The Pomodoro Technique
This week on ProductivityCast, we discuss the ever-popular personal productivity technique called the Pomodoro Technique, a time management process developed by Francesco Cirillo. We did a little deeper at the Pomodoro Technique and how it might help you (and even your remote schooling kids!) be more productive.
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In this Cast
Ray Sidney-Smith
Augusto Pinaud
Art Gelwicks
Francis Wade
Show Notes | The Pomodoro Technique
Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.
Pomodoro Technique
A Formula for Perfect Productivity: Work for 52 Minutes, Break for 17 - The Atlantic
The 60-30-10 rule of time management
Deep Work: The Complete Guide (Including a Step-by-Step Checklist)
Ten Minute Rule for Increased Productivity - The Muse
Unschedule - Anti-Procrastination Productivity System from Neil Fiore - The Now Habit
The 10 Best Pomodoro Timer Apps in 2018
Use PomoDone with Todoist – Todoist Help
FocusBooster
Pomodoro timer for your productivity tool: Trello, Asana, Todoist, Evernote - PomoDoneApp
Esington Glass
Luxafor Timer (you can customize your work-break durations)
Cuckoo (team timer)
Raw Text Transcript | The Pomodoro Technique
Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).
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Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17
And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith.
Augusto Pinaud 0:22I'm Augusto Pinaud.
Francis Wade 0:23I'm Francis Wade.
Art Gelwicks 0:24And I'm Art Gelwicks.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:25Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode. Today, we are going to be talking about a tried and true productivity methodology known as the Pomodoro Technique. It was, let's say invented, developed by Francisco cirio, an Italian student at the time, and he wanted a way to be able to conquer procrastination. And so he developed this concept of the Pomodoro Technique. Today, what we're going to do is we're going to talk about what the Pomodoro Technique is, if you have never experienced it, before come across it, we're going to then talk about our own experiences with regard to how we use it or don't use it in our systems, and why and even those of us who may be trying it out soon. And then we're going to close out with ways in which you can modify the Pomodoro Technique, because there are ways in which you can adjust and shift it in in different ways. And maybe some tools that are available to all of us for being able to do that. Let's talk first about what the Pomodoro Technique is, who wants to explain the Pomodoro technique for listeners.
Augusto Pinaud 1:23So the Pomodoro Technique, the pommard, let's begin by the word pomodoro. And the Pomodoro comes with the pomodori. That is tomato in in Italian and what the story said, I don't know if that is accurate or not. But that's what the story said is that franciscus Rila, was trying to beat procrastination. And the tool he had at hand was a kitchen timer in the form of a pomodoro. And that's what gives the technique the name. And what he did was tried to change into 25 minutes of concentrated work. And then five minute break after that, and for all that he was using that pomodoro. So and what he was trying to accomplish is count how many, you know, pomodoro he could accomplish and then after for pomodoro, then you take a longer break, you know, 2020 or 20 or 30 minutes, so and what he was trying to accomplish with this was not get more deeper, more. But to beat that procrastination, being able to say, okay, during the next 25 minutes, I'm going to accomplish x and have that physical reminder of that pomodoro ticking in for have in front of him and knowing that at the end of those 25 minutes, he was going to be able to take a five minute break.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 2:48So that's the Pomodoro Technique in a nutshell. And all you need really is a clock or timer. You don't need one of those tomato timers like Francisco had, but you just need a timer of some kind to be able to track that time. Now. I'm just curious from all of us here. What are our experiences with the Pomodoro Technique? And or why don't we use it in our own worlds. And I'll start off with saying that I actually don't use the Pomodoro Technique all that often. And this episode and just kind of coming up to it. I thought about ways in which I could use it. I don't particularly procrastinate in the way in which I think surreal was attempting to. Well, he developed the system in order for its intended purpose to conquer procrastination, I don't see myself as that type of person. So I just don't do it. The goal is to be able to keep yourself motivated in concentrated work. And for me, I just don't see the technique working all that well for the type of concentrated work that I do. But I've been recently having to do projects where the type of work that he's talking about, which is not studying, but focusing on getting a particular amount of work done. That may work in my world today. And I'm willing to give it a try. So I'm going to I'm going to do a little experiment after this episode is over and just spend two weeks where I actually do use a pomodoro timer and see where my my world is. But I'm curious from the rest of you what your experience has been with the Pomodoro Technique. When did you first learn about it? Did you try to invest in it? And what were your experiences with them?
Francis Wade 4:23I loved it when I tried it the first time. And it really, really worked. And it worked for a while that the 25 minutes not withstanding I could change that to I think 45 minutes or something that suited my my particular workflow 25 was just too short. But the the, the, the concentration and the, the sort of the sprint, the it strikes me as the equivalent of of product developer platform development when they change from their waterfall methods or to using agile and Scrum and that kind of thing. They The idea of going from long sort of vague targets and time slots per day to going to very focused efforts led, followed by a little siesta, you know, a little break. The general principle definitely works in my experience, the specific prescription of 25 minutes and the timer, I don't use, but I definitely use the idea of sprinting, and relaxing afterwards and then sprinting again. So the working really hard on the recovering the what the Pomodoro Technique has given me is the awareness that those are two very different modes that I need to manage. And when I allow them to bleed into each other, or I'm not aware of when I'm working too long, or I'm resting too long, then I lose the the rhythm and the momentum that I do I need to do to have to get my best work done. So I've learned that the principle I think is correct that the specific application is, it's a place to start,
Raymond Sidney-Smith 6:06I guess. So Francis, from, from your perspective, how did you determine your ideal length of time when it comes to the Pomodoro? As opposed to the break? And then how did you determine the length of break?
Francis Wade 6:20I think in the beginning, the beginning I did the 20 515 was way too short, I think I experimented and thought that maybe I should go for more like 45 and 10, or 50, and 10. And I that worked for a while as well. And then I have built in bricks during the day. So if you look at if you looked at any given day, that I have time blocked, I have I have recurring bricks every single day. And it's a it's a nod in the direction of the Pomodoro Technique, because I'm essentially saying that I need to have regular breaks throughout the day. And if I don't schedule them, they won't happen. So I don't do it based on task, I know do it based on basically the whole day, the 10 hours of the day that I schedule. So I'm using the same technique, but I'm not doing it per task, I'm doing it more like per bucket of activity. And then that changes every day. So I don't I'm not I'm not strict about doing 50 and 10 any longer, I'll do whatever it needs, that needs two hours and half an hour that I do that
Augusto Pinaud 7:25I tried the Pomodoro Technique many, many years ago. But what the problem is, for me the kind of work that I'm doing at the time. So I have talked we have talked and discussed previously, in this podcast about the manager and the maker scheduled, you know, that was based on a Paul Graham article. And the problem for me goes there. If I am on a manager schedule, the Pomodoro technique works pretty well. Mostly because the manager schedule is based on time is that time blocking that Francis's is going I need to be here for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, I have five minute break. And that is structure works relatively well with the Pomodoro.
