Pomodoro Technique

[Mark Drew]

Hi there

Hanging out with Peter Bell this weekend has shown me the great
Pomodoro Technique as well as keeping my life's TODO list up to date.

So, only one day using the 25 minute "full concentration" technique
and suddenly I have become a lot more focused... but let's see how it
works out next week when I get back to work.

What are other's experience with this method of working? Does it get
in the way of talking to clients etc?

Mark Drew

[Peter Bell]

And just to follow up, I came across pomodoro technique at XP in
Limerick Ireland last year. More information available here:
http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

I find that as long as you communicate with clients they understand
why you need to do this and it works out pretty well. Having a good
ticketing system with an auto response notification also helps.

Best Wishes,
Peter

[rob_parkhill]

Good day,

So is it just me, or does this technique seem to scream for an AIR
application? Wouldn't be overly difficult I wouldn't think, although
I am not enough of an AIR expert to throw my hat in the ring to
develop it (at least not solo ;)).
Creating a Jobs list that you could then drag into a workplan for the
day, implement an on screen timer, and the ability to mark the
interruptions etc etc.

Any thoughts?

Rob

[Mark Drew]

Peter and I were talking about this and on OS X at least I think it
would be good to be able to, for example, set your IM status to "busy"
during your sessions.


An air app should be fairly simple, but I would say it would parse
your text file, and if you clicked "Done" just update the text file.
Its easy enough to update a text file, why rely on an app?

MD

Mark Drew
CEO
Railo Technologies UK
mark...@getrailo.com
http://www.getrailo.com

[Rob Parkhill]

Mark,

Valid points. I was looking at it I guess as going a bit further.  Using this to keep your list of available things to do, and then integrating the timer into it.  I know that when I start working on something, I never look at the time, and often will spend an hour without realizing it.  If the desire was to work in the 30 minute increments, then having that on-screen reminder would be nice.

Obviously all of this can be achieved through the use of tools currently available, including text files, or excel or whatever.  I just thought it _might_ simplify everything to have it all in a single place that allowed you to use this technique of time management.  And I thought that yes, it would be straight forward to implement, and might make for a handy little tool, especially if you could have AIR set your IM status for you ;).

Rob

[Peter Bell]

Well, I'd certainly download an d play with the air app if someone built it!

For now I'm using timer on my iPhone. Works out pretty well as it's nice and visual, works in all spaces and doesn't take up primary screen real estate. Sometimes I don't hear the alarm if I'm listening to music, but overall it's working OK so far . . .

Best Wishes,

Peter

[Mark Drew]

If I have some time today, I shall see what I can knock up with a bit of javascript

MD

[Peter Bell]

That works too :-)

[Rob Parkhill]

I am more than willing to help out where I can, I need a little guidance with AIR Apps, but would love to help develop something :)

Rob

[Mark Drew]

If you cant wait for me to make an AIR application, here is one if you are running windows ;) 

http://tech-nous.blogspot.com/2009/02/pomodoro-technique-aka-tomatoes.html

[Anuj Gakhar]

I like the idea here. Concentrating for 25 mins on 'a' particular task. I will try doing that ....sounds like this could make you much more productive if practised for a few weeks.