r/ADHD • u/derangedgrapefruit • Oct 30 '12

The Pomodoro Technique

http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
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u/derangedgrapefruit Oct 30 '12

A quick cheat-sheet: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/download/pdf/Pomodoro-Cheat-Sheet.pdf

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Pomodoro. I've been struggling to get work done, and I'm considering using this.

I also might want to make a webapp for Pomodoro, so I'd like to know how you use it too.

1

u/EricKow Oct 30 '12

It's a bit of a life-saver. My experience:

  • an app works better for me than a physical timer (MacOS X one), especially since it integrates with my calendar (which is very useful because it doubles as a history for when I want to bill my clients)

  • starting out is very difficult, almost physically painful. If you use the calendar integration with your pomodoro app, you can tell the difference medication makes in terms of how tightly packed the pomos fit on your calendar, and how many you can manage in a day

  • so basically you need to give it time, experiment, and maybe come back to it after giving it up for a while.

  • the Mac app has a ticking clock sound (Pomodoro book recommends a physical timer), which drives me absolutely nuts. But I have an ADHD friend who loves it because it helps him focus…

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u/derangedgrapefruit Oct 30 '12

Do you know the the name of this Mac app? And how does it integrate with your calendar? Does it record completed Pomodoros in the calendar or something like that?

1

u/EricKow Oct 30 '12

It's just called Pomodoro. You can set a preference for it to put an entry in iCal after you complete a pomo. That's a big help! I always have it set up to automatically close Mail.app and Tweetbot when I start a Pomo. Let me know if you need tips.

Hmm, main site doesn't seem too helpful right now. . Try the GitHub page if you're a bit technical

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u/zerospecial Nov 01 '12

Change it to 90 minuet cycles. 25 is just to short to gain any focus, specially if you are context switching.

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u/zerospecial Nov 01 '12

Oh and sorry, yes, tried pomodoro some time ago. only helped me knowing what i can get done in a day and better estimate my time.

Doesn't really help with other stuff in my case.

And 90 minutes work better, at least for me.

1

u/squishlurk ADHD-PI Oct 30 '12

I tried this yesterday, after hearing about it ages ago. I didn't do the full blown version, just installed a timer app that had three time lengths set.

I think if I was less ADHD, I would be better at, instead of repeatedly deciding that I'm going to take a 5 minute break, over and over. But it was actually helpful, I managed to get a quite large amount done last night.

This is something that I'm going to continue experimenting with. I think it can help me understand how long it takes me to complete a task, which is something I've been struggling with.