--- 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://christine.website/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) <style type="text/css"> @font-face { font-family: ElianWideCapsLight; src: url('/static/font/ElianWideCapitalsLight.woff'), url('/static/font/ElianWideCapitalsLight.otf'), url('/static/font/ElianWideCapitalsLight.ttf') ; font-weight: normal; } .ewcl { font-family: ElianWideCapsLight, sans-serif; } @font-face { font-family: FordShorthand; src: url('/static/font/shorthand.woff'), url('/static/font/shorthand.ttf') ; font-weight: normal; } .ford { font-family: FordShorthand; } </style> [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