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šŸ… the power of the POMO
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šŸ… the power of the POMO

Leveraging the pomodoro technique to level up your output

Seth Miller
Nov 17, 2020
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šŸ… the power of the POMO
stayballin.substack.com

A few years ago, one of my friends showed me a way of working that was centered around a timer that was set to 25 minutes which is widely known as the Pomodoro Technique. And in case you’re wondering wtf a tomato has to do with it, Pomodoro means tomato in Italian haha.

I don’t know all the science behind it but I do know that I saw a tremendous increase in my output and ability to focus and get into flow after I tried it.

It’s really simple to do - just pick one task or area of work and go heads down on it for 25 mins. Then, take a 5 min break and either dive back into that task or start a new one. It keeps your brain fresh and your mind focused in a world where distractions reign supreme.

When I’m working on my machine - I use this app called Be Focused Pro

It just sits in your top navigation bar and my favorite thing about is that you can have a mini todo list in there too so you can start intervals in a given subject and it will track over time how many ā€œsessionsā€ or what I call ā€œpomosā€ you’ve put in per subject.

For example:

When I want to start work on a given subject, you just tap in and start. Then, after a week - I can easily look back at how I spent my time and work.

It also helps to feed valuable data into an ā€œenergy auditā€ which is 100% worth doing every few weeks. The idea of an energy audit is simple - you just audit how you spent your time and energy in a given time period and then analyze it to see how you can improve it.

For example - a few weeks ago I found I was spending too much time on design so I decided to delegate more design work and switch to a higher leverage activity like fundraising.


So yeah, the Pomo works really well for me and I wanted to share it as I believe it’s one, simple way to zero in and focus in a distracted world. Another few things I do when I’m about to enter a pomo:

  • If the task is part of a much bigger project (like a feature, fundraising deck, etc) that obviously will take more than 1 moro pomo - that’s ok and common for most things. I just break it up into manageable chunks and find that regardless, focused work for 25 min towards the bigger project still does wonders

  • Minimize all open windows and mute all notifications (especially slack) except for the task at hand (code editor, email client, slack if I’m doing standups, etc)

  • Throw your phone across the room (or more practically, put it somewhere you can’t see/feel/hear it)

  • Hide all desktop items so your background is clean

  • Put on a specific playlist you know you can focus with (this helps trigger your brain too into getting into the zone) … I created this focus loop for me but also use Spotify’s golden hour and if I’m writing or doing deep deep shit, I throw on the smooth jazz

Ok, that’s all. Let me know if you get a chance to try it and what you think of it. Or if you have better techniques for getting into ā€œflowā€ in this crazy world, I’d love to hear them too. Until then, onto the next POMO:

bounce dancing GIF by Motiongarten

Much love ā¤ļø

Seth

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