Stay Focused And Motivated at Work with Pomodoro Technique

Tomato-shaped timer

The Pomodoro Technique was invented in the early 90s by Francesco Cirillo, a developer, entrepreneur, and author. Cirillo used a tomato-shaped timer he used to track his work as a university student and so he came up with the name: “Pomodoro”.

When Cirillo faced with any large task, he would break the work down into short, timed intervals called “Pomodoros” and leave 5-minute breaks in between. 

This Technique trains our brain to focus for short periods and helps us stay on top of deadlines or constantly-refilling inboxes. With time it may even help improve your attention span and concentration.

How Pomodoro Technique works

The Pomodoro Technique is probably one of the simplest productivity methods to implement. All we’ll need is a timer:

• Choose a task you need to work on;
• Set your timer (Pomodoro) to 25 minutes;
• Work on your task until the timer rings;
• Take a short break (5 minutes);
• Continue doing so for four 25 minute intervals;
• Then take a longer break (15-30 minutes).

Working in short periods of time makes sure we’re consistently productive. Taking regular breaks will also bolster our motivation and keep us creative. At the end of our workday, we actually get a lot accomplished and take plenty of breaks to get a cup of coffee or refill your water bottle in the process.

The main goal of Pomodoro Technique of course helps us get into the zone and focus Pomodoro. It is a productivity system tool. So if we’re making progress and the timer goes off, it’s okay to pause the timer, finish what we’re working on, and then take a break.

Who can benefit from Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique serves very well to creative people, such as developers, designers, writers, software engineers, etc. However, it can also help us not to get too overwhelmed by a large quantity of work, such as “inbox” queue we have to work through or a number of tickets to work on if we work as a system’s engineer. Frequent breaks will also allow us to review our work and think about the next steps.

When we have a large and varied to-do list, using the Pomodoro Technique can help us progress with our projects faster by forcing us to adhere to strict timing. After a few days using this Technique we will start noticing the difference in our work and our ability to focus. After seven to twenty days of constant use, we become masters of the Pomodoro Technique. We will also keep a very accurate track of how much time will each task take us and we can plan our workday more effectively.

Tools we can use to track time

Although Cirillo himself prefers a manual timer and says winding one up “confirms your determination to work,” there is a number of online tools available. Depending on the device we are using, we can try one of the following timers:

• Marinara Timer (Web) is a webapp offering Pomodoro timer, Custom timer and Kitchen timer;
• Simple Pomodoro (Android) is a free, open-source timer used on a Smartphone;
• Focus Timer (iOS) is a timer for iPhone and iPad. 

I invite you to try Pomodoro Technique for the following 7 days and let me know in comments in what aspects did this tool helps you!