Can you feel the smell of procrastination, forgetting important things or being overwhelmed by have-to’s? Many smells can be neutralized by following recipes found in The Pomodoro Technique.
Arousal decreases when complexity is high: Procrastination is an easy relief when problems are hard. But the problem still exists. The important thing is to keep starting. A 25 minute effort is not much. Even when you don’t have a clue: wind up the clock and within half an hour you will be rewarded with an X and a break.
Arousal decreases when redundancy is high: If you don’t complete activities then they won’t give any value. Of course it feels boring to do that last clean up stuff. But don’t think about how much you have left on this activity. Instead you should think that one Pomodoro is quick done and then you’ll be rewarded.
Hard work done, but activities that matter are still not complete: First you plan in the morning and commit to a small amount of activities to do today. Then you keep prioritizing before every Pomodoro: one single activity as the outstanding most important activity to complete. You will always be doing the thing that matters and nothing else.
Time pressure before release: Long hours and working weekends are never productive in the long run. If you are forced to put in more hours than what you feel is comfortable then you can still have a sustainable pace with the Pomodoro Technique rhythm. Small iterations of 25 minutes, don’t skip breaks and focus on one activity only.
Mental transition between work and break is to slow: Pomodoro Technique is gesture oriented. Do wind up the clock. Do have a personal ring signal. Write the To Do Today sheet as an easy-to-grasp reference. Conditional reflexes are great tools, remember Pavlov and his dogs. And never forget Turk Wendell’s tooth brushing.
Repeating mistakes over and over: The last three stages of the Pomodoro Technique are done in the end of every day. Record, Process and Visualize are the daily retrospective and the key point for adapting your personal process. Start with the school book version of Pomodoro Technique and then diverge to the optimum for your personal work situation.
Under estimating task effort: By breaking down activities they become much more understandable. If you estimate an activity to more than seven Pomodori, then break it down. You will also get immediate feedback during the day, when you put X in your estimated number of boxes on the To Do Today sheet. This is called quantity estimating.
Under estimating task scope: You get sub activities from your activities while working on them? No problem, just add to Unplanned and Urgent and then intensify your effort to complete the main activity. This is called quality estimating.
Mind is invaded by competing thoughts: It’s hard to focus on one activity, when you get so many other great ideas all the time. Just write them down under Unplanned and Urgent and then intensify your effort to complete the activity that you were working on. Getting thoughts out of the head is mandatory if you want to be able to keep focus.
Complex and demanding process consumes my time: The Pomodoro Technique is so easy to use that even my preschool daughters get it. You don’t need fancy tools. You don’t spend half of the day completing process artifacts. You don’t need a process coach at site to explain the comprehensive terminology. And what more: It’s adoptable. You should change it every day to avoid doing unnecessary practices.
Forgetting about the wholeness while in the Flow: The brain needs time to stabilize memories, see patterns and make conclusions. If you take a break every half an hour, the brain will have a chance to absorb what you saw during the last Pomodoro. When you come back you can see the overall picture and probably have at least three new ideas.
Estimation is seen as a promise: It’s impossible to guess exactly how long time an exploratory or a developing activity will take. You can only do a best guess. The habit to see your guess as a promise gives you anxiety. To avoid this trap, Pomodoro Technique only counts the Pomodori. When 25 minute of effort is the result, then you don’t have to worry about if you will keep your so called promise to your project leader.
Process is not based on facts: During the day you are collecting process metrics, i.e. the Tracking Stage. These are true facts, not just intuition and can be used in the daily retrospective to improve your process tomorrow. It’s up to you what you are tracking. It depends on your working situation, but start with counting interruptions and completed Pomodori.
Someone pushes work on you: Fighting between have-to and want-to is the Terrible Two. Here’s a third option: In Pomodoro Technique you select an amount of activities in the morning that you believe you can complete during the day. This is pulling and your personal commitment.
Perfectionism is preventing doing: To procrastinate until you’re sure that you captured the perfect solution is not an option in Pomodoro Technique. You don’t even have to compare “perfectly human” with “totally perfect”, since you’re only starting. Wind up the clock and put in 25 minute effort – that will reward you with an X and a break.
Fear of failure or criticism is a mental impediment: It’s your commitment, your process metrics and your process. You don’t have to share this with anybody. Adapt to what you have faith in. The number of completed Pomodori a day is your tool to work more effective, to complete more and have more fun while working. It can’t be used by your boss to review your performance.
Summary
Did you recognize any habits from your office? Most people do. And if all these key words like Pomodoro, Stages and Sheets are like gibberish to you. Then prepare by reading my Pomodoro Technique in 5 minutes or Francesco Cirillo’s original PDF.
Additional facts
- The Yerkes-Dodson Law states that there is a relationship between arousal and the performance of an activity.
- The Pomodoro Technique has five stages: Planning, Tracking, Recording, Processing and Visualizing.
- Neil A. Fiore defines Procrastination as a mechanism for coping with anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.
- Estimation is a calculated approximation of a result. The quality and certainness of the calculation input affects the estimation.
























