Get the power of the tomato — and we are not talking about the juicy red salad ingredient.
The Pomodoro Technique was invented in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo who struggled with poor focus long before texting and the internet. While working one day, he noticed a tomato-shaped timer and decided to use it to time his work. A system was born.
With the technique, you write down tasks to be done, set a timer for about 20 or 25 minutes, work on one task until the timer rings, then take a 15-20 minute break. That's one pomodoro, the Italian word for tomato. After four pomodoros, you take a 20-30 minute break, according to todoist.com.
It's especially good if you have a task that you've been dreading. After all, it is only 20 minutes. After that, you can say you worked on that task.
It's useful if you have work that is open-ended — a project that could take lots of time, with an unknown amount of time to accomplish it. Putting one part of the project into a pomodoro gets you started and helps break down complex projects.
Today, lots of apps can organize pomodoros for you. But one of the most important things the technique does is get you to make a to-do list and think of ways to break a project down into chunks. Small tasks can be grouped into one pomodoro. By using pomodoros, you get a sense of how much you can do in one day — useful knowledge if you tend to overestimate what you can do.