I was going to talk about how my digital cleanse reminds me of a macro scale Pomodoro. Then I realized that I never really talked about the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is a method for getting organized and being focused. It is a time management system created by Franesco Cirillo. I’m going to let him tell you how he came up with the concept:
One day in the classroom on campus where I used to study, I watched my classmates with a critical eye, and then looked even more critically at myself: how I got myself organized, how I interacted with others, how I studied. It was clear to me that the high number of distractions and interruptions and the low level of concentration and motivation were at the root of the confusion I was feeling.
So I made a bet with myself, as helpful as it was humiliating: “Can you study – really study - for 10 minutes?” I needed objective validation, a Time Tutor, and I found one in a kitchen timer shaped like a pomodoro (the Italian for tomato) – in other words, I found my “Pomodoro”.
So the basic concept is to take a block of time and devote it solely to a single task. Rather than saying “I’ll work on this task until it’s done” you say “I’m going to work on this task and ignore all distractions for X minutes. Then I will stop for a quick break. And work on it for another X minutes” The key to the Pomodoro is working within a box of time and then stopping to integrate what you’ve done up to that point. The break is just as important as the time box. Taking a break allows you to evaluate what you’ve done on the task up to this point. Cirillo recommends 25 minute time boxes with a 5 minute break.
Dealing with Interruptions
Invariably, when working on something, an interruption will occur. Someone will stop by your desk, your phone will ring, an IM will pop up, an email will arrive in your inbox, or your twitter client will chirp to alert you to a new tweet. Some of these can be avoided altogether turn off alerts for email and twitter; set your phone to DnD (send straight to voicemail or mute the ringer if you don’t have built in DnD); set your IM client not to disrupt you (use trillian to provide a nice auto-response saying you’re busy to help avoid offending someone who feels you’re ignoring them); and close your office door. Don’t have an office door you say. It’s still possible to address that issue. Just look at your timer and say “I’m busy right now can I get back to you in X minutes” and put your headphones back on that obviously didn’t provide a big enough hint that you didn’t want to be disturbed.
The standing rule is that if you can address the interruption within 15 seconds, you haven’t invalidated your Pomodoro.
That Five Minute Break
Remember that co-worker that tapped you on your shoulder 15 minutes ago? Follow up with him. Check your email, look at twitter, look up the name of that class that you needed to use for the matrix transform, take a five minute stroll around the office, get some water, go take a bathroom break. Do whatever it is you need to do just STOP WORKING ON WHAT YOU WERE DOING!
Multi-Pomodoro Tasks
No one is telling you to break down your tasks so that they all fit within a single Pomodoro. That’s as crazy as a soup sandwich. What the time box allows you to do is switch contexts if need be. Say the annoying co-worker (who sent an Email, IM, and Voice Message within the 25 minutes but still didn’t get the hint) alerts you that the client wants the header to be Teal instead of lime green and they need that update within the next hour (“make it 45 minutes since the hour started when I came to your desk”). You can reprioritize and use the next Pomodoro to make the lime green header teal.
The Activity Inventory
So how do you get these tasks? Just like lean and agile software development processes use a backlog for tasks that aren’t currently being performed, the Pomodoro technique uses an activity inventory. In addition because of the fine grained nature of Pomodoro there is a more localized activity inventory sheet: To Do Today. It’s just like it sounds, it contains the activities that you plan to do today. When a task arises (for instance that lime green header switch) add it to the appropriate activity inventory. For something that must be done today add it to the bottom of the to do today inventory. For something that can wait until another day put it in the general activity inventory.
A Lot More to It
Those are the basics, but there’s a lot more to the Pomodoro Technique. A key point to the technique is to eliminate interruptions. It gets easier with time. Practically everyone I’ve spoken to who uses the technique has marveled at how much more productive they have become. Just as important to the boxed time of focus is the break. The break allows you to “integrate” what you’ve done. Take a breather and note your progress. Think of it as a waking nap. As you advance the technique helps you go from recording how long tasks take in terms of Pomodori to estimating how many Pomodori a task will take. There are even practices to allow you to measure estimates against actuals and adjust your future estimates accordingly. In other words, it allows you to gauge you personal velocity.
Back to the Digital Cleanse
On a larger scale, my digital cleanse is like my break between Pomodori. It allows me to remove myself from my day to day and take a quick breath. I liked it so much that I will be starting each month with a DC. Looking at all I did with my last one, who knows what will happen this round.