Kitchen clocks, health and productivity: the Pomodoro Technique

Cover image taken from https://bgfons.com

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management technique. Using it when developing may positively impact not only our productivity, but also our health.

Here we will cover its basics and some tips on how to use it in the context of software development.

The Pomodoro Technique

The technique has a number of steps to organize our activities, any of them. For the whole day. It focuses on maximizing the use of our mind without the burden of a complicated framework. It is fairly simple. Not easy at all, but simple.

I encourage you to fully read it. Then, as it should be with any tool, embrace it all or skip what does not work for you knowing why every piece is there and the consequences of dropping them.

In this post the focus will be in the execution part as it is what I think has the most impact when coding.

Using Pomodoros

Premises:

• Distractions are a productivity killer.
• Our brain works way better if we give it some rest from time to time.

These are not empty claims, they are backed scientifically [1][2].

The Pomodoro Technique proposes:

• Working in time-boxed periods during which we should keep the focus in what we are doing, avoiding distractions.
• Taking small breaks between each of these periods giving some room to our brain to process whatever we are doing.

Going more into details, the "canonical" Pomodoro execution is:

• Work in periods of 25 minutes, which is called a Pomodoro.
• After each Pomodoro, take a 5 minute break.
• After the fourth Pomodoro in a row, take a longer break of 10-20 minutes.
• Start over.

Usually the summaries of the technique stop here, which in my opinion misses the point. Actually, the time-frames are not that important and can be adjusted to fit the activity or individual taste. Just "doing Pomodoros" brings marginal results compared to consciously take into account the premises mentioned before.

What we must pay attention to is:

• During a Pomodoro, focus 100% in the task at hand, discarding distractions.
• During a break don't do anything demanding for your brain.

These two points deserve way more attention that the concrete amounts of time per Pomodoro.

The distractions

A distraction means we will try to do two things at the same time and losing the focus because of the context switching.

The human brain is bad at multitasking. Actually, it is not able to do so. Instead it fakes it switching between tasks very fast, not doing them in parallel.

In the other hand, if we are in the zone and we get distracted, it will take us more than 20 minutes to get to the previous level of concentration. Yes, this means our days are a dramatic waste of energy.

Half of the The Pomodoro Technique is about removing distractions. Both the external ones that come to us (chat messages, incoming email pop-ups, somebody jumping in with a question,...) and the internal ones that we do to ourselves (like thinking on what to have for dinner while doing a refactor).

The number of internal distractions we inadvertently do to ourselves is insane. The technique suggests, pen and paper nearby, to take a note every time we found we are being self-distracted. A simple scratch will suffice, it is about the amount not about the details. Once we have this graphic visualization of them it is easier to start to avoid doing so many.

About external distractions, the strategy is to delay them as much as possible. It is very unlikely something cannot wait a max of 25 minutes. Most probably it can wait hours or even days. Every time something "urgent" appears, learn to kindly reply you will check it in some minutes, or ask how long it could wait. Take a note about what you committed to tackle later and group these tasks together in dedicated Pomodoros.

The result of those two simple moves are more productive Pomodoros: distractions and context switching are reduced and the external requests have our full dedication as well.

The breaks

Breaks are for giving some rest to our brain. Not to answer emails, doomscrolling over social media or review the last messages in the company chat (including the channel #puppies).

During a break do something not mentally demanding. Go make a tea, stare through a window, walk a bit. Do nothing at all. Allow your brain to organize itself after these past 25 minutes on full focus (this is called assimilation).

It is refreshing, we will be less tired, and getting back into the zone for the next Pomodoro will happen effortlessly.

If otherwise we spend the break time doing something our brain pays attention to, the result will be a harder and longer time to be concentrated again and an increasing tiresomeness.

For the longer break every four Pomodoros consider even going for short walk. If we are able to disconnect from what we were doing it will still be easy to catch up and we will be increasing the odds of an aha moment because of the time we give our brain to accommodate and assimilate.

Pomodoros in the developer life

Coding is a intellectual activity, demanding to our brain and that pushes to a sedentary lifestyle. Pomodoros may help with all of that. Its structure can be used in our advantage to mitigate many of the problems associated with the life as a developer.

We are used to deal with all sorts of instant notifications. Re-evaluate the need of getting a pop-up alert every time you get an email or a new chat message. Mute all channels you can. Those are distractions that will impact your focus during a Pomodoro. Establish a routine to read them in batches and delay everything that can be delayed.

Coding is usually done seating, resulting in long periods of time in the same position. Use the breaks to get up. Walk a bit. Do some stretching.

Most likely we are staring to screens when coding. Continuously focusing at the same distance is pernicious for the eyes as well. During breaks we can apply the 20-20-220 rule looking through a window to something far away to force our eyes to refocus.

Finally, working from home is quite a thing nowadays. Doing otherwise ungrateful housework tasks are good candidates for the breaks. They are done by muscle memory and do not require mental effort, giving the needed space to our brain to rearrange. This is a win-win: convenient Pomodoro breaks and the dishwasher emptied.

Concluding

We did a shallow review of what the Pomodoro technique is, putting the view in what I think is the most relevant, and often forgotten, aspect of it. Again, I recommend fully reading the manual to have a better view of the whats and the whys.

Applying it correctly is not easy and generates some friction at the beginning, because it impacts in so many points of our usual day. I've being using it for years and now and then I fail to stick to the technique. Those days usually end up in worse mood than they should, because the waste of productivity becomes patent.

To conclude, some well deserved trivia:

• The Pomodoro Technique was created by Francesco Cirillo in 1980.
• Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato.
• The name comes from these kitchen clocks used to track the time when cooking stuff. Cirillo used them to time-box his Pomodoros.
• Here is official website.

Give it a try and don't hesitate to comment with your experience.