IGX

Found this time management technique,
It seems to be similar to what I often do intuitively.
Has anyone used this technique?
Anyone heard of it / knows about it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

"The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. These intervals are known as "pomodori", from the Italian word pomodoro for "tomato". The method is based on the idea that frequent breaks can improve mental agility.
Closely related to concepts such as timeboxing and iterative and incremental development used in software design, the method has been adopted in pair programming contexts."

http://pomodorotechnique.com/

Thinking of buying the book...

Never knew there was a name for it, but it's how I naturally work. Discovered this worked especially well when I was a civil engineer. I could focus in on designs at the computer with laser intensity for a half hour or so, then I would need a short break to re-center my chi before going back at it.

There's no doubt I was much more productive going at it like this rather than grinding through long sessions.

Proto uses this when working.A blueberryshake means toilet breaks every 25 minutes.He calls it mirtillo.

I use it , I naturally tap out at 35 mins and take a 3 min break to walk around the building or floor. I some time do the stairs. I use a gymboss like timer. When I am working on something I get deeply focused and the break seem to pull me up a level so I never spend the day going down a rat hole. 35 mins at ground level and 3 mins at 50,000 feet or 35 mins of tactical work and 3 mins strategic work

I've sped this up to :30 second work increments, followed by :10 second breaks.

You're thinking of buying a fucking book about taking 5 minute breaks?

baffled wrote:You're thinking of buying a fucking book about taking 5 minute breaks?

Can't wait for the product review.

I get up every half hour to stretch the legs and walk a bit because they say sitting for long periods of time is rough on the body. I'm a programmer, so I spend a lot of time sitting on my ass in front if a computer.

Not gonna piss away the cash for a book that tells me, ostensibly, that I'm doing it right. But I agree with the ideas.

Where, exactly, does the tomato come in?

I have an instructor that teaches this way, he says because he has found over the years adults have a finite attention span. I much prefer taking my boring government refreshers from him than anyone else in the department.

Smart move to run this new "breaks" theory past the highly successful IGx crowd to see if it actually holds water. Before lashing out all that money.

Jezzy Bell wrote:Where, exactly, does the tomato come in?

I have an instructor that teaches this way, he says because he has found over the years adults have a finite attention span. I much prefer taking my boring government refreshers from him than anyone else in the department.

The tomato is on reference to those tomato timers you can get at the dollar store.

T>1200 wrote:I've sped this up to :30 second work increments, followed by :10 second breaks.

Yeah I apply Tabata method to my life as well since I figured that's what Dr. Tabata had in mind when he said it was effective.

baffled wrote:You're thinking of buying a fucking book about taking 5 minute breaks?

Yeah, the reason i'm running it by IGx is that I don't want to buy the book unless it has certain content.
Sure it's interesting to me as a time saving technique, but more than that there was mention about Pomodoro, ADHD, research etc...

Helping kids with ADHD/Aspie's/Autism spectrum is becoming an increasing interest of mine, so anything in that field will get my attention. Hence throwing it out there to see if anyone had read it and to find out how much data/research is mentioned in the book.

Thanks for the helpful replies.

terra wrote:

baffled wrote:You're thinking of buying a fucking book about taking 5 minute breaks?

Yeah, the reason i'm running it by IGx is that I don't want to buy the book unless it has certain content.
Sure it's interesting to me as a time saving technique, but more than that there was mention about Pomodoro, ADHD, research etc...

Helping kids with ADHD/Aspie's/Autism spectrum is becoming an increasing interest of mine, so anything in that field will get my attention. Hence throwing it out there to see if anyone had read it and to find out how much data/research is mentioned in the book.

Thanks for the helpful replies.

The book's relatively cheap-- get it.

I'd also recommend checking out some time management stuff from the sales side- a lot of it's probably available on CD/DVD from the local public library. Brian Tracy et al...

I took a break 2/3 through this thread

Previously, Pomodoro technique is my choice of method for my time management, so effective it makes me work on time and more productive.

Then, I have opened a couple of offices overseas and I’ve been needing a time recording software which can support different languages. Since the things have improved alot. But the pomodoro technique has less option.

Hence I have started search for some good cloud-based time tracking applications. I’ve tried plenty of applications but Replicon's Product has fulfilled my expectations. Here's the reference of that product - http://goo.gl/yGF1mm