On the Pomodoro Technique… Does it Really Make You More Productive?
In the face of extreme pressures to be productive, methods have arisen - like that of the Pomodoro Technique - promising to ‘hack’ your focus to get more done. Counterintuitively, such approaches typically suggest you can be more productive if you take a break. Is this really true? Science says… yes!
The search for productivity has arguably been a driving force in the way society has organized itself through different periods in history. Take, for example, the prolific example of the factory, with each worker doing the same task repetitively to most efficiently move products through to boost profits. The name of the game was to simplify tasks for each worker to make them as quick and effective as possible. Productivity is one of the drivers of specialization in Economics, central to the concept of comparative advantage, when rather than every country making every single thing themselves, different countries specialize in what they are most productive and profitable in and trade for what is needed.
Enter the knowledge economy.
Now the game has changed. Jobs are infinitely more complex. In the era of the ‘future of work’, the knowledge worker is favoured not because of repetition, but because of the analytical power of the brain to make connections between diverse concepts. Modern productivity is not judged by the number of widgets produced but by the number of ideas generated. Indeed, North American society is defined by a ‘hustle’ culture, of always on, digitally connected pride in overwork. We are truly juggling many tasks, if not also cognitively juggling many ideas, all at once. We are compelled to be productive in our free time, even if it’s just to have something noteworthy to post on social media.
And from there we see a rise in conversation about burnout.
Anyone ever experienced this?
Burnout is defined as a psychological state of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy, which is experienced in response to chronic job stressors. And it is a real problem.
Neuroscientists now know that multitasking - i.e., trying to do a bunch of tasks at once - is not really a thing. What we are actually doing are quick switches between tasks. And this switching can drain us. This depletes our cognitive energy, delays our return to focused attention on our original task, and makes us feel stressed and exhausted.
In our quest to be more productive by trying to do more, we are actually becoming exhausted and doing less.
So what’s an overachiever to do? Are there ways to organize our activities that maximize productivity by dialing down the complexity?
Maybe the Pomodoro Technique can help.
What Is the Pomodoro Technique?
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management framework where you focus on one task for 25 minutes, followed by a 5 minute break.
Named after Francesco Cirillo (who was a university student at the time) because he used a tomato-shaped timer (and pomodoro is the word for tomato in Italian), the method works like this:
Determine your task/tasks
Create a work environment free of distractions and set a time
Work for 25 minutes and break for 5
Repeat up to 4 times
Take a longer (around 20 minutes) break
Does the Pomodoro Technique Actually Work?
Why might this work for us to boost productivity in the land of the knowledge worker? We have a few insights from research:
The technique harnesses breaks instead of working against them. Breaks actually help us be more productive and keep us on task. We’ve all had an experience of focusing on a task and then our attention starts to waver. This can help us get a moment of refreshment and research has shown that this can then refocus our attention.
Breaking up a task with moments of movement can help increase circulation to the brain and make you feel energized and improve focus (another endorsement for a break!).
The shorter interval between work (25 minutes) and reward (a 5 minute break) can help to build motivation through more immediate rewards. No more waiting for Friday night!
The technique actively helps you to limit distractions: instead of seeing messages as they pop up, you can see them all at once (when you choose to) and more effectively triage and prioritize.
It prevents analysis paralysis by putting a gentle time limit on the question at hand. Plus, it beat’s Parkinson’s law (the idea that your work expands to fill the time available - and why a 15 minute meeting seems to take the full 30 minutes anyway!) by putting guardrails in your schedule.
Did a 30 minute meeting just get canceled in your calendar? Instead of feeling panicked to accomplish everything in that time, just pick one thing and focus on it for 25 minutes (and then celebrate with your 5 minutes break!).
As we move away from the factory model of work to the knowledge economy, maybe one thing we can keep is the idea of simplifying and focusing efforts on one task at a time.
There are other techniques out there (ex. Flowtime, Ultradian Rhythm, etc.) so be sure to find the one that works for you, but the point is clear - you can be more productive with more focus, and you can cultivate more focus through planning, time management, and minimizing distractions.
With the utmost efficiency,
