The Pomodoro Technique
Can a vegetable help you stay on task?
Grad school was supposed to a 2-ish year program for me. 5-ish years later, I finally completed it. I had several personal and professional roadblocks along the way that contributed to me taking so long, but the thing that was a huge time suck was doing my thesis. While I enjoy writing (hence my blog), writing research is not a great love of mine. Especially reading article, after article, that may or may not be helpful to my end product and then synthesizing those helpful findings into my stuff. I had a VERY hard time staying on task, especially as a new mother who would often be pulled in all directions, so the times that were supposed to be dedicated to finishing my thesis were often wasted on silly things like Facebook and YouTube worm tunnels. I was to the point where my program directors were wondering if I would ever finish my degree and getting tired of my lack of progress. I had to finish and finish quickly. So I started to look to techniques to help me stay focused on an arduous, seemingly insurmountable task. And that’s how I found the Pomodoro technique.
My understanding is that it was invented by a guy in Italy who used his tomato-shaped egg timer to help him stay focused (Pomodoro is a tomato in Italian). This is who it works: you set your timer for 25 minutes and deep dive into your only task. At the end of those 25 minutes, you reset your timer for 5 minutes and give yourself a little brain break. When those 5 minutes are up, restart the timer for another 25 minutes of work. You do this 5 times. After 5 Pomodoro rounds (or 2.5 hours), you reset your timer and give yourself a 25 minute break. When that is finished, you can either do another Pomodoro cycle or start to work on something else.
This technique has gotten me through so many arduous tasks. It’s honestly the way I finished my thesis under a very tight deadline. I’ve told many clients, friends, and family about this, and it has really helped them as well. With today’s technology, everyone has access to a timer (thanks, Smart Phones!). You can even get a Chrome extension for it if you find yourself wanting to wander through the interwebs instead of staying on task. What’s nice about this is you give your brain a very much needed brain break (I’ll talk about the importance of those in a future blog post), and you have a definitive amount of time to accomplish your task. Plus, 2.5 hours is quite a bit of time to dive into any one project.
How might you use this technique? What other tools do you use to keep yourself focused?