The Pomodoro Technique was my first foray into the Time Management/Productivity space. I remember watching it on Thomas Frank’s Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@Thomasfrank) many, many years ago.
The concept seemed so simple, I knew it had to be effective and as someone who was struggling to get momentum built up in my career, it felt like a potential quick win. With that, I dove head first into it and converted my to-do list and schedule to pomodoros.
A pomodoro is a tomato. Wait, what does that have to do with time management. Nothing really, but Francesco Cirillo who developed this technique named it after the little tomato style kitchen timer he used for a 25 minute timer. In the pure pomodoro technique as Francesco designed it, a Pomodoro is a 25 minute time of hyper focus on a specific task, followed by a 5 minute break. After you had done 4 pomodoro, then you take a 15-30 minute break.
For the first couple of weeks, I loved it. I was getting things done, it wasn’t difficult to manage and overall, I was very happy. However towards the end of the 3rd week, I started knocking out all the mundane stuff and started getting into deeper, more complex work. At that point, I began to get frustrated when I would start to get into a flow of a complex bit of code and have to take a 5 minute break.
Over the next few weeks, I tried to tweak the timing and the breaks to see if I could make it work. It was better, but I was still struggling to get into the “flow state”. Overall, it’s powerful for non-deep work, but the concept fell apart for me outside of that.
Don’t let me sway your opinion. Give it a shot! Everyones brain’s work different, so what doesn’t work for me, might work for you. Let me know how it goes!
I hope this was helpful! Thanks for being here! Take care!
