The Pomodoro Experience

Productivity is a big area of concern for all of us. We all complain that we cannot focus on our work for long. This hugely effects our productivity. As a university student, I tried many techniques to increase my productivity but could not succeed. Just in the last year of my university, I somehow read about the Pomodoro technique.

what is Pomodoro Technique?

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Pomodoro technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. This technique includes following steps.

1. Select your task in which you are going to work in.
2. Set the timer to 25 minutes.
3. Focus and work until the timer rings.
4. Take a short break of 3 to 5 minutes.
5. Repeat the above 4 steps four times.
6. Before repeating the steps 1–3 for fifth time, take a long break this time for about 15 to 30 minutes.

I applied that technique while preparing for my exams and got comparatively better results. After this I haven’t used that technique must. But this week, during online course 1 of Amal Academy, I was once again reminded of this technique and its effectiveness. I decided to use that technique again. I used that while doing online course 2. I used Pomodoro Timer app for this purpose.

Using this and focus on the work for straight 25 minutes was not an easy task as my work environment is surrounded by too much distractions.

Some of the distractions I faced were:

1. My laptop battery was draining out quickly so I had to connect my charger which distracted me.
2. It started raining in Karachi, so I had to stood up from my chair and make sure that the window of my room was closed.
3. When it rains in Karachi, the electricity goes down and same thing happened that time too. Although I have a backup generator but still that distracted me for a while.
4. Also I tried to check my phone two or three times but as soon as I remember that I can use it only while on break, I put it down immediately.

Although it was hard for me to focus for exact 25 minutes, but still somehow I managed to put all of my focus on my work. In the end when I saw the time duration in which I completed my online course 2, I was a bit surprised as it almost took half of the time I usually spend in online course. A big thumbs up to Pomodoro from my side.