The Power of a Pomodoro

Some of you will click on this because you know what a Pomodoro is. Some of you will say what?! Well if you know, you know. And if you don’t, then I am about to share with you something that has changed my life twenty five minutes at a time.

My friend David first introduced me to the idea of a Pomodoro in about 2015. It’s a timed work session where you work twenty five minutes and then take a five minute break. I had been using timers to focus since about 2003 when I discovered FlyLady who was all about the 15 minute work session (in that case it was mainly about home tasks. I used it for home, work and everything.) I would get on such a roll with my Flylady 15 minute work sessions and later my Pomodoros that I would just keep going without breaks until I got burnout.

Enter altMBA. Also somethings David inspired me to do. During altMBA my peers starting bringing the Pomodoro technique to our collaborative Learning Groups. We would do pomodoros together. Emphasis on together. We would do a pomodoro and then talk during the five minute break about what wed accomplished and what we’d do next. One of my peers even had a Pomodoro timer that he somehow integrated into Zoom so we could also see where we were in the Pomodoro.

Full disclosure, I am in a pomodoro right now. I have six minutes and twenty three seconds left. It’s amazing how much I can get done in these work sessions. This time I am doing a “Pom” as we lovingly call it by now, we’ve earned the familiar nickname after all the days in and all the days out doing poms together since our February to March altMBA 30 day session.

This pom is with David. He’s 3000 miles away and just on the other side of the phone. Ever since altMBA ended, he and I “meet” for about 2 or 3 poms about four times a week. We tell each other what we’re going to do and then we do it. In my pom just now I knocked something off my to do list that’s been there over a year. Lingering and taking up space in my bullet journal and in my head and in my heart. And guess what?! It’s DONE! I scheduled a mammogram.

Sometimes the pomodoro accomplishments are big (launching my blog, making a dreaded phone call) sometimes they are small and essenital (emptying the dishwasher, eating a mindful lunch by myself in silence.) The power of the Pomodoro has much such an incredible difference in my life.

Have you ever tried a pomodoro? If not, i encourage you to give it a try! Set your timer for 25 minutes and go to town! Just make sure you stay focused on what you intended to do. And then, make sure you stop and regroup when the timer goes off.

I could write about this all day but with 5 seconds to spare, this is it for now. Beep!