Is This Better Than Pomodoro?

This productivity technique could be better than the Pomodoro

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What is Pomodoro?

The Pomodoro technique is a productivity technique/schedule, it uses the idea that people shouldn’t work for hours continuously. Giving yourself a break every now and then can allow you to refresh and keep going for longer.

The Pomodoro schedule goes as such: work intensely for 25 minutes then take a 5-minute break to do something else like go for a walk or watch a short video. Repeat this for as long as you can.

The technique has become arguably the most popular one for productivity. But it has had its criticism from people, some say that the 5-minute break is too short to really do anything and that has resulted in people making variations.

“Animedoro” is a variation where you work for 50 minutes and take a 20-minute break instead, this way you have an adequate break long enough to watch an episode of your favourite anime as this was originally designed for.

A Better Technique

There is a variation on the Pomodoro technique that is similar to it but flips the whole idea on its head. Instead of basing the idea on splitting your tasks by time, this splits it based on well… tasks.

The method is simple: you choose subtasks that you estimate will take you 30–60 minutes to complete and after that you take a break that is 1/3 or 1/2 as long. Repeat this for however long you need to or until the overall task is done.

Here’s why this is more genius than it seems. With the Pomodoro you’ll eventually end up wasting time when you should be working because you are waiting for the break. The technique only works if you are already committed to finishing whatever you’re doing which is the thing it is trying to fix.

You could be hyper-focused on finishing a task and the Pomodoro technique will force you to take a break, coming back to it after the break you won’t have the same enthusiasm or focus as you did before.

This technique (which currently doesn’t have a name, leave your suggestion in the comment on what it should be called), taps into the feeling you get when you are in the flow to finish a short-term task. Having a task too big will drain your willpower and a task too short will be inefficient, so this middle ground of tasks that take 40 minutes put you in a flow state where you won’t stop until it is done.

Sometimes you’ll take less time to finish and are rewarded with a break earlier. Other times you’ll take longer to finish, so both the short and long work periods balance out.

This is also a better way to schedule your time and task better. Breaking it apart into smaller segments so you know how long it should take can allow you to schedule your plans accordingly, instead of just working on it until it is done.

Example

Let’s go through an example using this technique. Let’s say you have to finish a multi-paragraph essay. Here is how I would do it.

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1. In my first work period, I would set aside about 40 minutes to organize my ideas or to find a topic and just get started on writing.
2. I would set aside 30 minutes to begin and finish the introductory paragraph.
3. Take 20–30 minute work periods for each of the body paragraphs, since the ideas are already laid out, it’s just a matter of translating it into a paragraph format.
4. 20 minutes to finish the conclusion paragraph which is mainly just a recap of the main ideas.
5. 30 minutes to look over the body paragraphs for any mistakes and places I can improve the wording or ideas.
6. Spend 20 minutes looking over the introductory and conclusion paragraphs for grammar and places I can improve it.
7. Finally, take 10–15 minutes to read through the whole thing to make sure it makes sense.

And there you go, in about three and a half hours to four hours I finished the assignment and was able to work on it continuously in one day.