pomodoro-technique-illustrated--the-easy-way-to-do-more-in-less-time

by Staffan Nöteberg

Do you ever look at the clock and wonder where the day went? You spent all this time at work and didn't come close to getting everything done. Tomorrow try something new. Use the Pomodoro Technique to work in focused sprints throughout the day. In "Pomodoro Technique Illustrated," Staffan N teberg shows you how to organize your work to accomplish more in less time. There's no need for expensive software or fancy planners. You can get started with nothing more than a piece of paper, a pencil, and a kitchen timer. You have so much you need to accomplish today. Your list is a mile long and you find yourself getting interrupted every other minute. You'd like to tell everyone to leave you alone, but most of the interruptions are coming from you! You think of a phone call you need to make or a web site you need to check and before you know it you're answering email, checking twitter, and finding a million other things to occupy your time. You need to focus---really focus. The Pomodoro Technique puts you back in charge of your day. You'll apply successful techniques from software engineering to identify what you should be doing today and to help you achieve your goals. Your mind won't wander when it is fully engaged in short bursts of focused activity. Learn to work less and accomplish more using nothing more than paper, pencil, and a simple kitchen timer. Set the timer and start on your next Pomodoro. When the bell rings take a break. This personal approach to timeboxing is at the core of the Pomodoro technique and this book is filled with advice on how get started and how to tailor it to your own needs.

Genres: Productivity, Nonfiction, Self Help, Personal Development, Business, Management, Psychology

Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Elf M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Pomodoro Technique - Illustrated is one of those self-help books of which I am excessively fond, seeing as it's all about turning yourself into a productivity machine and not wasting your life away. This books is called "The Pomodoro Technique - Illustrated," because it's basically a re-write, with amateurish crayon drawings, of Francesco Cirillo's 1990s chapbook, "The Pomodoro Technique," which is available online, as a PDF, under a Creative Commons license, downloadable for free.

Which more or less makes this book worthless.

It's not a bad book, mind you. There are the silly illustrations, and an ill-fated attempt to meld mind-mapping with a sound and well-known time management technique, and really ridiculous dialogues at the beginning of each chapter, but the basics are sound. There are just so many better guides out there. If you've never encountered personal time management for projects before, this book will help, and probably won't hurt.

But everything in it can be gotten for free elsewhere. Zen Habits is a good place to start, and won't cost you $24.95. Harvard Business Review has a good series of books, starting with "Managing Yourself."

All I can say is, be thankful for public libraries.

[Erika RS · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pomodoro Technique is a system for increasing productivity devised by Francesco Cirillo. The basic idea behind this technique is so simple that you might wonder why anyone would need to read a book about it. To use the Pomodoro technique, get some sort of timer, set it for 25 minutes and start working. During that 25 minutes, your goal is to concentrate on that task and only that task. If you succeed, make a mark on the day's activity sheet. If you fail, the Pomodoro is void.

After the 25 minute work period, take a 3-5 minute break. After the short break, come up for air and decide whether or not the task you were working on is still the most important thing to do. Decide on the next task, and repeat. After 4 Pomodoros, take a longer 15-30 minute break (all numbers are adjustable, but these are suggested as good starting points).

Given such a basic system, why bother reading a book? Noteberg's book has three additional pieces of value: it presents hypotheses for why the technique and the default values work well, it discusses how to take this technique to the next level by adding recording, planning, and estimating steps, and it shares ideas for how to modify the technique to your own working conditions.

None of this information is hard to find. You can download Cirillo's book for free, but I found that book to be a bit dense and boring. Noteberg's treatment has more filler (each page is half picture), but is far more entertaining.

I have been using the Pomodoro technique for several weeks now, and I find that it really helps to increase my productivity. Forcing myself to concentrate on one task for 25 minutes gets rid of all of those times when I would "quickly" check email or websites and find that 15 minutes had passed. Now, if I am waiting for something to compile, I do something related to the task at hand: plan the next step, update the relevant bug, write documentation, etc.

