Viva il Pomodoro!

 

You say "tomato," I say "awesome way to get organized"!

When is a tomato not a tomato? 

When it is a timer!

The “Pomodoro” method of time management has been kicking around for several years. Developed by Francesco Cirillo, who was inspired by a red, tomato-shaped timer (“pomodoro” is “tomato” in Italian), it’s basically “slicing” your productive/creative times into 25 minute segments of focused work, followed by five minute breaks. You re-set the timer and repeat as many times as you like (or need for your project), remembering to take one longer break after every four Pomodoros. 

I found out that 25 minutes is apparently an optimum chunk of time for full concentration, which makes sense to me—my mind begins wandering off 25 minutes into a movie, or a church service, or even a conversation! Those little five minute breaks (enough for a drink of water) are sufficient to refresh and regroup for the next round of tasks. 

After learning about this nifty technique, I of course put it right out of my head until the other day, when I noticed that Ya-Jhu had purchased one for Aiden. I oohed and aahed, and she promptly gave it to me (not to worry, she’d bought a spare). 

So now I have a glistening ruby red timer ticking away on my desk. My maiden Pomodoro voyage was during a session of an online writing group I joined recently, The London Writers' Salon. The LWS (which is indeed UK based) is a virtual space for writers to gather and spend 50 minutes silently working on their own projects. I have loved it (it’s on Zoom, and we keep our cameras on for accountability); just knowing I’m in the (quiet) company of at least 120 writers from around the world is really inspiring. 

I am not exactly a Math Whiz, but even I could figure out that the LWS sessions are exactly two Pomodoros long. I try to choose “bite-sized” activities (a blog post, a meditation for church) that I can polish off in that time period. It’s often a race against the clock to get it done before the bell rings, but so far I’ve been successful. 

I am determined to see this experiment through (unlike my “Best Self” daily journal that I update only sporadically, so I guess I’m not really my “Best Self” after all, or setting the alarm on my phone for an hour and then totally forgetting why I set the darned thing). The whimsical shape of my little timer keeps me from taking it all too seriously, but the relentless ticking reminds me that I have a job to do and 25 minutes to do it. Plus “pomodoro” gets me reminiscing fondly about our trip to Italy a few years ago. That food! Did I ever tell you about the incredible seafood dinner we had in Venice? In that adorable trattoria in that little square? 

So delicious!

Oops! Off track, perhaps, but I hit my 500 words, so I pronounce this post complete!  And with five minutes to spare!