Back in 1987, Francisco Cirillo was a college student struggling to stay focused when he was studying.
He started using a kitchen timer that looked like a tomato (pomodoro in Italian) to help and developed the method of using a timer to break larger work blocks into smaller, focused blocks.
He’d work/study for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes. That was 1 pomodoro.
After 3 pomodoros (90 minutes), he took a longer break of about 25 minutes.
This enabled him to stay on task and have success, and that’s how the Pomodoro Technique was born.
I use this method all the time to stay focused, especially if I’m working from home or alone and have no external accountability.
I still get distracted sometimes in that 25-minute work time and go down a rabbit hole that has nothing to do with what I’m working on.
In those cases, the timer brings me back to focus when it goes off, and instead of losing two hours to distraction, I only lose a few minutes.
Yesterday I was working from home, and I had four unstructured hours available.
I love the idea of long, unstructured periods of time during my day, but managing myself during these open blocks of time is a big challenge.
It’s so easy for me to forget what I’m doing and lose a whole morning/afternoon/day to going off on a tangent.
The weather here was amazing yesterday. All I wanted to do was be outside, but I had a lot to get done.
Pomodoro Technique to the rescue.
I don’t have a kitchen timer – I use the timer on my watch.
After 3 pomodoros, I went down to the lake and chilled on the dock in my beach chair. This is one of my favorite joy-sparking things to do.
I did this twice yesterday.
Rather than totally wasting four hours, I was really productive, and I also got to do something I enjoyed and give my brain a rest.
The Pomodoro Technique helps me not only stay on task, but it also helps me feel better about myself for getting things accomplished and using my time in a way I feel good about.
If you (or your kids) struggle with staying focused, give this a try.
It’s been a game changer for me.
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