---
title: How I Pomodoro
date: 2022-02-19
author: sephiraloveboo
---

Recently I've started to work the
[Pomodoro](https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique) technique into
my workflow. I've been trying to use it on and off for years, but it's never
really stuck until now. 

My work laptop uses KDE, so I tried out
[Fokus](https://store.kde.org/p/1308861/) as a pomodoro timer on a lark. I've
really liked this. I think one of the major differences between how I've been
failing at pomodoro in the past and why it's been working now is that I've
worked it into my [daily note-taking/TODO
workflow](https://xeiaso.net/blog/gtd-on-paper-2021-06-13). I label each
pomodoro (my notes call them "Pom" because that isn't something I write often in
them) as a section in my notes and then include a few TODO items under it. I'll
also add some notes to the pom in case I need them later.

Here is an example of one such pomodoro section:

![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/photo_2022-02-19_08-32-13.jpg)

[What the heck are those scribbles? Those look like sick
noodles!](conversation://Numa/delet)

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[I've been taking notes in <a
href="https://greggshorthand.github.io/index.html">Gregg Shorthand</a> for
almost 6 months now. I do that mostly to have a way to write things in my notes
in such a way that onlookers can't easily see what is going on in them. It is
similar to using something like <span class="ewcl">Elian Script</span> or <span
class="ford">Ford Improved Shorthand</span> for taking notes, but the main
difference is that Gregg is _phonetic_, so things will end up translating out
like this:](conversation://Cadey/enby)

```markdown
Pom 1: Blog
+ write
* webfonts are strange
```

[Even though things literally say something like
this:](conversation://Cadey/enby)

```markdown
Pom 1: Blag
+ rait
* webfonts ar stranj
```

[Semantically, it has the same meaning as the first
segment.](conversation://Cadey/enby)

Most of the time I end up getting 7-9 pomodoros done in a single workday. This
translates to about 3 and a third hours of full focus time in a single workday
and the rest of the time is used communicating with others, in meetings, on
pomodoro breaks, incident response and other annoying life overhead. 

[If you are new to the industry, this kind of admission that less than half of
someone's workday is spent doing directly productive work can sound _really
weird_, but this is actually on the higher end of the spectrum from what we've
been able to research.](conversation://Mara/hacker)

The other major important part of the pomodoro technique is frequent breaks
after every focus session. During the shorter breaks I'll play a short song in
[Beat Saber](https://youtu.be/q2iRL6Ef8hI) as a way to reset focus and create a
new flow state to lead me into the next focus session. Usually it also helps to
work on something else in the next focus session to force myself into a
different mode of thinking, but sometimes I only really have one major
outstanding task at once.

I have been getting a lot better at estimating how long something will take for
me to do as a result of this (is this one of those neurotypical things that I've
not gotten the manual on and thus have had to relearn totally from scratch?),
but I do not feel comfortable sharing my estimates with anyone else yet.

I am definitly going to continue with this experiment. I haven't found a
suitable pomodoro timer for Gnome yet, though I haven't looked too much. I've
been trying to reserve pomodoro for my dayjob, but I may integrate it into
[streams](https://twitch.tv/princessxen) as integrated breaks to talk about
something else for a moment.

Overall though, I've been liking this technique. It makes me feel like I have
gotten things done even when my workday doesn't end up with any completed pull
requests or something like that. I can look back at the note for the day and say
"yeah, I did things".

If you are looking for some pomodoro software, here's a little table of things
that I've been liking:

| OS/Desktop Environment | Link                                                                                                           |
| :--                    | :----                                                                                                          |
| Windows                | [PowerPom](https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/powerpom-pomodoro-timer/9p5zscl5qc8w?activetab=pivot:overviewtab) |
| KDE                    | [Fokus](https://store.kde.org/p/1308861/)                                                                      |

Post writing time: 2 poms