The Pomodoro Technique carries with it a whole box full of advantages you can unpack for yourself. By the end of this post, you’ll know the most important benefits of the Pomodoro Technique.
Jump straight to The Benefits of The Pomodoro Technique below.
How Does The Pomodoro Technique Work? A Brief Overview
If you’re thinking of learning The Pomodoro Technique, this is all you need to know.
The Pomodoro Technique is a simple time management method to organize your working day. By splitting your working day into 25 minute chunks, or pomodoros, you can perform short bursts of deep work. After each pomodoro you take a 5 minute break, giving you just enough juice for another session of intense work.
After four consecutive pomodoros you can take a longer break of 15-30 minutes.
In a nutshell, that’s the Pomodoro Technique – You might be wondering why it’s called the Pomodoro Technique, I wrote a short post that answer’s that very question, it’s only a 2 minute read, it’s an interesting story!
Why The Pomodoro Technique Works
There has always been some interest in the Pomodoro Technique. And, since it was first developed in 1980s interest has only increased over time. Why is this? As other productivity systems have come and gone what is it about that tomato timer that just keeps people coming back for more?
It’s because the method works, it’s effective. It handles the 3 components of a productive day really well.
- Task Management
- Time Management
- Energy Management
The Task Management Benefits of The Pomodoro Method
It may seem absurdly simple but the most important factor in being productive is actually knowing what you need to do. Let’s use a report as an example.
You can’t sit down and ‘do’ a report but you can do research, statistical analysis, create graphs and write text. Once these 4 tasks are complete you can be said to have ‘done’ your report.
A 25 minute pomodoro isn’t enough time to complete this report and so the technique forces you to decide what specific task you are going to focus on. Breaking a large task into a smaller twenty five minute task makes it much more attainable too.
When confronted with writing a large report like this, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with the size of it. It’s near impossible to start planning your time without breaking it into smaller parts.
- 1 Pomodoro for Research
- 2 Pomodoros for Analysis
- 1 Pomodoro for Making Graphs
- 2 Pomodoros for Writing
The Pomodoro Technique Encourages Time Management
Once broken up into Pomodoros it’s easy to start planning your time for the day. You may have 2 hours in the morning before your meeting (that’s 4 Pomodoros) and an hour after lunch (2 Pomodoros.)
This effective time management method let’s you plan everyday 25 minutes at a time.
The Pomodoro Method For Energy Management
Energy management is also crucial for staying productive. Of course there is a lot that goes into energy management such as diet and exercise but one thing that many people take for granted is rest.
Imagine tackling our hypothetical report in one sitting. Half way through you become sluggish and tired. Your quality of work goes down your working speed goes down so now your doing worse work and it’s taking your longer. Plus it’s just not enjoyable.
The 5-minute breaks that are built into the method force you to take the breaks you need to get refreshed, revitalized and back in the mood for more work. It’s the time you take away from your work that makes you work so well. If you’re wondering what to do during your 5-minute Pomodoro break, I wrote that post just for you so you have a pomodoro breaks plan.
Improved Project Planning & Pomodoro Task Tracking
When you start to really implement the Pomodoro Technique regularly, everything becomes a pomodoro. And if it doesn’t fit into a Pomodoro then you have to break it down until it does. This is Pomodoro task tracking.
Having to think about your projects and tasks in this way is obviously a great way to get you engaged and making progress with the project but also makes you a better project manager from a higher level. You’re not only down in the weeds doing the tasks in your pomodoro sessions but also taking a step back and managing the wood, not just the trees.
There are great apps such as todoist, simpletask or trello that will help you keep track of your tasks but it’s still up to you to put your focus on them.
Tracking which tasks need to be done rather than just doing everything. Moving projects in the direction they need to evolve rather than just blindly making progress. These are benefits that make a real difference.
A Pomodoro Life is a More Active Life
The 5 minute break employed by the Pomodoro Technique is not enough to get in any meaningful kind of workout. Even in the extended breaks between cycles, trying to fit in a workout is unrealistic for most of us.
But the short breaks that split up your pomodoros do do something for your health. They stop you from sitting for the whole morning and whole afternoon. And with authorities like The Mayo clinic making strong cases against sitting for extended periods, we should all think twice.
When the timer goes off and you finish your pomodoro, if you’re anything like me the first thing you do is stand up, stretch, feel a little sense of accomplishment and wander away from where ever you were working.
