Tomato, Pomodoro
Let’s call the whole thing off
A time management tool for software engineers
We’ve all been there. You’re deep into your code, writing brilliant methods, slaying red walls of errors left and right, rendering to the DOM, fetches all over the place, when all of a sudden you take a breath, look up and notice the time. You’ve been sitting staring at the same dang screen(s) for 2, 3, 4, or more hours. You roll your head back and forth, lift your shoulders, and realize that everything hurts. Your neck is stiff, your lower back feels like you’re 80, your left butt cheek has been asleep for who knows how long, and who knew that your EYEBALLS could be sore?!
As a software engineering student at Flatiron School tripping and struggling my way through the 15-week Bootcamp I have found myself in this situation more frequently in the past 12 weeks than in the rest of my life previously. And I’m not exaggerating when I say my eyeballs hurt. For about the first week and half of each module, I do a semi-decent job of monitoring my time and walking away from the computer, whether it’s a lap around the neighborhood, a quick stretch, a visit with the houseplants, or even a five-minute dance break.
But, by the end of week 2 and on into project week I just fall into the glow of the screen, tangled code, and the siren call of project completion. So how do we get better at walking away?
Pomodoro Technique
Um, I’m sorry, but isn’t a Pomodoro a tomato? What does a tomato have to do with time management? The Pomodoro Technique is a time management technique developed by Francesco Cirillo as a university student in the late 1980s. The aim of this technique is simply to provide a tool or process for improving productivity. Named after Francesco’s humble tomato-shaped kitchen timer the technique can be incredibly effective despite its simplicity. All you have to do is set a timer — kitchen or otherwise — for 25 minutes. At the end of those 25 minutes, stop what you’re doing, stand up, and walk away for 5 minutes. After 4 rounds of Pomodoros take a longer break — 15 to 30 minutes or so (or take lunch). Just doing this first step in and of itself is an excellent primer for getting a hold on your time management. Without delving any deeper than this it’s likely you can already start recognizing the benefit of utilizing this technique, but oh, don’t stop at the beginning. There’s so much more to the Pomodoro to really get a handle on your productivity and time management.
“For many people, time is an enemy. The anxiety triggered by “the ticking clock”, in particular when a deadline is involved, leads to ineffective work and study behaviour which in turn elicits the tendency to procrastinate. The Pomodoro Technique was created with the aim of using time as a valuable ally to accomplish what we want to do the way we want to do it, and to empower us to continually improve our work or study processes”
— Francesco Cirillo, Introduction to ‘The Pomodoro Technique’
The First Three (of Five) Objectives of the Pomodoro Technique
Objective I: Find Out How Much Effort an Activity Requires
First you’ll need a To-Do Today Sheet. Includes a list of the things to do during the day, in order of priority and an ‘Unplanned & Urgent Activities’ section — A place for any unexpected priority tasks to be added as they come up. A traditional Pomodoro is 30 minutes (25 minutes of work and a 5-minute break). Every time you complete a Pomodoro make a mark in the far column to track how long each activity takes. When you complete an activity cross it out. So satisfying. One rule of a Pomodoro is that it must ring, even if you get distracted. Just acknowledge the distraction and do your best to get back on track and power through to the timer.
At the end of the day, you’ll go over your To-Do Today sheet and your Activity Inventory Sheet (described in the next section), and copy over your completed tasks and Pomos to a Records sheet. This can be a hard copy or (probably easier) a spreadsheet or database. What you choose to track depends on you and what you’re hoping to observe from tracking your time like this.
Objective II: Cut Down on Interruptions
Internal or external interruptions, distractions, procrastination, all interruptions that won’t disappear, but can be controlled, and cut down on until you’re powering through 25 minutes of work with little to no interruptions more often than not.
You need to make a phone call right now, or check your email right now, or google that thing you remembered right before bed last night RIGHT NOW. How do we stop ourselves from doing this? Take the interruptions out of our heads, and write them down in our new tools (but also mute the Discord server 😉)! Markdown a tick on your to-do sheet where you’re tracking your Pomodoros, then if the interruption is urgent add it to your sheet under the unplanned & urgent activities section. It’s not urgent, but you still want to do it today? Well that’s what the Activity Inventory Sheet is for!
If it’s unplanned write a ‘U’ in the left column, if there’s a deadline use the same column for that. Once this activity is completed mark it off on the right with any pertinent notes and don’t forget to track Pomodoros if relevant.
By writing down these interruptions when we look back at the end of the day we are able to evaluate and recognize if these interruptions were in fact urgent, or if they even need to be done at all.
Another rule of the Pomodoro is that it is indivisible. If you MUST interrupt your Pomodoro (even if it’s about to ring), that one is void whether it’s from distraction or something that is actually urgent needs to be tended to, mark the interruption on your list, do not markdown your completed Pomo, do not pass go, and do not collect $200.
Do take a 5-minute break, and then start your next Pomodoro. It’s fine. The next one will be better. This is work, and it won’t always be easy from go.
Objective III: Estimate the Effort for Activities
This is venturing into advanced Pomodoro-ing, so don’t force it. After you’ve got the hang of timing and tracking. Once you understand the feel of a Pomo and how to control interruptions we can then turn our focus onto making educated estimates for how many Pomos activities might take. This is how you can start building an approachable and reasonable to-do list; at the start of each day make an estimate of how many Pomos each activity will take. Revise as you go. Record the estimates and the actual. Only use whole Pomodoros in your estimates (as stated above, Pomos are indivisible as a rule).
Ready for another rule? “If It Takes More Than 5–7 Pomodoros, Break It Down.” This not only simplifies activities, but it also allows for better accuracy in your estimates. Like in code, if the activity is large and unruly, tame it, separate it into smaller and more easily palatable bites.
The opposite is also a rule: “If It Takes Less Than One Pomodoro, Add It Up.” You have to schedule an appointment, and send an invite to a zoom dance party, and call the line to schedule your COVID vaccine? Make all those things one Pomo (though let’s be honest, you could probably be on the phone all day in some states trying to get through to make a vaccine appointment).
Once you’ve determined your estimates then you can move on to prioritizing your to-do list. You know how much time you have in a day. You now know approximately how long the tasks you need to accomplish will take. If you only have 12 Pomodoros available in a day there’s no sense in taking 18 Pomodoros worth of tasks from your Activities sheet and moving them to your to-do list. As you move through your to-do list you can always re-evaluate and should you have extra Pomos you can always add more activities to your to-dos.
Objectives IV & V: Advanced Pomodoro
Objectives four and five move from the simplicity of setting a timer and working in blocks of 25 minutes, and teach users to really use their time and effort more effectively, optimizing their days and task completion. And will be a topic for another time to give you the opportunity to spend some quality time with Objectives one through three before diving in.
So that’s a little taster of the Pomodoro Technique. Now go, set a timer for 25 minutes, get some work done, then have yourself a five-minute dance party and start all over again.
Remember, Time is a greedy player
Who wins without cheating, every round! It’s the law.— Excerpt from the poem ‘The Clock’ by Charles Baudelaire
