The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student.
Yo dawg, I heard you like interruptions…
Maybe surprisingly, it is actually a technique to limit interruptions, specifically because you are only working on your current task for 25 minutes. It makes it much easier to not switch tasks in the middle because your next time to switch tasks is less than 25 minutes away. For example, if you’re in a task writing a report and you remember that you were supposed to send an email, you write down the email task to do later and don’t worry about it because if it’s important than you will pick it for your next pomodoro. This allows you to stay focused on the report you’re writing for this pomodoro.
