Pomodoro: manage your breaks, improve your focus 16/04/2014
TL;DR: jump to the conclusion.
The Pomodoro Technique® helps you to manage your time in order to become more efficient with the following schema:
- work and focus for 25 minutes
- then have a 5 minutes break from your computer
- repeat until you've reached 4 work & 3 break sessions
- have a 20 minutes break from your computer
All you need is a pomodoro timer (I use tomate on Ubuntu), and a strong will to avoid distractions.
Benefits
Breaks have been proven to improve productivity and mental well-being. By taking them regurarly, you should be fresh from monday morning to friday afternoon!
Drawbacks
One of the points in the pomodoro technique is to avoid any disturbance. But when working in a team you cannot ignore your teamates for 25 minutes: what if they're stucked and need your help?
Tips
You can use it for any type of work. Just keep in mind that breaks should completly cut you off from your work: if you're a developer, then you should walk away from the computer (do some physical exercise, or have a non work related talk with your colleagues).
Conclusion
Have 4 work sessions of 25 minutes, interspersed by 3 break sessions of 5 minutes. Then have a 20 minutes break, and start again!
This will help you to stay focused the whole day while preventing burnout.
I hope you found this article interesting. If you have any comments or questions, don't be shy and drop me line on Twitter ;) .