Pomodoro Technique

It was not so long ago that, I was struggling to keep focus on any work. Lack of focus resulted in lot of incomplete projects in office as well as at home. I couldn't complete any task that would require focused effort for substantial amount of time. Since I didn't want things to be like this, I started googling for ways to stay focused and be more productive. while searching I stumbled upon "Pomodoro Technique". This time management technique is developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. I studied it and created an approach that will fit this technique with my working style and started applying it.

The Technique:

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Kitchen Timer

Basic principle behind Pomodoro is - "taking short breaks" after "well focused work of brief time", increases productivity by reducing stress and anxiety about work. Pomodoro means "tomato" in Italian. The technique is named based on tomato shaped kitchen timer which Cirillo used when he devised this technique.


Below are fundamental steps in this technique.

• The technique divides available time into interval of 25 minutes of work unit separated by 5 minutes of break( 25-5 is recommended time and one can select anything that works). 25-5 setting works for most of people and it worked for me as well.
• These time intervals are called as pomodori (plural of pomodoro).
• After four pomodori of work take a long break of 15 minutes.

Pomodoro time intervals

Applying Pomodoro:

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There are two essential things which we would need before we begin.

1. Pomodoro timer: You can use mechanical timer as shown in above diagram or software one. There are several mobile /computer applications available for free, you can select from them one that you like. Since all my work is on computer I prefer software one.  I am using desktop timer software Tomighty, this is free and available on Windows and Mac OS.( http://www.tomighty.org )
2. Notepad with To-Do list: You can use physical or software notepad and your to-do list for today. I prefer software here as well and use Microsoft OneNote. if you don't like OneNote, any other text editing software will do. 

Once we have these things ready lets start applying technique as below:

1. Note down your list of To-Do tasks which you are planning to work on today in table like below. If required you can create sub-tasks under your task.

2. Calculate estimated time you will require for particular task or sub-task in terms of number of pomodori. (1 pomodoro = 25 minutes). Put those estimates in the Estimated Pomodori column. At this time you might not be sure about estimates, it's fine, you can put whatever close guess you can do. You will get better at estimating time once you start using this method regularly.

3. Start Pomodoro: Now pick up first task on the list and start pomodoro timer. if you are using Tomighty application, you can start it as shown below.  It will start stopwatch for 25 minutes.

4. During pomodoro one must be focused on task which is selected and keep doing work to move forward on the task. Make sure that you are not interrupted during this time ( Example: close internet connection, keep mobile on silent etc.). Focused work of 25 minutes would reduce a great chunk from your pending task and you would sense to make a progress. Despite of all efforts If you are still interrupted and it is unavoidable please mark the pomodoro as interrupted and stop timer. You will need to resume pomodoro from start once you are done with interruption item. 

5. Break: After you have completed pomodoro, congratulate yourself for sticking it through, and gift  yourself a break. Before break add one pomodoro entry in Actual Pomodori spent to mark the accomplishment. During break you must do anything other than pomodoro task you are doing. It's best to take walk away from your desktop so that your mind will move away from work. After break resume your work with new pomodoro. After completing 4 pomodori you can take long break of 15 minutes.

6. At the end of day you can review your work done by looking at actual pomodori spent. You can also look for difference between actual pomodori spent and estimated pomodori. This will help you improve your ability to give estimates. 

Give it a try and see if it works for you. It worked for me.