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Pomodoro Technique


I reset the clock once again, and start to focus on an activity out of my todo list, then I feel hunger, then I realize I need to make an important call, and I also was just thinking that I want to check my favorite online forum, and then I must read my email and also reply "immediately"... and oh! it has been years I updated by blog - today is the day; and that’s not to mention the most recurring of all my instincts — refilling my tea cup whenever its empty... while 'shedding some light' about the daily-rumours!

Is it? Isn't it? So true... in this overwhelming ever expanding information-village.

So how could we manage time? So challenging!

By the way, Pomodoro is an italian word for Tomato (Tamater - in our language); a well practised time management technique, introduced by Francesco Cirillo.

Couple of days ago while I was talking to a colleague; he wouldnt agree that people tend to work less then official working hours. His argument was that people work for straight 8 hour - and 8 hours only (9 minus 1 = 8; one hour lunch break excluding).

You just cant work for the given exact amount of time. That is so un-natural or probably superficial. With your monkey mind swinging busily across the lush rain forest of online distractions, especially in our industry where you're connected to the internet twenty four into seven; with all sorts of news, gossips, whispers - roaming around you! Based upon my small experience of ~8 years, managing teams, clients, and my customers alike... I believe a maximum that a man can work 'most productively' is 3 to 4 hours out of that 9 hour timesheet.

Therefore to minimize the interruptions and to increase the sustained level of focus is one of the reasons the pair programming concept is "in" the business.

So, there is a need to better manage the time and keep a human mind focused for certain work items for a given amount of time.



The jist of the Pomodoro technique says that:
  1. Prepare a todo list - well structured breakdown of items.
  2. Attempt an item within ~20(20 to thirty) mins of timeframe.
  3. Take a break of 3 to 5 minutes.
  4. Repeat the above with the next item in todo list
  5. Every 4 items(Pomodoros) take longer breaks; for instance (5, and then 10 minutes, and then 20 minutes, so on so forth) 
Though, I am liking it... but he, the collegue, still wouldn't agree - et al. And for me... I reset the clock once again!