Originally published at TheFieryWell.com in October of 2022, The Pomodoro® Primer for Magic Makers article has been updated and broken up over a series of posts for The Coworking Coven. This is the second article of the series.
Francesco’s technique has several unbreakable rules for which I leave you to read his book for all of them. A few will be covered here as they are, in my view, the most critical and are the ones I encourage all members of The Coworking Coven to abide by and make their own. (At the time of this writing I am not certified in the Pomodoro® Technique, I am merely an avid fan and user of the method.)
Rule #1: The Pomodoro is Indivisible
The Pomodoro is a unit of time itself. It is unbreakable.
With this method, there is no such thing as a “half” Pomodoro.
How long is a Pomodoro? As a rule, it is 25 minutes of active work and 5 minutes of active rest. As you use the method you may learn that a Pomodoro for you is 30 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest.
The flexibility of the Pomodoro is in being able to define its parameters. You decide what equates to a Pomodoro and use that measure of time as the tracking method going forward.
The goal is to be able to align Pomodoros with your tasks: Task X takes Y Pomodoros. This moves us away from “Task X takes 35 minutes.”
It cannot be divided!
You don’t accomplish your tasks in 1.5 Pomodoros. You accomplish them in 2. This is important as you begin to observe and estimate your time as you use the method. And frees you from the brain load of calculating, down to the minute, your time spent on tasks.
Are you a service provider that bills by the hour? Try billing “by the Pomodoro” and see how your time estimates evolve over time.
Rule #2: Protect the Pomodoro
The Pomodoro ® Technique is a great introduction to working boundaries. Remember, boundaries are a spell.
Your time must be honored.
Your Pomodoro must be protected against interruption.
There is no way to remove all interruptions from our lives. But you can prepare yourself and those around you to mitigate them. Communicate your availability, your needs, and what constitutes a good enough reason to interrupt you. This takes prior planning, clear communication, and a willingness to hold the boundaries with those around you.
This takes effort. It takes knowing yourself:
- what tasks can you do, but ought to be delegated to someone else to complete (understanding your zone of genius)
- which tasks can be deferred for two hours or more (understanding priority of tasks)
- which tasks simply are not for you to complete (understanding what is your work)
Create a list of what tasks you will and will not do during any given Pomodoro, what tasks you know those around you handle best, and what tasks are simply not for you. Having this list ahead of time can allow you to begin to see what you need to be focusing on during your Pomodoros.
Rule #3: Results are achieved Pomodoro after Pomodoro
In the productivity space, there is this toxic urge to focus more and produce more in less time. To be fair, that’s how the Pomodoro® Technique began. It’s not where & how the Pomodoro method continued to grow.
Francesco repeatedly brings up the need to observe yourself and understand what is working and what is not. Not just keep working.
With each Pomodoro you observe your work, your methods, and your output, allowing yourself to slowly optimize your way of working best. Within Pomodoro itself.
Having the time box of a Pomodoro (or focus for a set time period) allows you to focus on that Pomodoro. Reflect on that Pomodoro’s tasks. Before moving on to the next session.
In his book, Francesco stresses using the first and last few minutes of each Pomodoro to pause. To reflect and review what you’ve done. Not judge. Reflect. Not simply rush into the next Pomodoro’s tasks.
Each Pomodoro is an opportunity to learn more about yourself, your work habits, and your work environment and track over time:
- How do you approach your time?
- How do you deal with interruptions?
- How do you focus on a single task?
- What is your evolution in each of these areas?
Because a Pomodoro is indivisible, you may wonder “What should I do if there are five, ten, or even fifteen minutes left?” Don’t move on to the next Pomodoro! If there is excess time: over-learn. Go over what you did, review it, refine it, research further on it, etc. Take notes on the task, your mood, time of day, etc. Commit to that Pomodoro and let it finish before moving on to the next.
Tracking your work and your Pomodoro’s will depend on what kind of data you want. Keeping a log of everything you finish during your Pomodoro session, and how many Pomodoros it took to complete, will help you learn a lot about how you work and what data you need to gather.
For example:
June 1, 2022, 10 AM
- Wrote email – 1 Pomodoro
- Designed, edited, and scheduled social media Post – 3 Pomodoro
Again, it’s not about cramming as much productivity as possible into a Pomodoro. It’s about understanding how you work best and using Pomodoro to support that. Keep a log of the work you are doing and watch the evolution of your tasks, focus, and Pomodoros over time. What do you see? How do you feel?
This can be incredibly difficult to take the time to do, but can make a huge difference in your work.
Rule #4: The next Pomodoro will go better
Pomodoro’s are not timed tests asking “what can you achieve in 25 minutes?”
They are a time box: you have 25 minutes. See what gets accomplished. Then optimize.
Each Pomodoro is a chance to improve upon something: your focus, your task, your timing, your observations, and more.
Cut yourself some slack. We are long past the industrial revolution and you are not a machine on a production line cranking out widgets. You are a human being with emotions, responsibilities, desires, and physical, mental, and emotional limitations.
If you thought you could get something done in one Pomodoro and it took four, it’s not that you tanked the “productivity test.” It’s perhaps a sign that you were interrupted a lot, or you could work to improve your time estimation skills, or you had an off day.
The goal is to figure out: how could you have completed the task in one, rather than four. Not beat yourself up because you couldn’t.
Time to bring the magic.
Now that we understand the Pomodoro ® Technique is more about the observation of work than productivity output itself, can you see the parallels between this method and … your craft?
- The gathering of resources to support a goal.
- The intention of the moment.
- The observation of the work.
- The tracking of the work and results.
- The reflecting and reviewing.
It’s a spell.
I don’t know about you, but when I craft a spell I gather specific ingredients, have a specific goal, observe myself during casting, and track the results. Is it repeatable? It goes in the Grimoire. Did it go as planned? Regardless, I make corrections each time I give it a go. I reflect often on its progress and review any changes.
Once I began treating my usage of the Pomodoro ® Technique more like a magical process, it became a magical process. I have a Pomodoro Grimoire now, even. And I can see the evolution of my work, my habits, my interruptions, and more.
The more I do the Pomodoro ® Technique, the more I layer in other pieces of my solitary practice.
Next up, let’s dive in and see just how magical the Pomodoro® Technique is and how to combine it with every day rituals.