Pomodoro: The new time management weapon (Especially for ADHD)

What is Pomodoro?

Pomodoro: “Short, timed interval during which you work on what you intend to work on, and only what you intend to work on — until the timer goes off, at which point you take a break”

Introduction

So Pomodoro is an essential tool for time management, now there are so many apps for it on the play store as well as on the app store.

History

Pomodoro technique was invented by Italian student Francesci Cirillo

So Cirillo had a tomato-shaped timer when he was a university student. The word “Pomodoro” comes from the Italian word tomato Pomodoro.

The creator and his proponents encourage a low-tech approach, using a mechanical timer, paper, and pencil. The physical act of winding the timer confirms the user’s determination to start the task; ticking externalises desire to complete the task; ringing announces a break. Flow and focus become associated with these physical stimuli.

The technique has inspired application software for several platforms, with various programs available.

How does it work?

So POMODORO works like doing your work for 25 min and then taking a break for 5 mins and after 4 sessions taking a long break of 10 or 15 min.

Steps for doing Pomodoro:

1. Decide on the task to be done
2. Set the Pomodoro timer
3. Work on the task
4. End work when the timer rings and put a checkmark on a piece of paper.
5. If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 min) and then return to step two, otherwise continue to step six
6. After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 min), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1.

You can work at different time intervals like 45/15; ie .working for 45 min and a 15-minute break or 50/10; ie. working for 50 min and10-minutes break. Experiment with these several periods to know which one suits you.

The technique has been widely popularized by dozens of apps and websites providing timers and instructions. Closely related to concepts such as timeboxing and iterative and incremental development used in software design, the method has been adopted in pair programming contexts.

Cirillo says “Specific cases should be handled with common sense: If you finish a task while the Pomodoro is still ticking, the following rule applies: If a Pomodoro begins, it has to ring. It’s a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity for overlearning, using the remaining portion of the Pomodoro to review or repeat what you’ve done, make small improvements, and note what you’ve learned until the Pomodoro rings.”

The stages of planning, tracking, recording, processing and visualizing are fundamental to the technique. In the planning phase, tasks are prioritized by recording them in a “ToDoLists”. This enables users to estimate the effort tasks require. As pomodoros are completed, they are recorded, adding to a sense of accomplishment and providing raw data for subsequent self-observation and improvement.

Pomodoro apps are efficient, like the one I use is an app called Forest. In the app, you can set a time for 15 minutes to 120 minutes. If you complete one session a tree will grow and if you fail a tree will shed. In the app, you can check how much productive time you spent on that day, week, month or year. Each session you complete you get some point, with that point you can buy virtual trees. The Pro version of this app gives detailed statistics like graphs, flow charts etc of your session and it also plants real trees. The cool right sounds like there is a purpose for the time I’m spending. These apps also have the option to inhibit other apps from opening like creating a “focus mode”.

Modified version of Pomodoro: Animedoro

There is a modified version of Pomodoro developed by YouTuber Josh Chen. In this type of Pomodoro, he said he studied for 600hrs and watched anime for 300 hrs. In his video, he explained that in 4 months (ie. 120 days) he studied for 5hrs daily and watched anime for 2.5 hrs. The normal Pomodoro gives us a reward called break here the reward is watching a 20min episode of anime or T.V series. He said it’s better to watch T.V series than watching 1 hr or 2hr movies, and it’s even better if the T.V series only has 20 min episodes rather than 45 min or 1hr long episodes. He explained that normal Pomodoro is not for him and studying for some time and taking a break doing nothing is boring, cause you are still in a work zone, he explained. He studies for 45 min and watches a 20 min anime episode. In normal Pomodoro your work: break ratio is 2.86min:1min, whereas in animedoro your work: break ratio is 3min:1min, which is great you have more productive time here.

ADHD And Pomodoro

I have ADHD and I respect it.

Pomodoro was coined by Francesco Cirillo who came up with the idea when he was a university student struggling to stay focused, which might be why a lot of people with ADHD use Pomodoro, trouble staying focused is kind of our thing.

Sometimes we take ever to get started and sometimes we keep thinking of other things we needed to do and doing them instead.

Starting a Pomodoro gives us a clear signal to start working and stay focused while we work, we still gonna think of other things we need to do but during a Pomodoro instead of going to do those things we write them down and keep working on the thing we intended to work on. Until the timer goes off which gives us a clear signal it’s O.K to take a break.

Francisco built a whole time management tool around this concept appropriately it is called the Pomodoro technique.

It involves breaking projects down into a series of 25 min pomodoros, tracking those pomodoros using them plan ahead.

But like most strategies, it’s not inherently ADHD friendly so the brains I spoke to who use it have adjusted it to work for them.

But a lot of brains use Pomodoro independently of the Pomodoro technique in whatever way it makes sense to them.

Some use a Pomodoro to help them get focused on things their brain does not want to do and then they just keep working when they get into the flow because they find the breaks more distracting than helpful.

Other people use a Pomodoro to make themselves take breaks from something their brain does want to do like play video games so they can practice self-care in between pomodoros.

Some people do mini pomodoros like 10 min focusing and a 3-minute break.

One even does reverse pomodoros a short time focusing with a longer break.

Real tomatoes come in all shapes and size why not pomodoros.

So if we’re having trouble getting started on something we might ask ourselves — Do I need a Pomodoro?

If we think of something else we need to do during the Pomodoro we can remind ourselves nope I’m Pomodoroing, write the idea down and get back to work.

If someone asks us to do something that isn’t the thing we’re doing we can let them know — “ I’m in the middle of Pomodoro”

And if someone says they’re in the middle of a Pomodoro you leave them alone, Pomodoro is fragile we must protect them.

And if someone says I’m off to do a Pomodoro you’ll know that they aren’t just going to eat a tomato.

And if your friends get confused when you start a Pomodoro feel free to send them this post