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Boost Your Productivity with a Tomato

By on March 8, 2010

So, it’s Monday morning and, if you’re like most pastors, you’re facing the holy hangover.  What you need right now is some way to help you face the day.  You need something that will help you focus and boost your productivity.  Above all, you need a plastic tomato timer.

What?  You don’t understand why you’d need a tomato timer?  Well, you’ll need it to help you implement the Pomodoro Technique.  This technique was invented by Francesco Cirillo in 1992 and it’s practiced by professional teams and individuals around the world.

The technique itself is pretty straight forward.  Here’s a quick summary…

The basic unit of work in the Pomodoro Technique™ can be split in five simple steps:

  1. Choose a task to be accomplished
  2. Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
  3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper
  4. Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
  5. Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break

I’ve used similar techniques in the past and I can tell you that they work.  Interestingly, these approaches also help people that deal with procrastination.  One of the biggest issues for procrastinators is just getting started a lot of times and the ability to tell yourself that you’re only going to do it for 25 minutes seems to help clear that hurdle.

For those of you that don’t like tomatoes or don’t own a tomato timer (sad), there’s good news.  The folks over at Focusboosterapp.com are here to help!  Their Adobe Air app is free and will install on either macs or PCs.  This app floats on top of your screen and alerts you when your 25 minutes are up.  It’s great.  Not sure you want to install the app?  No problem.  They also have a web based version for you to try without installing anything.

Why not try the Pomodoro Technique today and let us know below how it works for you?  (TIP:  It the technique doesn’t help you get over your holy hangover you could try some Red Bull.)

LINKS

The Pomodoro Technique: This site explains it all.  You can download a free book about the technique here.  The site even sells special tomato timers!

The Focusbooster App (Adobe Air Version)

The Focusbooster App (Online Version)

Allons-y!

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