Likewise, if you finish the timer but have a little extra to do, you can finish it first and then have a break. If you find a different arrangement works better for you, or a specific task requires an adjustment, you are perfectly free to change it up. While this is the traditional setup, there’s no iron law about how you must structure it.

Repeat 3-4 Pomodoros: then take a longer break (15 to 30 minutes).

Take a 5 minutes break: use it to make a coffee, relax, stretch, draw, or just generally distract yourself.

Work until the timer ends: Pomodoros are indivisible, if you get distracted you need to start the timer over.

But you want to keep it so that you can focus for the whole period.

Set a timer for 25 minutes: you might adjust this depending on your task and what you find to be easier.

Choose a task: break it down into manageable chunks.

After 3-4 of them, you take a longer 25 to 30-minute break, before repeating the process over again until you’ve finished the main task or your workday has come to an end. That’s followed by a 5-minute break in which you do something to take your mind of the task-meditate, go for a walk, drink some water, listen to some music, etc.Įach of these 25-minute work sessions is called a Pomodoro. In its most common setup, the timer runs for 25 minutes, during which you work on a task. Francesco Cirillo settled on the name given the tomato-shaped timer he relied on in University in the 1980s. Let’s look a little closer at what the Pomodoro method is and the best apps for applying it. Implementing a Pomodoro timer is easy, and with the proliferation of apps dedicated to it, the demands on you are minimal while the gains are substantial. Without such a system in place, we tend to work for long periods of time, even after our energy or attention begins to falter. Simple in principle, the Pomodoro method involves short stints of focused attention, with even shorter breaks in between.

One such technique that many of the world’s most prolific creators rely on is the Pomodoro method.

There are smarter ways to get more done, and to do it in less time.

Often that path is counterproductive, leaving us too tired, burned out, and mentally fuzzy to perform at our peaks. Being more productive doesn’t mean spending more time working.

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