Your Teams account pings with a new notification. A meeting invite pop-up screams for attention. A fresh email arrives. Social media needs checking—the demands on your time from digital can be a huge distraction.
As much as we all can’t do without digital communication, it can often get in the way of your productivity. At a recent Digital Wellbeing event, we discussed the challenges digital presents and how we all (staff and students) struggle with focus and productivity.
What can we do to reduce the distraction factor?
What is the Pomodoro technique?
A contact on social media recently shared a post about the Pomodoro technique that I’d not heard of before. The technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s to break his work into manageable chunks with regular breaks. He named the technique after a tomato-shaped kitchen timer he used as a student (‘Pomodoro’ is the Italian for tomato).
The idea is to improve focus and productivity by breaking your work into intervals. Each interval is 25 minutes long, called a “Pomodoro,” followed by a short break of 5 minutes. After completing four Pomodoros, a longer break of 15–30 minutes is taken.
Like many of the best ideas, it’s actually very simple to do, and anyone can do it. For the last week I’ve been experimenting with the technique using the Pomofocus, a customizable pomodoro timer that works on desktop & mobile browser.
Benefits
Here are the benefits I discovered from using the technique. You may also want to ask yourself these questions to determine whether it’s right for you:
-
Reduces procrastination: Do you put tasks off because they are difficult? It’s all too easy to get side-tracked by social media, but if you discipline yourself to only check social in the breaks between Pomodoros it becomes less of a distraction and more of a reward. When you have set aside time for a specific task, it forces you to tackle it head-on!
-
Breaks are essential: Do you find yourself sitting and working for long periods? We all do, but breaks are so important to refresh our perspective on an issue. I find this is especially true for those of us who work remotely away from an office. You just don’t have those “water cooler” moments that many office workers do. The Pomodoro technique gives you that nudge to take a break.
-
Rethink the way you look at tasks: Do you put off tasks because they are simply boring? Most jobs involve a degree of monotony. Those tedious tasks are often put off in favour of more interesting work. However, tedious tasks are often necessary tasks too… The Pomodoro technique is a great way of getting you to rethink a task and break it down into smaller chunks. When something becomes smaller, it becomes less of a chore.
-
Prioritise: Do you fail to consider the nature of your work and prioritise accordingly? The technique is also useful for getting you to consider what is really important and how you can optimise your efficiency each day. You don’t have to complete everything necessarily, but if you start the day with a clear plan, it helps. Seeing the positive steps you have taken towards your goals also makes you feel much better for it!
