Personal Development

Some time ago I wrote an article about the defragment your day technique. From that moment on, I tried implementing it in my day to day without much success, honestly. The issues i found during that time would probably be due to a particularity of the context: I work in a global team, with people from Spain and Chicago, what gave me a hard time grouping the meetings. This definitely ruined the technique.

Then I decided trying another technique which I had on the shelves for a while, that seems very interesting and not too hard to be implemented: The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo. Something that really caught my attention on it was the similarities it has with some basis agile practices: incremental planning, ROI prioritization, time-boxing, retrospectives, etc.

In this post I’m not intended to do a detailed analysis of The Pomodoro Technique, I’m just explaining in a very short way how it works so that someone not knowing about that can eventually try it. If anyone would like to go deeper in details and reasons, there’s an excellent PDF on the oficial site and a book called The Pomodoto Technique Illustrated, which I recommend 100% .

Introduction

The Pomodoro Technique has it’s basis on the assumption that time is considered an enemy by many people and the anxiety generated leads the persons towards an inefficient behaviour both in studying or working. The immediate result is: postponing things in time.

The Pomodoro Technique identifies two different aspects that are closely related between each other regarding time:

• Becoming: An abstract and dimensional aspect of time, which leads into the habit of measuring time (seconds, minutes, hours); the idea of representing time using an axis, the concept of “duration”, the idea of “late”.
• Event succession: A concret aspect about time. I.e.: We wake-up, we take a shower, we have breakfast, we study, we have lunch, we take a nap, we play, we have dinner and finally we go to bed.

The purpose of The Pomodoro Technique is to provide a simple tool/process to improve the productivity (our own and the team’s one) with the following abilities (between others):

• Alleviate anxiety linked to Becoming
• Enhance focus and concentration by cutting down on interruptions
• Boost motivation and keep it constant
• Bolster the determination to achieve your goals
  (for the complete list, see the oficial paper)

The Artifacts

There are three different artifacts in the Pomodoro Technique:

• Activity Inventory: A list where all tasks that needs to be done are recorded while they appear. At the end of the day the ones that were finalized are checked.
• To-Do Today Sheet: A list of tasks to be done during the day, ordered by priority. And a section called “unplanned and Urgent Tasks” where any unplanned and urgent task is recorder while they appear. These kind of activities can alter the entire day plan.
• Registry sheet: A place where to record all completed tasks at the end of the day and the amount of Pomodoros (we’ll see what a Pomodoro is shortly) invested on it until completion.

The Pomodoro

The heart of the Tecnique is a kitchen chronometer (from where it takes the Italian name “Pomodoro”, because of its tomato-like shape). This chronometer is used to measure the time-boxes which gives rhythm/iterations used to work on the different tasks during the day.

The Iterations

Called “Pomodoros”, are fixed time periods (30 minutes) from which 25 minutes are dedicated to a task and the 5 minutes remaining used to rest, recreate. Once these 5 minutes are passed a new 25 minutes iteration is started. The tool to measure each of these 25 minutes set is a chronometer with alarm.

Each Pomodoro is indivisable and can’t be interrupted. If for any reason I must interrupt a Pomodoro, then that iteration is considered as voided and a new one must be started from scratch.

Every 4 valid Pomodoros the break is longer: from 15 to 30 minutes.

Note: Each break and it’s lengths have an actual reason; for more details read the oficial paper.

The Tasks and The Process

The tasks that appear, if they are not urgent, need to be registered in the “Task Inventory”. At the beginning of each day all the tasks in which the work will be split between are selected an placed in the “Todo Today” sheet. This plan can be done as part of the first Pomodoro of each day.

For the next Pomodoro I take the first tasks in the “To-do Today” and I focus 100% on it. I can’t take-out the attention during those 25 minutes. This means: not reading e-mails, not chatting, not wasting time. There are several minuted dedicated for that at the end of each iteration.

if the Pomodoro finished before i get to finish the task, then I still have to take the 5 minutes break, no choice. After that I start a new Pomodoro focused on that same task I’ve been working on which is still not finalized.

While I spend the iteration, I need to mark an “X” for each one next to the task I’ve been working on. It’s really important to focus on a single task during each iteration. It the task is too short to dedicate an entire Pomodoro on it, then it should be grouped with other tasks, if the task is still finished before the pomodoro ending, then i should keep working on that task, improving quality until the Pomodoro ends.

If I finish a task during te initial 5 minutes of a Pomodoro, then that iteration should be considered as voided. I don’t record an “X” there and I start a new Pomodoro, moving into the next task.

Simple Example of the Process

Let’s suppose for a while that these are my pending tasks:

At the beginning of the day I choose which are the tasks I’ll be working on and then I record them in the “To-Do Today” sheet. I can dedicate 25 minutes for this plan, using a Pomodoro iteration for it:

Right after taking the first 5 minutes break, I set my chronometer for 25 minutes and lunch it, that way I’m starting my second Pomodoro, dedicating it to the firat task in the list. After those 25 minutes the alarm of the chronometer will sound, that means the Pomodoro ending; I record an “X” next to the task i’ve been working on (in red below):

After another 5 minutes break, I lunch the 25 minutes Pomodoro again, following with the task until completion.
After the first set of 4 Pomodoros, it’s time for a longer break (between 15 and 30 minutes):

After that longer breack, I lunch a new Pomodoro. I should continue that way, one 25 minutes Pomodoro after the other, taking a 5 minutes break in between pomodoros and a 15 to 30 minutes break every 4 Pomodoros… until i get to finish the first task, moment in which I cross-over it:

And that way, I continue, Pomodoro after Pomodoro until the day finishes:

Dealing with Interruptions

The interruptions are the most sensible aspect at the time of implementing the Pomodoro technique.

The length of a Pomodoro, 25 minutes, seems short enough to make it possible to resist being distracted by various kinds of interruptions. But experience shows that once you’ve started using the Pomodoro technique, interruptions can become a real problem.
Source: The Pomodoro Technique, by Francesco Cirillo

The Pomodoro Technique proposes an effective strategy to minimize the amount of interruptions, and to do that, it divides those interruptions in two different categories: Internal and External interruptions, concept that will be addressed in a later post.

Important

As said before, this post is just a partial summary of the Pomodoro Technique. To get more knowledge and details I recommend each reader to visit the official site: The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo.