When you’re working on a variety of projects for different clients, volunteer groups, and events, time management is important. When you’re working on your own projects, time management is essential. I discovered the difficulty of managing my own time since leaving my 9-5 in the summer and starting a number of my own projects, this blog included.
I’ll admit it, I’m addicted to Facebook. It’s such a handy tool for maintaining connections and promoting/finding great events and projects. I see its value too much to delete my account (those algorithms have got me figured out!). But, I could get that value from one tenth of the time I spend on it.
I’ve tried it all. Changing my password to ‘DoINeedToLogIn?!?’. Setting Facebook browser blockers. Setting website trackers. None seemed to work. But then, I found my adored trick: the Pomodoro Timer.
I found out about this productivity tool in a roundabout way. I have read my fair share of “X habits of Stupefyingly Productive People” articles online, but they were not the source. I discovered it by following the activities of fellow campers at Free Code Camp, the free learn-to-code-and-help-non-profits online ‘camp’ (which, on another note, is really, really great). One of the projects, which pops up in posts and tweets a lot, is the campers’ versions of a Pomodoro Clock. Intrigued by the name and by the fact it was built by a fellow would-be coder a few (or a few thousand) steps ahead of me.
T
he Pomodoro Timer is fantastically simple. It’s a productivity system based on blocking your work into segments of 25 minutes with a short break between them. Keep track of your ‘pomodoros’ (each block of 25 minutes) and after every fourth one, take a longer break.
The time management idea came from a time-pressed and clever university student named Francesco Cirillo. He used a classic kitchen timer, which was shaped like a tomato, thus the Italian pomodoro naming. You can block your time and get stuff done using a simple kitchen timer or one of the many online timers (which programming students around the world are building for you). If you have a distracting thought during your pomodoro, write it down and follow-up on it during your break.
I love this method of time management because I can be consistently fully-focused for 25 minutes. In a great project, I can stay focused for three hours. But, to get that focus, I can take a long time to settle into that workflow. But with the Pomodoro Clock, I fall into my work right away because 25 minutes really isn’t that much time. I also like that this tool forces me to break my work into 25 minute intervals, which turns large projects into manageable, doable tasks. One project might take 3 x 25 minutes while five smaller to-do’s might fit into 1×25 minutes. I enjoy my five minute (Facebook/email/article/texting/coffee) breaks so much more having been able to focus and get work done, and know that it’s a fleeting pleasure. Plus, it’s free!
My current favourite is the Tomato Timer (I’m using it right now!). It’s another way that I’m trying to work smarter, not harder. What do you use to keep yourself on track? Is it low-tech tomato-timer style or high-tech gadgetry or good ol’ personal perseverance?
I’ll take good ol’ personal perseverance for 1000, Alex 😉
Not sure how effective it is…….. but I like all these new fancy apps/toys that make me pretend I’m doing better. Miss you!
I’d say that’s worth 10,000! It’s old school, but that’s the original time management tool. 🙂 Thanks for reading, Dan! Miss you, too!
This is great! I’m going to use it in my classroom (4th-6th graders…time management is so difficult in this “so tech-saavy that it is difficult to focus” generation). Thanks for this idea!