
Improving my productivity using Pomodoro: takeaways after 2 years of practice - mehdidc
http://mehdi.cherti.name/improving-my-productivity-using-pomodoro-takeaways-after-2-years-of-practice.html
======
flor1s
I have a much simpler technique: Always have a non-empty drink on your desk.
It makes you take breaks to get a new drink and to go to the restroom. During
these breaks you can procrastinate.

It keeps you hydrated (drink water, tea [caffeine free in the afternoon] and
coffee) and makes sure you don't sit at your desk for too long periods at a
time.

~~~
jdpigeon
I do this exact thing. And make jokes to my team about how I practice
"beverage-driven development"

~~~
Rifu
I tell my team I practice 'pee-modoro'

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jacquesm
That sounds a bit like a hamster in a treadmill or a rat with an electrode in
the brain linked to the pleasure center.

7 days per week, averaging 11 hours per day you're going to have a pretty
solid case of burn-out after you do that for a few years more.

Work-life balance is important if you want to avoid that sort of episode. I
wished I could go back in time and do a couple of years again with a bit less
pressure.

~~~
zokier
Aggressively using pomodoro does not automatically imply unhealthy work-life
balance; pomodoro can be very useful in the "life" side of things too.

~~~
jacquesm
There is a very strong implication that all the pomodoros tracked are work
related. If that's not the case then my apologies but the text has many
passages like this:

"In the morning, there is a peak of productivity around 10AM, then it
decreases until lunch time. After lunch, it starts to increase with a peak
around 4PM, then it starts to decrease from 4PM until 7PM. Then, again,
starting from 8PM, I restart working and there is a gradual increase with a
peak at 11PM. The reason there is a peak at 11PM is that I often set myself a
goal of total number of Pomodoros per day, and I try my best to achieve it
during the day. Almost always, I end up not being able to achieve it during
the day, and thus I try to do the best to achieve it in the evening."

------
SingAlong
I have learnt to combine pomodoro with GTD to create routines.

My routine is simple and takes a total of 4hrs. I leave the rest of time to
other unplanned things that come up.

Been attempting to follow the routine for a couple weeks. As a result I have
noticed these changes:

* Consistent reading habit.

* Haven’t even thought about watching TV for more than a week.

* Had lunches and dinners on time.

* Slept by 10:30pm

* Have not refreshed HN frontpage every hour (I have forgotten about HN for an entire day sometimes).

If anyone is interested, I have details about my routine and the reason behind
my simple routine - [http://hashnuke.com/gtd-
workflow-2.html](http://hashnuke.com/gtd-workflow-2.html)

------
tomxor
I've come across "Pomodoro" many times over the years but one thing has always
prevented me from bothering to consider it: when "in the mode" 20 mins or 30
mins or some other arbitrary length of time just isn't long enough... If
you've ever been "in the mode" you might know what I mean.

However, I get stuck just like everyone else, and I think "getting stuck" is
the problem Pomodoro is _really_ trying to solve, but to me it feels
unnatural. My own method of getting unstuck is:

1\. First consciously "notice" deviation (being susceptible to 30sec check of
HN or whatever), I tend to start deviating because I have found a natural
break or because I am stuck (deviating in quick succession). Either way I
should make it a proper break, go make a cup of tea and leave the computer,
think about where I am. Recognising this is not as easy as you might think at
first.

2\. If this is a repeat occurrence within some short period of time then I am
stuck... noticing this is important because rather than just grinding away
harder, it is likely a change strategy is needed in order to get back into
"the mode". There is no silver bullet here, but I have a few tricks, for
coding in general i find that moving to work on different areas or levels of
abstraction help prune the decision tree higher up which can get you out of a
little local minima with too many decisions that are grinding you to a halt.

I suppose what I am doing that Pomorado seems to lack is finding natural
breaks and trying to introspect in the natural break to determine if I am
breaking too frequently and if there is a reason (I'm not suggesting it should
be ok to have absolutely no breaks, but that lack of concentration can
sometimes be an indicator of an issue with your strategy for the current
work.)

~~~
danohuiginn
The 'unnatural' breaks you get from Pomodoro do have some advantages, though.
If you use 'natural' breaks -- when you have finished a task, or got stuck --
you are breaking at precisely the point where it will be hardest to resume
work.

When your break is on a fixed schedule, you're more likely to have something
left half-finished. That makes it much easier to jump back in 5 minutes later.

Personally I gain more from the easy resumability than I lose by not having
the break-for-abstract-thinking which you describe. Doubtless this varies
massively between from person to person.

~~~
tomxor
> when you have finished a task, or got stuck -- you are breaking at precisely
> the point where it will be hardest to resume work.

This might make sense from a procrastination point of view, but my point is
that you should stop there to revise your strategy so that it will be _easier_
to resume. But with pomorado you just have to grind through because your
20mins isn't up yet... To me that seems inefficient.

