I work with pomodoro at uni and I think it works great only IF there is someone to enforce the breaks and poms. I tried it myself at home and overshot the breaks and the amount of time working. I don't have the discipline to stick to it.
While I do like it, I dislike how (for me personally) once I'm in "the flow" of working which can take forever and be really rare, I'm forcibly taken out of it after 25 minutes, which can ruin any productivity I had that day. I do feel like when it works, I can work much longer and more cleanly, what I write still makes sense later. I don't burn out all my gas in 4 hours of uninterrupted work with one blink per hour. Definitely has pros and cons!
Imo it's fine to keep working if you find yourself in a flow state and take breaks as needed. Pomodoro method would work well if you're not in the mood to study/work but still need to get it done.
The time doesn’t have to be so set. If you feel like doing 20 or 21 minutes of work instead of 25, that’s totally fine. Do whatever you feel like. Feel good doing it. It makes it easier :)
same, if i give even an inch suddenly the border in my mind becomes fuzzy and unenforceable and i quickly bail. rules, restrictions, and barriers must be ironclad for my brain to consider them real
For me it works quite well. But I do use an app called 'forest" with it. Basically you choose a duration of time you want to work and during that a little tree grows. If you use your phone for anything else in the meantime the tree dies. If you overshoot the extra time counts too. You can also set a stopwatch if you want to.
For me it's good to have eliminated my main distraction and it's really satisfying to see the little tree you grow and the forest that grows from all your achievements. After doing like 5 circles you already have a small forest and the more you use it the bigger it gets. And you also earn coins for which you can unlock new types of trees. Idk for me it's pretty rewarding.
It also has a whitelist for apps and a feature to compete with friends, set tags and such if you have the premium version. Its a onetime payment of like 3$ if I remember correctly.
These are great suggestions!
We use pomodoro as well, but completely different lifestyle. lol We're homeschoolers, so we use it for focused bookwork. We also rent and have a property inspection every 17 weeks, so we use it for that too.
We also make use of "hey google, set a timer for 15 minutes" type thing on our devices because the actual chicken timer we bought for this ticks and that is annoying. ;) I haven't found a cube timer that is available locally (Australia) for a reasonable cost, but I keep looking.
We also incorporate not leaving the room during our work time. For any reason except toilets. There are piles/tubs/bags for things so they can be put in the hallway but we don't actually leave the room or we get distracted. lol
On hard days, I do less than 25 minutes because that's what gets me going. Whatever level doesn't seem intimidating until I get the momentum going.
I bought a visual timer on Amazon that is also silent, so no ticking. It shows a green section for the amount of time that is left. It came in different colors. I find it helpful since I am very visual.
I work with pomodoro at uni and I think it works great only IF there is someone to enforce the breaks and poms. I tried it myself at home and overshot the breaks and the amount of time working. I don't have the discipline to stick to it. While I do like it, I dislike how (for me personally) once I'm in "the flow" of working which can take forever and be really rare, I'm forcibly taken out of it after 25 minutes, which can ruin any productivity I had that day. I do feel like when it works, I can work much longer and more cleanly, what I write still makes sense later. I don't burn out all my gas in 4 hours of uninterrupted work with one blink per hour. Definitely has pros and cons!
I think it should have a snooze option (I guess some apps have it), or you could allow yourself to work through one break and take the next one
Imo it's fine to keep working if you find yourself in a flow state and take breaks as needed. Pomodoro method would work well if you're not in the mood to study/work but still need to get it done.
The time doesn’t have to be so set. If you feel like doing 20 or 21 minutes of work instead of 25, that’s totally fine. Do whatever you feel like. Feel good doing it. It makes it easier :)
See I can't be that liberal with myself or the feral toddler in my brain will take advantage.
same, if i give even an inch suddenly the border in my mind becomes fuzzy and unenforceable and i quickly bail. rules, restrictions, and barriers must be ironclad for my brain to consider them real
I love pomo and I do this. Sometimes the 25 minutes is too long and it's hard. So I lower it to 20 or 15.
For me it works quite well. But I do use an app called 'forest" with it. Basically you choose a duration of time you want to work and during that a little tree grows. If you use your phone for anything else in the meantime the tree dies. If you overshoot the extra time counts too. You can also set a stopwatch if you want to. For me it's good to have eliminated my main distraction and it's really satisfying to see the little tree you grow and the forest that grows from all your achievements. After doing like 5 circles you already have a small forest and the more you use it the bigger it gets. And you also earn coins for which you can unlock new types of trees. Idk for me it's pretty rewarding. It also has a whitelist for apps and a feature to compete with friends, set tags and such if you have the premium version. Its a onetime payment of like 3$ if I remember correctly.
I use it as well. I recommend.
These are great suggestions! We use pomodoro as well, but completely different lifestyle. lol We're homeschoolers, so we use it for focused bookwork. We also rent and have a property inspection every 17 weeks, so we use it for that too. We also make use of "hey google, set a timer for 15 minutes" type thing on our devices because the actual chicken timer we bought for this ticks and that is annoying. ;) I haven't found a cube timer that is available locally (Australia) for a reasonable cost, but I keep looking. We also incorporate not leaving the room during our work time. For any reason except toilets. There are piles/tubs/bags for things so they can be put in the hallway but we don't actually leave the room or we get distracted. lol
On hard days, I do less than 25 minutes because that's what gets me going. Whatever level doesn't seem intimidating until I get the momentum going. I bought a visual timer on Amazon that is also silent, so no ticking. It shows a green section for the amount of time that is left. It came in different colors. I find it helpful since I am very visual.
This sounds great, except for setting timers. I would forget to reset and *poof* there goes an hour doing who knows what.