Pomodoro is an Italian word meaning tomato. Tomatoes are a fruit that has many benefits. They help nourish the skin, making it moist and fresh, and refreshing the body. They help strengthen the body’s defenses. They also contain vitamin A, which helps nourish the eyes.
But in this article, the admin does not want to tell everyone to eat tomatoes to be healthy and our work will be good. In this article, the admin will take us to learn the technique of this tomato. How can it help us keep time and work efficiently?
“Think of work time as a tomato.”
Let’s compare time to a tomato. The tomato in this article comes from Francesco Cirillo ‘s favorite tomato-shaped clock , a former university student who invented the Pomodoro Technique . What we have to do with this technique is to replace those boring working hours with our Pomodoro, or tomato. Anyone, even the admin, might think it’s a bit funny at first. Is it possible? But I want you to try to force yourself to understand it a little more, because this method definitely works.
“Who can use this tomato technique effectively?”
This Tomato Technique is suitable for people who have distractions when they want to focus on an important task, or want to concentrate on thinking of something new but something disturbs their mind until they lose concentration, or when they want to finish reading a book but can’t really focus on the book, or sometimes when we are immersed in work for a long time because we want to finish the work but the quality of the work is lower than expected and our health is bad because of working too hard. Do all of these problems happen to us? Even if it’s not now, we must have experienced it in the past.
“The strength of the tomato technique is its simplicity.”
Francesco Cirillo developed the Tomato Technique in the late 1980s after finding himself struggling with time management while studying at university. He could not concentrate or focus on his work, and it was very distracting. He would try to bring himself back to focus on his studies or work for at least 10 minutes.
Then one day he came across a tomato timer in his kitchen. He found it to be a great motivation to apply the challenge of time management, and it led him to write a book on the tomato technique, more than 130 pages long. The important thing about this technique is that it is simple, and anyone can eat a tomato.
“1 tomato = 25 minutes”
What we need to do is very simple. Normally, we may write down the list of things to do today in a planner or on our phone and rush to finish those things as if we were going to die. But the Tomato Technique wants us to divide those tasks into small tasks that are appropriate for a period of 25 minutes because this is our total working time, or in other words, it is our 1 tomato.
“Give 25 minutes for work and 5 minutes for break.”
To put it simply, you have 25 minutes to work on each task. When the 25 minutes are up, you take a 5-minute break before you start working on the next 25 minutes. Set a timer, either on your phone or an alarm clock. For the entire 25 minutes, focus on one task only until the timer sounds. When the 25 minutes are up or the first tomato is done, make a note of what you have completed. Don’t forget to enjoy yourself for your 5-minute break. After 4 tomatoes, increase the break to 15-30 minutes to restart yourself.
“The tomato technique can only become a valuable weapon if it is well planned.”
This tomato technique requires careful planning to achieve the most efficient process. Before we start working on the tomato technique, we need to plan the work on each tomato first. By breaking down the big tasks assigned to us into small steps that can actually be done, we can combine small tasks together because some tasks are too small to take the entire 25 minutes. Therefore, if we can pair each task, it will make the work progress faster. The important thing is to try to follow the plan because if the timing is wrong from the beginning, our next tomato will be affected.
“A 5-minute break means taking your eyes off all the screens.”
All time divisions are not created equal. Therefore, during our working hours, we must focus on the computer screen without clicking on Facebook, Twitter or any website. When the working hours are over, our brains need a break outside the computer screen, which includes our mobile phones. Do not touch them. It is recommended that we try to get up, turn around, stretch a bit, or walk outside, eat a snack, look at birds, or look out the window. We will find a break that heals our minds better than sitting and playing with our mobile phones.
“We have to fight against distraction.”
If we have ever been interrupted or distracted while we are in the flow of work, we know how difficult it is to pull ourselves back into the flow of work after initially losing focus. The worst distractions these days are emails, texts and social media that keep trying to grab our attention, so much so that sometimes we have to give in and grab our phones to constantly check what our friends or anyone else is talking about or interested in right now.
“The word ‘just a moment’ doesn’t exist.”
While we often blame technology for not getting work done or not finishing on time, new research has found that more than half of the workday is disrupted by our own distractions. That means we are all losing focus on our own, not the technology we think.
For example, thoughts like “This email is too important to wait” or “It won’t take long, let me just check Twitter or Facebook for a second” don’t really exist. When you do, it takes longer than that. This causes your mind to linger, you become sluggish with the task at hand, and it takes more than 20 minutes to fully focus on it. So, indulging yourself to check Facebook for a second can turn into 20 minutes of trying to get back to work.
“The tomato technique is about consistency rather than perfection.”
The Tomato Technique is like starting over with a new goal every 25 minutes, challenging us to refocus and limit our distractions. We can create our own systems, so there is no perfect technique from the start, it is just simple and adaptable. Try not to plan your work too tightly, it is okay to have breaks every now and then.
“The size of the tomato depends on the person eating it. The same goes for work. You have to divide the work into the right amount for each 25-minute period.”
For some tasks, you may need to extend the time in each block. Think about things like coding, writing, or composing music. 25 minutes is too short a time to get anything done. Try increasing the amount of time you work, but don’t forget to include breaks. A DeskTime study found that 52 minutes of work and 17 minutes of breaks were the most balanced. For some people who feel that there’s too much resistance or mental distraction to focus on a task for 25 minutes, try 15, 10, or 5-minute blocks instead.
According to research and direct experiences of people who have tried this tomato technique, everyone found that they had a great time and a lot of surprising stories. Working on one thing at a time feels unnatural, feels like reaching a goal and starting a new goal quickly. Because of the feeling of wanting to work for 25 minutes, it makes you focus on the work without realizing it. And it’s so enjoyable that you realize that 25 minutes are over. And forcing yourself to get up and let yourself take a break from the computer or mobile phone screen also makes you find that it really feels better. At the end of the day, you feel less stressed. Blurred vision and cramps are also reduced.
“The success of the Tomato Technique is measured by the focus we give to the work, not the number of jobs we get done.”
The benefits of the Tomato Technique advertised by Francesco Cirillo are not the increased amount of work, but the efficiency and quality of the work we get. This technique is really like a tomato because it allows us to focus on our work efficiently, while still being fresh, as if we were eating a tomato every day. Our brain can rest and work with quality. If we can do it, it will be like a vitamin for our body and work.
Conclusion
Because working hard every day is something that all working people always suffer from. Burnout or poor health are the results of working too hard every day. What we do every day is trying to complete all assigned tasks according to the target, maintaining the quality of work and efficiency of work, without us even realizing that our health is getting worse or the quality of our work is declining.
Pomodoro Technique or Tomato Technique is another alternative work process that will help save time and increase both efficiency and quality of work for us, while not forgetting to maintain our own health as well.
“This technique is like a tomato. Only those who eat it will know how beneficial it is.”
The Pomodoro Core Process
References:
The Pomodoro Technique – Beat procrastination and improve your focus one pomodoro at a time
Take It From Someone Who Hates Productivity Hacks—the Pomodoro Technique Actually Works
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