It’s Pomodoro-ing Time!
One of the reasons I’ve struggled with procrastination all my life, is that I actually submit better quality work when the deadline is right in my face. I try to get most of my research work in the early days, but the writing, and formatting, and creating the pièce de résistance is left for the final two days, which is an adrenaline rush, almost.
I had writer’s block for two years. And then one fine morning in 2018, just as the sun was stretching out her glorious arms into the horizon, something inside me snapped. I had four pages worth of writing out in less than an hour. It was a thrill, spilling words furiously onto a notepad with a blunt pencil. Brains are weird, right?
When we were introduced to managing procrastination for this week’s PW at Amal Academy, hope flickered inside me. I finally could get all the work in, that I’d been watching as it piled up, judging me on the commitment I’d made to myself, “Iss semester lazmi shuru say parhna hai” (“This semester I’ll definitely study from the start”). The first online course for the PW introduced us to the Pomodoro Technique, which I was familiar with, but never used it.
Developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, the technique uses a 25-minute timer to break down all work into segments, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a “Pomodoro”, the Italian word for ‘tomato’, courtesy of a tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used when he was a university student. It’s been used worldwide as a time-management tool by students and working people alike. It was time for me to test it out, too.
For this experiment, the tasks that I chose were to rewrite and compile notes on two subjects I have in this semester, Telemedicine, and Biomechanics. I take horrifyingly messy notes in class, and fair them out at home. But lately, I wasn’t able to find time to do it. Now was the perfect time, courtesy of Amal Academy!
I set a timer in my phone for 25 minutes, and sat down to fair out my Telemedicine notes. The only distraction was my phone, which kept beckoning me to unlock it and check for updates on the comics that I follow. I managed to resist it. Partial victory. Well deserved break for 10 minutes.
Then, I took to my Biomechanics notes. This time, however, I did not feel the need to check my phone. I was in the flow, and got done sooner than the time limit.
This experiment was a great success. It was not difficult, even with the temptation to be distracted. It did help me accomplish more than I would have if I had not made myself sit down for it. It was motivating, because I had gotten work done, and also practiced self-control by resisting the distraction causing element. This technique is something that I will keep on implementing whenever I’m low on energy. The breaks will be helpful in getting that gloom cloud off of my head in those times, I feel like. Something to improve my experience would be background music… some metal/rock and a few pop beats in would really set the mood. I read somewhere that putting on theme music of video games boosts focus, as well as productivity. This is surely a tool to help me greatly in studies, as well as other chores that I have to do often. Getting half of the work in is better than getting none of it done, right?
Staying motivated is tough, but it is a crucial element to success. The highs and lows in our lives are a part of the experience. What matters is how we emerge from our dark times, and focus on getting through to the light at the end of the tunnel.
