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Video Summaries of The Pomodoro Technique

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1-Page Summary of The Pomodoro Technique

Overview

Procrastination has become a popular term in recent years. We all know what it is like to put things off, and we can relate to the problem of procrastination. In fact, most people have experienced this at some point in their lives. It’s evening time and you are sitting in front of your computer screen with nothing but 50 empty PowerPoint slides that need filling out. However, instead of tackling this project you spend hours perusing Facebook or looking through friends’ vacation pictures on Instagram. You don’t even enjoy yourself when doing so; rather it feels more like a chore because you feel guilty about putting off those presentations for another day. Every 5 minutes is marked by opening up your email inbox hoping that there will be something worth deleting so that you can give yourself a short reprieve from guilt. Hours pass and after 7 cappuccinos the presentation is still far from finished; however, it does contain an increasing amount of spam emails. The author Francesco Cirillo faced these very same problems while studying at university, but his salvation came in the shape of a tomato timer shaped kitchen timer – which he used as his “ Pomodoro Timer ” (named after pomodoro sauce)

Since then, he’s been using this tool to help him get through his work. It’s called a pomodoro and it helps people accomplish their goals by breaking big tasks into small manageable pieces. This technique has helped many chronic procrastinators enjoy their work more because they don’t feel guilty about checking their email or Facebook or whatever else they do when they’re supposed to be working.

A Summary Favorite

The author of the book has a simple, yet effective productivity technique. He’s tried many others before but they don’t work for him. However, this one is different and it works for him every time.

Laura, who has excellent writing skills

Big Idea #1: Chop your work down into pomodori in order to make it manageable.

For many people, time is their greatest enemy. For example, it seems to stretch endlessly when trying to finish the first slide of a boring presentation and then flies away when surfing the web.

You start your day with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. You have so many great ideas, you want to get them all done before the end of the day. But by noon, you’ve barely gotten anything done because you’ve been in meetings or talking to colleagues about other things that aren’t really important. Before long, it’s time for dinner and then bed—you haven’t finished a single thing on your list.

If you have a typical workday, then it’s likely that your productivity is suffering. If you’re like most people, you spend much of the time working on things that aren’t important and don’t contribute to achieving your goals. You also feel guilty for not doing what needs to be done and frustrated because there are never enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished. So when you finally do get home from work, all you do is watch TV or surf the Internet instead of getting any meaningful rest. This leads to more frustration because even though it’s been a long night with nothing accomplished, tomorrow will bring another stressful day at work where you’ll need to face those same tasks again. That’s an unfortunate cycle many people find themselves trapped in every day of their lives.

Thankfully, studies have shown that we can overcome unhealthy work habits: all you have to do is divide your work into small chunks of time and focus on one task at a time without any breaks.

The concept was used to create the Pomodoro Technique.