When I say stuck I don't mean a hard challenging or complex part, I mean you
really are stuck and that's why you should stop, because you aren't making
significant progress and it's inefficient. You don't necessarily need to give
it deep thought like I suggested, sometimes simply having a break is enough to
give you a fresh perspective once you go back.

Anyway, it's all subjective, not only to the individual but probably also the
task.

~~~
kqr
> This might make sense from a procrastination point of view, but my point is
> that you should stop there to revise your strategy so that it will be
> _easier_ to resume. But with pomorado you just have to grind through because
> your 20mins isn't up yet... To me that seems inefficient.

I think you people use different definitions of "break". What you (tomxor)
describe as "revise your strategy" is probably a task that the other person
thinks should be done within the 20 pomodoro minutes, and then a break is not
"stop your actual work to think about your work instead" but rather "play
angry birds" or "have a water cooler chat".

At least to me, if I get stuck but know that I have time left in my 20
minutes, I am more likely to switch to rethinking my strategy than if I feel
like I have the option of taking a break right now.

~~~
tomxor
Maybe you are right... I think i'm also forgetting there are many different
degrees of "stuck" :P . Although most "micro stucks" in my experience
definitely fit into a break with your mind in diffuse mode, but at the other
extreme it needs some serious and prolonged thought that could well be
considered a task in itself.

------
jtmarmon
Wow, average of over 5 hours of pomodoroing per day 7 days a week for two
years. Sounds exhausting

~~~
jdpigeon
"In the morning, there is a peak of productivity around 10AM, then it
decreases until lunch time. After lunch, it starts to increase with a peak
around 4PM, then it starts to decrease from 4PM until 7PM. Then, again,
starting from 8PM, I restart working and there is a gradual increase with a
peak at 11PM."

 _shudder_

~~~
bigiain
I wondered too - but the only other post on that blog tells us he's a phd
student, so it's a little less surprising - at least to me...

~~~
sndean
Yeah, and here's a link to their Google Scholar page [1]. It's not surprising
at all for a PhD student (especially a full-time one) to be working those
hours.

[1]
[https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=JgOyYi8AAAAJ&hl=fr](https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=JgOyYi8AAAAJ&hl=fr)

~~~
Vinnl
It's also not uncommon (about a third I believe) for PhD students to suffer
from depressions and what not.

------
kamaal
The most important thing to productivity is 'constancy of purpose'. If you are
working on something of decent consequence to your financial or career
situation, using techniques like this acts as catalyst to your productivity.

Applying these things to drudgery causes a level of burnout from which its
almost impossible to recover.

Do not sweat the irrelevant stuff.

------
Rainymood
Interesting post. I found 25/5 too short so I switched to 50/10\. I did that
for a while but found 50 too long so now I do 45/15\. It seems odd that I only
work 3/4ths of the time but after meticulously tracking my hours worked (I'm a
data nerd) I found that I work (intensely and focused) for roughly 3-5
hours/day.

My goal every day is to get 6 blocks of 45 minutes, which is 4.5 hours of real
work. Seems sufficient for me so far ...

------
nathants
i have a python curses app that i use. it plays audio and opens browser
windows with giant text that say: take a break. after years i just discovered
the killer feature: locking the keyboard/mouse.

now it locks input for 5 min, and even if replug usb its still locked. only
reboot easily clears it.

its been amazing. that little kick makes a huge difference. triggers 5sec of
rage everytime, and then im up walking around. its beautiful.

usually i do 40 min with 15 min break, but keyboard only locks for 5 min.

after the lock, the firs keyboard/mouse input resets the timer automatically.

~~~
drjesusphd
That sounds great. Would you be willing to share it?

~~~
nathants
[https://gist.github.com/nathants/0b7b0aeed94fcfea46fef8f1456...](https://gist.github.com/nathants/0b7b0aeed94fcfea46fef8f1456f05e5)

------
mnm1
I've been trying to practice a similar technique where I take a break every
hour (or two at most) for my health, and I find it very difficult to
concentrate and get things done. My peak concentration is usually right before
break and after break it's generally gone. I find I need multiple hours
undisturbed to really get going on any substantial task. Tasks take way longer
to complete with forced breaks, especially if the breaks are longer. I was
hoping someone would have a way to optimize this experience. The article
glosses over it, but I've been doing this now for two years also and it hasn't
gotten better, it's gotten worse. I really can't imagine doing 25 minute
sessions. I'm quite certain that would lead to productivity asymptotic to
zero. Anyone have any suggestions on how to improve this?

~~~
dlo
You might enjoy reading the section, "Intensely Single-Task," in this article,
Philip Guo's "How to Be Effective."

[http://pgbovine.net/productivity-tips.htm](http://pgbovine.net/productivity-
tips.htm)

He also expanded that section into a full article:

[http://www.pgbovine.net/intense-single-
tasking.htm](http://www.pgbovine.net/intense-single-tasking.htm)

Here is an excerpt I think you might find useful: "This tip has had the
greatest benefit to my effectiveness: When you want to work on a task (e.g.,
from your to-do list), get your mind to enter a specific 'mode' where it only
knows how to do that task. Forget everything else. Remain fixed in that mode
until you get tired and have to "break character". Then move onto the next
task and repeat."

I think it addresses: "Tasks take way longer to complete with forced breaks,
especially if the breaks are longer."

