Double your productivity with the pomodoro technique

If you’re a interested in the world of productivity, chances are you’ve heard of the pomodoro technique.

The Italian Fransisco Cirillo discovered it. He was struggling to complete assignments and focus on his studies at the time. He challenged himself to only study in short 10 minute bursts.

He used a tomato (Pomodoro in Italian 🍅) shaped kitchen timer and used this to measure his intervals.

The classical pomodoro technique works as follows:

• Choose a task

• Set a 25 minute timer to work on the task

• Take a 5 minute break

• Repeat 3 more times

• After 4 sessions you take a longer 30 minute break to recharge

There are 2 main reasons the pomodoro technique works so well:

1.) It beats procrastination

The key to the technique is that you break down complex projects into smaller bit-sized tasks.

Procrastination in itself has nothing to do with laziness. It’s more the uncomfortable negative feelings associated with big projects and tasks.

This way you make it easier for yourself to start. The best part is that (in a magical way) the negative feelings start to fade away after 5 minutes of work.

2.) Stay in flow state

There’s another reason to do it in these short burst intervals. It keeps distractions and interruptions at a minimum.

These interruptions usually disrupt your flow state, where you do your best work. The worst part; it can take 20 minutes to get back into flow even if the interruption was only for a minute.

The pomodoro technique forces you to get intense focus for 25 minutes on the task. If you think about something else you need to do, write it down somewhere and check it afterwards.

Pro tip: Turn off every notification you can imagine that might disrupt your flow state.

Having trouble with a big upcoming task? Try out this technique, and most of all…

Keep improving 👊

Ivan