125 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
125 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: How I Pomodoro
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date: 2022-02-19
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author: sephiraloveboo
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---
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Recently I've started to work the
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[Pomodoro](https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique) technique into
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my workflow. I've been trying to use it on and off for years, but it's never
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really stuck until now.
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My work laptop uses KDE, so I tried out
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[Fokus](https://store.kde.org/p/1308861/) as a pomodoro timer on a lark. I've
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really liked this. I think one of the major differences between how I've been
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failing at pomodoro in the past and why it's been working now is that I've
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worked it into my [daily note-taking/TODO
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workflow](https://christine.website/blog/gtd-on-paper-2021-06-13). I label each
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pomodoro (my notes call them "Pom" because that isn't something I write often in
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them) as a section in my notes and then include a few TODO items under it. I'll
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also add some notes to the pom in case I need them later.
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Here is an example of one such pomodoro section:
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TODO(Sephie): get screenshot of this from apple notes after pom 1 is over
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[What the heck are those scribbles? Those look like sick
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noodles!](conversation://Numa/delet)
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<style type="text/css">
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@font-face {
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font-family: ElianWideCapsLight;
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src: url('/static/font/ElianWideCapitalsLight.woff'),
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url('/static/font/ElianWideCapitalsLight.otf'),
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url('/static/font/ElianWideCapitalsLight.ttf')
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;
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font-weight: normal;
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}
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.ewcl {
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font-family: ElianWideCapsLight, sans-serif;
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}
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@font-face {
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font-family: FordShorthand;
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src: url('/static/font/shorthand.woff'),
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url('/static/font/shorthand.ttf')
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;
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font-weight: normal;
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}
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.ford {
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font-family: FordShorthand;
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}
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</style>
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[I've been taking notes in <a
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href="https://greggshorthand.github.io/index.html">Gregg Shorthand</a> for
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almost 6 months now. I do that mostly to have a way to write things in my notes
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in such a way that onlookers can't easily see what is going on in them. It is
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similar to using something like <span class="ewcl">Elian Script</span> or <span
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class="ford">Ford Improved Shorthand</span> for taking notes, but the main
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difference is that Gregg is _phonetic_, so things will end up translating out
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like this:](conversation://Cadey/enby)
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```markdown
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Pom 1: Blog
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+ write
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* webfonts are strange
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```
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[Even though things literally say something like
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this:](conversation://Cadey/enby)
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```markdown
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Pom 1: Blag
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+ rait
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* webfonts ar stranj
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```
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[Semantically, it has the same meaning as the first
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segment.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
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Most of the time I end up getting 7-9 pomodoros done in a single workday. This
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translates to about 3 and a third hours of full focus time in a single workday
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and the rest of the time is used communicating with others, in meetings, on
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pomodoro breaks, incident response and other annoying life overhead.
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[If you are new to the industry, this kind of admission that less than half of
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someone's workday is spent doing directly productive work can sound _really
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weird_, but this is actually on the higher end of the spectrum from what we've
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been able to research.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
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The other major important part of the pomodoro technique is frequent breaks
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after every focus session. During the shorter breaks I'll play a short song in
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[Beat Saber](https://youtu.be/q2iRL6Ef8hI) as a way to reset focus and create a
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new flow state to lead me into the next focus session. Usually it also helps to
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work on something else in the next focus session to force myself into a
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different mode of thinking, but sometimes I only really have one major
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outstanding task at once.
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I have been getting a lot better at estimating how long something will take for
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me to do as a result of this (is this one of those neurotypical things that I've
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not gotten the manual on and thus have had to relearn totally from scratch?),
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but I do not feel comfortable sharing my estimates with anyone else yet.
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I am definitly going to continue with this experiment. I haven't found a
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suitable pomodoro timer for Gnome yet, though I haven't looked too much. I've
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been trying to reserve pomodoro for my dayjob, but I may integrate it into
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[streams](https://twitch.tv/princessxen) as integrated breaks to talk about
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something else for a moment.
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Overall though, I've been liking this technique. It makes me feel like I have
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gotten things done even when my workday doesn't end up with any completed pull
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requests or something like that. I can look back at the note for the day and say
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"yeah, I did things".
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If you are looking for some pomodoro software, here's a little table of things
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that I've been liking:
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| OS/Desktop Environment | Link |
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| :-- | :---- |
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| Windows | [PowerPom](https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/powerpom-pomodoro-timer/9p5zscl5qc8w?activetab=pivot:overviewtab) |
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| KDE | [Fokus](https://store.kde.org/p/1308861/) |
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Post writing time: 2 poms
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