~~~
icebraining
mnm1 said the breaks were for health reasons, whereas that seems focused on
productivity.

~~~
dlo
Ah, right: "My peak concentration is usually right before break and after
break it's generally gone."

One thing I do is, before I take a break, I dump my current notes, as well as
things I'd like to do, into a Google Doc. When I return from my break, I take
the time to read the notes, which loads pertinent facts back into working
memory and gets me back into it.

Another practice that helps is that I let a fine-grained todo list guide me
during work. I make sure to explicitly mark what I am currently working on. If
I get distracted, it is straightforward to remind myself what I was doing, and
once I am done with it, I know exactly what I should be doing next.

------
kilroy123
For you other folks that do this. How many Pomodoro's do you do a day?

~~~
f_allwein
See this discussion - there seems to be some consensus that 10 pomodori per
day is very good. This matches my experience as well.

[https://www.quora.com/How-many-pomodoros-do-people-fit-
in-a-...](https://www.quora.com/How-many-pomodoros-do-people-fit-in-a-day-on-
average-It-would-be-good-if-you-could-specify-your-work-conditions-as-well)

------
insickness
I found that actually using a timer was too rigid but I still use the same
basic concept. I use Anki, electronic flashcards with spaced repetition, by
far the best learning tool I've ever used. I do cards for about 15-20 minutes
or so. On Anki you can see how long you've been practicing. Then I take a
break to do something physical not at my computer, like wash dishes or clean
my apartment. Nothing too fun. Typically for 5-10 minutes. Then I come back
and do more. So I take a break, but it's not as rigid as pomodoro with a
timer.

~~~
misiti3780
+1 for anki, the greatest tool i have ever found for learning - i will use
anki for the rest of my life, without a doubt. i still everything in there
now, math equations, history, italian (which is why i started using it),
haskell, birthdays, my new address, phone numbers, vocabulary.

spaced repetition is life changing

~~~
TeMPOraL
People ask for your setup, but I'd love to see _examples of your cards_.

I've tried using Anki for things, but I struggled with figuring out how to put
things on cards. Languages are easy - you put vocabulary. History sounds easy
too - you put dates and names.

But how on Earth do you use Anki for _Haskell_? How do you use spaced
repetition to learn fields that's about concepts, not memorizing bite-sized
facts and factoids? I would love to know that, since most of the things I'm
trying to master have to do with things I find too large to put on a
flashcard.

~~~
aninhumer
I'd imagine that the utility of spaced repetition for Haskell is more about
remembering important function names rather than learning the concepts.

It's probably not amazingly useful in that context, but it may help to feel
fluent faster, which could help with other things.

~~~
misiti3780
ya that is correct, i take common things like print/control statements,
function definitions, etc and make sure i see them a lot so i dont forget them
(haskell is a language im trying to learn, i do not use it for work so i dont
see these things as much as i would)

------
searene
I tried Pomodoro before, it did boost my productivity during the work time.
But the problem is, I started to hate my work more and more because I knew
that I had to be totally focused around 20 minutes or more on my work during
that time, and I was not allowed to have a rest until the time was up. It
could be exhausting at the end of the day, when I tried it for multiple times.

~~~
Vinnl
I'm freelancing, and my goal is usually to work 12 productive Pomodoro's every
day, i.e. about six hours of productive work. That really feels like I've
extracted all the productivity I have in me for a day, and still leaves plenty
of time to rest and do whatever I want. (When I used to work at home I would
e.g. go for a run after four or eight Pomodoro's, and continue with the rest
afterwards.)

------
cdevs
People at my job use a version of this called smoking and a lunch break.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Pomodoro thus being a healthy alternative to those.

------
partycoder
John Carmack had a music CD. He would track time using how many times he had
to play the CD from the beginning.

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tylerhou
The website isn't loading for me, so here is an archive snapshot (although it
doesn't seem to load graphs and such).

[https://web.archive.org/web/20171219000015/http://mehdi.cher...](https://web.archive.org/web/20171219000015/http://mehdi.cherti.name/improving-
my-productivity-using-pomodoro-takeaways-after-2-years-of-practice.html)

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PeOe
I've tried Pomorodo a few times, but it hasn't really been working for me. I'm
more of a GTD guy. This idea of fixed amounts of time to work just doesn't
work for me. I need a few minutes to really get into the zone and then I don't
want to stop after 25 minutes but rather after I've completed the task.

------
m3kw9
I find creating an easy path to get thing started helps a lot. Is same idea on
how games get you keep coming back and continue playing. How you create it is
based on what you think is easy

------
z0ltan
Well, if you can't make do without a Pomodoro-style tecnnique, nothing can
really help you in any case. People who are motivate from within do it anyway.

~~~
skinnymuch
What about all the people who work well with pomodoro and not so good without?
Doesn't that contradict your point, completely?

