Productivity Hack: The Pomodoro Technique

I've always been interested in decent techniques which directly translate into getting stuff done efficiently and quickly. That's become even more important to me since I started working for myself and have many roles and tasks to juggle.

I read Getting Things Done several years ago (main takeaway: write things that you need to do down. Do them). I also found The Power of Full Engagement really useful (main takeaways: We're all rubbish at multi-tasking. Do one thing for no longer than 45 minutes. Take proper breaks in between). I'd recommend either if you're interested in this kind of thing.

Recently a friend introduced me to the Pomodoro technique which seems to combine the strength of the things I found useful in those books in a way that is easy to understand and implement. Here are the basics, straight from the Wikipedia page:

1. Decide on the task to be done.
2. Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes).
3. Work on the task until the timer rings. If a distraction pops into your head, write it down, but immediately get back on task.
4. After the timer rings, put a checkmark on a piece of paper.
5. If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 minutes), then go to step 2.
6. After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1.

This seems simple, but done right it's really effective. I use this technique now whenever I have to sit down and do work at a computer whether it's replying to enquiries, invoicing, writing articles like this one or online marketing work. I'm using it right now, to write this post.*

Why does it work? For me, there are a bunch of good reasons:

We're rubbish at multi-tasking

No matter what you might think, you perform far better if you focus on doing one thing at a time rather than juggling multiple tasks. There's been some decent research which shows we're basically incapable of multi-tasking effectively (and no, women are no better than men when it comes to this either)

I've found to truly focus on single-tasking, it helps to remove as many possible distractions as possible. I turn my phone to silent, close any unnecessary browser windows and have desktop notifications switched off (goodbye distracting Facebook updates).

As I frequently work from public locations, a decent pair of headphones and good music helps to cut out background distractions too.

Action leads to motivation

At some point, we've all been guilty of putting off that thing we need to do until we feel "motivated". The truth is, our brains often work in reverse - if you force yourself just to make a start, you'll often find the motivation comes later as you progress. It's easy to commit to doing something for just 25 minutes, and once you're doing it you may find you catch your "flow" and things start becoming easier.

Rest and recovery

In The Power of Full Engagement which I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the author talks about out how our brains need rest and recovery periods, in the same way that our muscles do if we exercise. This is built into the Pomodoro Technique with short 3-5 min breaks after each 25 min session, and longer breaks after every 4 sessions.

Writing stuff down

A lot of the advice in Getting Things Done is about writing effective to-do lists, and getting stuff out of your head and onto paper. Again, covered by Pomodoro: if a thought crops up while you're working on a task, write it down and then go back to the task in hand. Once it's "out of your head" you'll find that you're much freer to focus on what you are actually doing right now. Whatever it was will still be there when you're done. I use Google Calendar for time-related stuff and Evernote for random ideas

Try it out for a couple of days and see what you think. It's really worked wonders for my own productivity.

*this article took 2 Pomodoros to write and proof-read

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Darren Delaney is a professional magician based in London. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and watch magic videos over at hisYouTube channel.

Contact Darren to find out how he can add some real magic to your next company event, trade show or product launch.