Pomodoro Focus

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UUID: cfd81655-1c47-4ee9-9f73-ea959bba3af4
Author: Stijn Dejongh
Published on: 2023-08-26 00:00:00 +0000 UTC
Tags: time-management , focus

Problem statement

You are distracted by various inputs from your environment, causing you to not finish tasks you set out to do.

Intent

  • Your tasks get finished more often, or at least move to a point where (part of) the work can be considered “completed”.
  • Your days stop feeling like you are running all over the place without accomplishing much.
  • You feel less resistance to starting a task.

Contextual forces

What is this? These describe factors at play that influence the outcome of the practice. They are not necessarily good or bad, but they are important to be aware of. Some contextual forces are enablers, giving the practice a higher chance of being useful. Others are deterrents, making the practice less useful in your given context.

Enablers

  • You wish to complete tasks to be best of your ability, and as fast as circumstances allow.
  • The tasks you perform require your attention, and take sufficiently long to achieve.
  • You can split your tasks into smaller parts, each adding some value on their own accord.
  • You have some autonomy on how you allocate your time.

Deterrents

  • Your main activity requires you to switch between various tasks quickly.
  • The tasks you are performing often take a few moments of your time and do not require focus.
  • Your environment rewards looking busy over being busy.

Solution

  • Set a timer1 for a fixed amount of time. This timebox is called a “pomodoro”.
    • Commonly, 25 minutes is used as a base value.
  • Distance yourself from all distractions, and work on one task until the timer notifies you.
  • After completing a time box, take a 5-minute break.
  • Set a new timer, and repeat.
  • After completing four iterations, take an extended break.

For tasks that require a long time to complete, decide beforehand how much time you will invest in it now. It helps to specify a specific amount of pomodoro timers that you will devote to working on the task. You stop when the task is done, or your time allocation runs out. Whichever comes first.

tip: The pomodoro technique works well if you split your tasks down into smaller chunks that can be accomplished within a single pomodoro.

Rationale

“The hardest part is getting started.” Reducing the resistance to start a task can help practitioners to overcome the inertia. The pomodoro technique aims to achieve this by introducing the reassurance that the end is in sight. Rather than committing to fully complete an endeavour, a practitioner is committing to work on a certain task for a fixed period of time.

Adding a certain element of gamification, and quantifiability, to the process helps motivate people to work towards their goals more frequently and consistently.

Consequences

Due to its online nature, this work in in perpetual motion. This section has not yet been completed. If you are interested in adding content here, please refer to the “How to contribute” guide on GitHub.

Examples

A command line pomodoro timer

If you do not have a mechanical timer available, you can use your computer’s terminal to act the part. The script below, published by Byron Salty on GitHub is an excelent way of doing this. On MacBooks, the say command makes your computer talk to you.

#!/bin/bash

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
  let min=25 
else
  let min=$1
fi
echo "Waiting ${min} minutes"

for i in $(seq 1 $min)
do
  sleep 60  
  let rem=min-i
  echo -ne "${rem} minutes remaining\\r"
done
echo ""

msg="Pomodoro completare"
echo $msg
say -v Luca $msg

References

  1. Old-school kitchen timers in the shape of a tomato are where this technique got its name. The Italian word for “tomato” being “pomodoro”. ↩︎