Focus: the Pomodoro Technique

"Pomodoro Technique (illustration)" (CC BY 2.0) by  Michael Zero Mayer 

Like all programmers, you have a lot of things in your head that you want to accomplish, and these things are competing for your attention.

I’ve found myself struggling to focus solely on one task, whenever I started a task the other thing just pops up in my head and grabs my attention and most of the time I would listen to it and start with it until something else knocks on my brain.

This kills productivity and causes a bad feeling.

I recently came across this technique called the Pomodoro (tomato, in Italian) technique and it works like magic, it helped me focus on one thing at a time and it involves frequent breaks, so you accomplish more without ending up totally exhausted.

The technique is as follows:

• Choose the task that you’ll start working on for this session (a session is called a  Pomodoro).
• Set a timer for 25 minutes and start working on that task.
• If anything crossed your mind just ignore it or write it down for later.
• If an unavoidable interruption occurs, restart your session.
• After the 25 minutes are over, take a 5-minute break.
• Repeat with the same task if it is not over yet, or with a new task, until you’ve made, say, 4 pomodoros then take a long break (15 minutes or something)

Keeping track of these steps can be done physically, using a timer, paper and pen, or virtually as there are apps that count down the minutes for your pomodoro sessions and breaks.

I use an app called “Pomodoro One” on macOS, it’s free.