A Five-Minute Pomodoro Break Reduces Fatigue
Fatigue creeps up on you slowly. Like a frog being slowly boiled in a pan, you don’t realize your tired until it’s too late.
One thing we all know is there’s no coming back when that wall of fatigue hits you, your just done for the day.
So after your first 25 minute pomodoro, you might be thinking, “I’m still fresh, I don’t need a break yet.” But if you take your breaks from the start, weariness wont build up and you can avoid, or at least prolong, hitting that wall.
A Better Team Member – Using Pomodoro at Work
Using the Pomodoro Technique doesn’t only make you more productive, it also brings benefits to your team too.
We’ve all been asked by a colleague when they can expect a report, some figure or something else you are working on. And the default answer I usually hear is something along the lines of “I’ll send them to you as soon as I can.”
But your colleague doesn’t know when ‘as soon as I can’ is, any more than you do. Compare that to “I need 2 pomodoros to finish them, but I have to finish XYZ first which will take 1 more pomodoro. I’ll send them 2 you in an hour and a half.”
Everyone likes to get an answer on how long they need to wait, it helps them plan their day too.
Increased Focus
Being able to focus and work single mindedly on a task is usually the difference between those that are successful and those that aren’t.
If you want to learn to write, to code, to be better with Photoshop or almost anything else that will help you become successful, you need to be able to focus on it.
The Pomodoro Technique is a brilliant key to quickly improve your ability to focus and your mental game. Why? Because focusing becomes so much easier when it’s just for 25 minutes.
It’s difficult to start a practice session when you know you need to practice for 5 hours today. But it’s easy to practice for 25 minutes. The benefit of the pomodoro technique is that it lowers the barrier to entry.
Procrastination Buster
Procrastination may be the term used to describe this generation when people look back in the future. Phones, tablets and notifications, bells, buzzers and ringtones. It never ends!
When you’re watching TV you could be streaming something instead, or gaming, or watching YouTube or on social media or just browsing online. It’s a wonder we get any work done at all.
Procrastination can have even more serious side effects than being unproductive, it might even cost you your job. This article from Lazywise goes into how bad procrastination could get.
One thing that the Pomodoro Techniques do really well is destroy procrastination. Where most productivity systems rely on the basic unit as being a task, the pomodoro is the basic unit. This means that the idea of the 25 minute pomodoro becomes sacred. You can’t break a pomodoro. You work till the timer goes off.
Starting a 25 minute pomodoro is not a struggle because it’s such a short amount of time and once you start you know you will finish it. There’s no room for procrastination to derail you.
Daily Personal Development
Many people go to work each day and like a hamster in it’s wheel, they get caught up in the run. At the end of the day they come home tired, they recoup, they sleep and they go back out and do it again tomorrow. Many never realize they’ve been running in place for their whole life. Many do after a decade, or two.
Is the Pomodoro Technique all you need to get you out of the rat race, off the hamster wheel?
No. But it is a good tool to make you more self aware of where you are spending your time and your life. There’s only a certain number of pomodoros each day. Find out How Many Pomodoros Are There Each Day.
How are you spending yours?
A More Effective Workday
Staying effective at work is about more than just going deep into one task all day. We all wear different hats both at work and at home. Often times being highly effective is about being able to change and adapt to different circumstances. Being able to move from one task to another quickly can be the difference between success and failure.
If you get halfway through our hypothetical report from our example above when you get are asked to go visit a client across town.
You finish your current pomodoro and know that you still have 3 pomodoros left, make graphs and write, they can be done anytime. The Pomodoro Technique empowers you to go across town and deal with the client.
When you get back to the office you simply have to count how many pomodoros you have left that day, if there’s more than 90 minutes till the end of the day, you know you can still finish the report. Pomodoro perfection!
The 25 minute pomodoro gives you two points every hour where you could completely change direction and do something else without effecting your productivity at all.
Impress Your Boss
Being able to track your tasks and your day in 25 minute chunks has another benefit. You always have an answer to when your manager or boss (or the CEO on that one day he comes around) asks you what you’ve done that day or that week.
Promotions can often hinge on the answer of that question. If you’ve ever wanted to talk to your boss about a raise or more expenses or working remotely, you better be able to show them everything you have achieved recently.
In a 9-5 workday there are about 12 pomodoros. If you have a list for everyday of the last month with 12 completed tasks for every day, it’s hard to argue with your effectiveness. Most good bosses will give you anything you want at that point.
If I’ve convinced you on the advantages, look out for my next post on the Pomodoro Technique!
