Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s.The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for ‘tomato’, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used as a university student. The technique has been widely popularized by dozens of apps and websites providing timers and instructions. Closely related to concepts such as timeboxing and iterative and incremental development used in software design, the method has been adopted in pair programming contexts.

“Train your brain with these physical stimuli, and you’ll make the Pomodoro technique a habit faster.”

My Experience:-

At first, working in such small increments felt unnatural. There were quite a few times — especially in the beginning — when I was tempted to ignore the timer and continue working. But, I forced myself to stick to the format.

After some time, the technique started to really gel with me. I was focused and insanely productive during my work time, as I was eager to get as much completed during that 25-minute interval as I could. I didn’t find myself mindlessly scrolling through Facebook or getting sucked in by those pesky clickbait articles. And, as a notorious multi-tasker, I noticed that I was totally zoned in on the one project at hand.

Because I was forced to get up and give myself a rest from staring at my laptop screen, I found that I actually did feel better at the end of each day. Not only did I feel like I had put in an honest day’s work, but I also felt less stressed, blurry-eyed, and cramped up.

“Go figure — actually standing up a couple of times throughout the day really does help.”

This technique helps me to resist all of those self-interruptions and re-train my brain to focus. Each pomodoro is dedicated to one task and each break is a chance to reset and bring attention back to what I should be working on.