Do you struggle to stay focused? Is maintaining your productivity level a challenge? Every moment has countless distractions and demands vying for attention. There are many tricks to increase your productivity and decrease distractions. The Pomodoro Technique focuses on time management.
What is the Pomodoro Technique?
The Pomodoro Technique is a popular time management method that was developed in the late 1980’s. It is a simple, yet powerful, tool for enhancing productivity.
So what is it? The Pomodoro Technique dictates that you break your productivity time into intervals. The intervals involve dedicated time spent working on an item of focus, followed by time spent on other things. The main idea is that setting short, focused periods of work, interspersed with rest periods, improves productivity.
Example of the Pomodoro Technique in action:
- Choose a task that you need to complete, or a project that you need to make progress on. For our example let’s choose responding to work email messages. (You might have 600 unread emails…that’s ok!)
- Set a timer for 25 minutes (I prefer 20, but you do you!); During this time you will focus only on the goal you have set for this time period. You will tune out distractions, stop multi-tasking and give your best in that 25 minutes.
- Devote your full attention to the task at hand until the timer beeps. If you encounter distractions, or are struggling with unrelated thoughts, jot them down to address later.
- Once the timer beeps you take a short break. The Pomodoro Technique recommends 5 minutes…but I find a longer break is sometimes better. You’ll find your own sweet spot if you start to use this technique. Step away from where you were working and use the time to recharge.
- Keep up with the Pomodoro Technique throughout your day when you need to focus on a sole task. You can use it as much as needed to achieve focus on something you need to finish. Feel free to play with the times and find what fits.
Ta-da!! Productivity boost
It really is that easy! And it works wonders for those who are easily distracted, ahem, speaking from personal experience here.
Distracted at home?
Example: I dread doing laundry. I know it’s not hard (seriously, telling someone that is very unhelpful and if that was your first response, then this part of the article is not for you). I think of all the steps that are involved and it paralyzes me. I have to remember to take it out and then take it out again and then put it away! And also start an assembly line type process so I can get more than one load done a day. So I tend to just ignore the laundry until clean clothes become essential. When I can’t leave the house for want of a clean(ish) pair of pants, then I employ the pomodoro technique. I tell myself something like–If I focus on laundry for 15 minutes, twice a day, I can then spend 45 minutes reading or dancing around, whatever I want. So I use the 15/45 pomodoro. And it works and keeps me from feeling guilty for reading “all day” because I also accomplished an adult-ing task in there.
Distracted at work?
While there are many ways to use the pomodoro technique at home, it is more often touted as a skill to use at work.
Example: It’s the end of the month. You have 2 reports due and 8000 emails to answer. You have calls to return, a crying baby and low sanity. After you prioritize or mitigate each of the things vying for your attention, you can use pomodoros to focus. Say 20 minutes to get baby to sleep; 10 minutes to have a strong coffee. 20 minutes to focus on reports; 10 minutes to sit outside and breathe fresh air. And you keep going. Each focus period is on your highest priority item.
FUN FACT:
The inventor of the Pomodoro Technique named it after the tomato-shaped timer in his kitchen.
Reduce the stress caused by the pressure of time by using the Pomodoro Technique.
Francesco Cirillo