a mark on the paper and take a short break

The purpose of the marks on the paper is that after every four intervals you are supposed to take a larger break.

Isn’t there an app for that?

Because of the popularity of the method there are several apps and websites that claim to be one stop solution for all your pomodoro needs. But the creator of technique and most users encourage a more mechanical approach. The planning of the task, recording the end of each interval by manually marking on a paper are all essential to the success of the method.

My first attempt at trying the pomodoro technique

I decided to try using this technique at work today. I didn’t have a mechanical timer, so used the one on my phone(after putting it on silent mode). I set my status on the office chat app as busy and started coding.

I have to say I did see some results in the first attempt itself. It really hits you 2–3 minutes into your first pomodoro when your mind is begging you to give it a distraction to feed on but you fight it and focus back on the task. After a while you get the hang of it. I made significantly less mistakes in my code, and was overall quite pleased with the amount of work I got done.

It would take some practice to keep doing this on a regular basis, at least for me. I am used to working while listening to podcasts and checking my messages every 5 minutes. But the results are definitely worth putting the effort in.

This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

up next — 3 Things I learnt from “Who Moved My Cheese?”