Pomodoro Technique for Time Management

In the 1980s Francesco Cirillo developed the Pomodoro technique to get more studying done while he was in university. He named the method after his timer clock shaped like a tomato (Pomodoro is Italian for tomato). 

This technique caught on quickly and became popular because of how easy it is for anyone to implement and get started. All you need is a simple timer to get started on having undistracted, focused bursts of energy. 

This time management technique combines intense short sessions of focused work with short breaks to avoid getting mentally saturated.

Is Pomodoro for me?

If you’re the kind of person who finds themselves distracted during a workday even though you have the best of intentions to do work, you’re probably going to benefit from Pomodoro. 

You may also be experiencing some of these roadblocks:

• You have trouble focusing. Even if you sit down at your workstation, fully equipped with everything you need, you end up getting distracted in a few minutes. Next thing you know, one youtube video led to fifty, and it’s been two hours of unproductivity.
• You feel a lack of motivation to start. You know from past experiences that you end up getting in the flow and actually enjoying yourself every time you do start. However, starting seems to be the most challenging part. You can spend a vast majority of the day just postponing starting your work. 
• Have trouble being realistic with goals. If you keep taking on endless tasks and spend all your time updating your to-do list and barely completing 10% of this list every day: your problem might be that you take on too much work responsibilities or don’t know how to assign work for the day. 
• You tend to work too hard, getting enthusiastic about your work and spending hours together until you feel burned out (headache, eyes hurt) and have to take an extended break to recover. Your motivation also tends to run out at this point of burnout, it feels like your brain just doesn’t work anymore!
• You quickly get emotionally overwhelmed. Do you start your work on a positive note and then glance at the sheer volume of work you’re supposed to do and just crumble? Work is emotionally taxing, and you always feel there’s too much of it. 
• Have work to do that is a daily process. Whether it’s your day job, learning a new language or a passion project, lots of work needs to be done every day, and just can’t be put off for the last day to ‘cram’. You feel the lack of a daily system that forces you to get a daily input in. 

The Pomodoro technique can help people facing all of these issues because it gives you a reliable system to fall back on when work can feel overwhelming, you have trouble focusing or lack the motivation to get started on your own. 

What is the Pomodoro technique?

When Cirillo, the founder of this technique, struggled with work and assignments, he began to challenge himself to just focus for around ten minutes, and then take a break. He then tweaked the numbers and found the most effective (for him!) to be a 25-minute work session, immediately followed by a 5-minute break. 

All you need to do is to procure a timer. You can also use your inbuilt phone timer, but it’s suggested that you keep your phone switched off or on airplane mode. There are plenty of Pomodoro apps available that will alert you when your work session time is up as long as you enable notifications. I use this nifty website for my Pomodoro work sessions! (In fact, I’m using it right now to write this article!) 

1. Set the timer for 25 minutes. This is going to be your work session. Once you start working, try your best to stay focused. If for any reason you get distracted, stop the clock and take a five-minute break. After your break, re-start your work session and begin again. 

2. Make sure you have everything you need. If it’s the right time of day, a cup of coffee or drink to sip on, water, your laptop charger. The aim is to limit the times you have to get up for any reason. 

3. Keep a blank notepad and pen next to you. You could also open a Note taking app on your phone or computer, but since devices can be distracting, it’s better to opt for the paper and pen.
   Every time you get distracted and break your work session, make a note of what distracted you, whether it was a physical sensation, a social media notification or someone else interrupting your workflow. Noting down the nature of distraction does two things: you acknowledge the distraction, and your brain registers it. You also can reflect later on how to avoid these distractions in the future.
   
   What often happens when we begin working is random thoughts and things to do come to our head. They can even be essential things, such as realising you didn’t take out the trash today or forgot to brush your teeth. It could be more benign, as you suddenly think about a cool music video you want to watch. Whatever the thought is, write it down on the paper so that you can get to it later. You’ll also experience a sense of relief that you’ve dealt with the thought. 

4. Take your break! Ensure that you don’t stay at your workplace, try getting up and walking around the house, or getting a stretch done. Don’t make it more difficult for yourself by checking your phone, we all know it’s a trap! We suggest sticking to the Pomodoro clock even if you’re in the flow of working. A five-minute break will rarely ever break your flow, and it will usually refresh you and increase the chances of another uninterrupted 25-minute session. This is your time to refill your water, use the bathroom, or call back a missed call (only to tell them you’re busy!)

5. If someone calls you during your work session, follow Cirillo’s advice and don’t ignore them. It will only cause more anxiety that you have something to deal with later. Let them know this isn’t a good time, offer to call them later in the day and make a note to call them after you’re done with your sessions!

6. After you’ve done four Pomodoros, take a much longer break of 15-20 minutes. This will help you feel refreshed and avoid burnout. You can indulge in a light activity this time, maybe eat a snack or step outside for a short walk. You can even reward yourself by listening to your favourite song. Congratulate yourself on completing 100 minutes of focused work!

Tasks and Prioritization

While the Pomodoro technique closely deals with time management, it’s also integral to having proper goal setting and planning involved. If you made an extremely rigorous to-do list for yourself, even ten undisturbed work sessions wouldn’t be enough, and you’d be disheartened. 

Make sure that you prioritize important tasks over the unnecessary ones. An excellent way to do this is to first write down all the important tasks that you want to accomplish in the day, in any order. 

Then close your eyes and envision which one of the tasks is the one that will give you the most anxiety if you don’t complete today. 

Usually, the most important tasks are also the ones that give us the most anxiety. That’s why it’s the easiest to identify them because we’re usually trying to avoid or put off working on them. 

I found myself in an odd unproductive rut recently. Every time I sat down to do an important task, I would complete the other small, unimportant tasks on my to-do list. For example, if I had an important work project, I would put that off and clean my house instead. This way, I could tell myself at the end of the day that at least I did something good and useful instead of watching T.V. 

Don’t let yourself put off the important and uncomfortable tasks with less important and less uncomfortable ones. At the end of the day, if you ignored your work project by cleaning the house or watching T.V, it’s still unproductivity!

Why Pomodoro works

The Pomodoro technique makes it easier for you to just start. Rather than getting overwhelmed with the workload, it helps you motivate yourself by just starting with 25 minutes. If you think your focus is difficult to train, start out work sessions with 15 minutes instead. Either way, the technique is nothing but a template to hack your own time management!

Telling yourself sternly not to get distracted doesn’t always work. You start to do something, and then the distraction pops up. You think it’ll only take a minute, but it usually takes longer than that. Having a designated ‘Distraction Sheet’ where you note them down and a designated five-minute break to complete those desires enables you to continue concentrating. 

Good luck!