The Pomodoro Technique : How I learned to study more hours

When it comes to programming you can't just sit for 30 minutes and call it "a day's work" when starting out as a self-taught dev or a college freshman as I were. The Pomodoro technique can help you tackle the mental resistancies that arise when you can't study focused.

The Root Of The Problem

The problem isn't always lack of motivation or laziness.

It's just very mentally uncomfortable for people who come from a non tech-related background and are not used to sitting on a chair for long hours to just focus on coding.

What should we do then ? How can we create this new habit of focused studying without quitting and becoming frustrated of ourselves ?

Pomodoro To The Rescue

The Pomodoro Technique is basically a time managment method that prevents you from losing focus by studying with no interruptions for specific time intervals and taking a short break in between
them.

It can be applied with the steps below :

1. Decide on the task to be done.

2. Set the pomodoro timer (typically for 25 minutes).

3. Work on the task .

4. End work when the timer rings and take a short break (typically 5–10 minutes).

5. If you have fewer than three pomodoros, go back to Step 2 and repeat until you go through all three pomodoros.

6. After three pomodoros are done, take the fourth pomodoro and then take a long break (traditionally 20 to 30 minutes). Once the long break is finished, return to step 2.

And As Wikipedia itself says it :

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a timer to break work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student.

How I Applied Pomodoro To Coding

I took a piece of paper and put it next to my laptop. I would code for 30 minutes uninterrupted and take a break for 5 minutes. At every break, I would draw a tomato on the paper, relax and then go back to work. I would do this for 4 hours straight most days of the week.

The fact that I could visualize my progress felt extremely rewarding and after 10 to 15 days I could just sit at my laptop for 2 or 3 hours with better focus, as Pomodoro helped me unconciously develop this new habit.

Pomodoro Is Like A Game

Basically, your time and focused work is represented by the number of "pomodoros" you manage to gather. It almost feels like a game where there is a consistent reward for doing something uncomfortable.After some time, the discomfort leaves and it becomes fun.

To Sum Up

Apply the technique and customize it in a way that you enjoy (the way you visualize your progress and the time you study between breaks) and stick to it for a few days or weeks until it feels natural.

Until then.