Eat that Frog with a Pomodoro
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Frog here is described as a distraction. Mark Twain famously said that if the first thing you do in the morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the rest of the day knowing the worst is behind you. Your frog is your worst task, and you should do it first thing in the morning.
As the famous blogger Tim Urban says in his TED talk “ Inside the mind of a master procrastinator” that the people who are more vulnerable to procrastinate have a very strong Gratification monkey inside their brain along with “The panic monster”, unlike those who do not have a major tendency to procrastinate. It gives them a sense of relief and appreciating small good things in life and momentarily those people forget about their deadlines which might be very dangerous to themselves and in the majority of the cases, it does. That is why we have such a great lack of work responsibility.
Steps of Pomodoro technique
1. Choose a task you’d like to get done
There is no limitation of your task. It can be anything like cleaning the house, doing the homework or anything that you are trying to complete for a long time but still are not able to do. But the task should be something that requires your full attention, undivided attention.
2. Set the Pomodoro for 25 minutes
Promise yourself that you will spend 25 minutes to the task with full attention and without interrupting yourself
3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings
Stay focused on your work and do it. Work on the task until the timer rings. If a distraction pops into your head, write it down, but immediately get back on the task.
4. Take a short break
After completing your task, take a short break for 3–5 minutes. Have some water, go for a walk or anything that can make you feel relaxed and fresh.
5. After 4 Pomodoro, take a long break.
Repeat the same thing three times more and after that take a long break of 15–20 minutes.
Significance and Implementation
Basically this technique is a time management philosophy that helps the user to work with maximum focus and creative freshness and completing the work with much less mental fatigue than normal. Usually, when we have a certain work to do, we take the work pressure and feel burdened and even do not take a break while doing our work and this is not a healthy practice. At Amal academy were given a project on this so I practiced this Pomodoro technique. I set a task to prepare notes that I was trying to read for many days but couldn’t. I put my mobile on silent mode and removed all the distractions, set a timer of 25 minutes and started my task, I got distracted 2 to 3 times by noise of my bother and also through used of social media. After the timer rang, I took a short break and drank a glass of water and for few minutes used the Facebook then set the timer again and repeated the same thing.
This is such a wonderful technique to reduce and remove procrastination in our lives. People often procrastinate because they’re afraid of failing at the tasks that they need to complete but Pomodoro technique helps to eradicate that fear
