A set of four fifty-five-minute periods both better suits my working rhythm and reduces the number of alarms that I endure. Since beginning this process, I’ve changed the length and number of my pomodoros. The timer on my phone blared like an irate drill sergeant. Every minute needed to be accounted for and every task documented. After only two hours of work-four 25-minute work periods, three five-minute breaks, one fifteen-minute break-my life seemed endlessly regimented. Of course, this technique has its disadvantages. Pomodoro today, pomodoro tomorrow, pomodoro forever? Perhaps more importantly, these breaks let me spend time with my dog, Lulu, who firmly believes that all breaks should include leisurely walks. Longer breaks, say a half-hour, provide welcome opportunities to stretch my legs. While five minutes may not feel like much, that time allows me to decompress and readjust. Once infrequent, breaks now feature prominently in my schedule. Less urgent tasks, emails in particular, receive their own time slots later in the day, when I feel the least productive. With this new technique, I feel better equipped to prioritize my time. After thirty minutes had passed, I would notice that I had written more words in my emails than I had transcribed in my notes. That kind of awareness empowers me.īefore, my work time resembled a meandering path: a dozen or so minutes spent transcribing a nineteenth-century text in Zotero, another dozen flipping back and forth between the text and a recent news article, a few following an unexpected lead from my source, and a couple here and there replying to emails. If nothing else, I know what I’ve accomplished in one block and what I need to do in the next. On the few occasions when I’ve finished a task early, I simply move on to whichever task requires the least time to complete. Rarely do I complete one task in exactly twenty-five minutes-I can only aspire to that level of precision.
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