The method
- Pick one task.
- Set a timer for 25 minutes and work only on that task until it rings.
- Take a 5-minute break: stand up, look away from the screen.
- After four sessions, take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.
Francesco Cirillo came up with it as a student in the late 1980s and named it after his tomato-shaped kitchen timer (pomodoro is Italian for tomato).
Why it helps
- It makes starting easy. Committing to 25 minutes is less daunting than "write the report".
- Interruptions wait. When something comes to mind, write it down and deal with it in the break.
- The breaks are part of it. Stopping before you are tired keeps you going for longer over the day.
- It shows where time goes. Counting sessions per task shows how long things really take.
Adjust it
25 minutes is a starting point, not a rule. Work that needs long stretches of thought, such as writing code or drafting, often goes better in 50-minute sessions with 10-minute breaks. If you keep stopping before the timer, try 15.
The Pomodoro Timer runs the sessions and breaks for you, with the lengths you choose. For a single block of time, use the Countdown Timer or Stopwatch.