Breaking work into 25 minute increments reduces the productivity lost to meetings. Now, instead of thinking, "I only have an hour until the next meeting. I won't get anything useful done, so I may as well just check email", I see that I have an hour and think, "Two Pomodoros? Great! I'll use the first one to get some work done and the second one to prep for the meeting."

Reducing the randomization in my day and increasing the value of the time I spend working has had noticeable positive impact on my productivity.

The Pomodoro technique is complementary to other techniques, such as Getting Things Done or Getting Results the Agile Way (website). These systems work at a higher level than the Pomodoro technique. The main concern of these systems is how to manage the tasks that you need to get done. They help you deal with the information coming in, organize and prioritize it, and decide what to do at any given moment. What these systems don't do is help you actually be productive when you choose what to work on. The Pomodoro Technique can fill that gap or it can be used without any larger system surrounding.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a clearer, much more coherent and systematic version of PDF, that's written by Cirillo himself. Apart from the illustrations, it adds some interesting information on how the brain works and why the Pomodoro method is effective from the scientific perspective. In the end, it adds some advise of how to adjust method for your needs. The adjustment I loved most was using cards and writing your Active Inventory on them instead of a standart list.
The technique itself is quite effective and simple - I advice everyone to use it, or at least try.

[Sergei_kalinin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень достойно! Чем лучше профессионал, тем больше "тонкостей" он может написать о самой простой вещи - даже такой, как "помидорный тайм-менеджмент")))

Развернутая рецензия (+полезные ссылки) в моем блоге: http://s-kalinin.blogspot.ru/2013/05/...

[Helio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to follow yet completed coverage on the topic. Extra points for pitfalls FAQ (using within a team; interruptions and mindmaps/inbox management). Highly recommended even for those who's already a Pomodoro's practitioner.

[Ilya Ivanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary
This book answered all of my questions regarding "What in the world do you do besides 25/5 cycles?".

Actual review
Nice one. Turned out much better than my first impression after reading table of contents.

As Pomodoro Technique itself is quite simple, there are a lot of common questions regarding it and this book lays nice answers for most of them. Staffan goes from very general ideas on how the brain works, why we procrastinate, what types of anxieties exist, why should we work only on a single task, etc. Then, he moves on how it's better to implement practice (mechanics), so that we can address all the key factors reducing our productivity.

Last chapters cover estimation, adoption Pomodoro to your own needs and desires, how to work within the teams.

After reading this book I will definitely stick to classic, unchanged Pomodoro Technique for 2 weeks, then reflect. This won't be my first attempt in adopting Pomodoro, but clearly now I see much better how to manage my tasks, interruptions, when and what to record and how to process these metrics.

[Dun Yang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction. I like the part on reviewing the lessons learnt for the day behind the To Do Day sheet at the end of day. It feels kind of like doing a Today I Learned sort of exercise.

[Marcel Richter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sehr coole Tipps um mehr zu erledigen.

[David Workman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book detailing a very interesting time-management technique.

This book acts as a very good introduction to the pomodoro technique and some of the reasons and theories as to why it works and is so effective. For those that haven't come across it, the pomodoro technique is a technique for time-management and focussing that suggests that the way to increase focus is to timebox your periods of intense focus into very short intervals (e.g. 25 minutes) and to use a timer (e.g. a tomato shaped kitchen timer) to ensure that you don't overrun your timebox. This very simple idea is explored in detail, along with the record keeping and task tracking aspects to ensure you are focussing on important tasks.

The book itself has a lot of illustrations, as you'd expect from a book with 'illustrated' in the title. It is also bootstrapping off the pomodoro technique in its writing style as the book is structured around very small sections that you can focus on for a few minutes, digest in a short break and then continue on the next section.

This book is very good for a beginner to both pomodoro and psychology. If you have a grounding in psychology then you will probably find the 'pop-psychology' aspects of the book simplistic and cluttering. For those that are new to both fields though, the explanations and descriptions are engaging and aimed at a simple enough level that a beginner can understand them and start using the technique usefully in a very short period of time.

[Ahmad Hossam · Rating 3 out of 5]

أولى قراءات 2017
الكتاب يشرح "تقنية الطماطم" لتنظيم الوقت (سميت بهذا الاسم لأن المؤلف كان ينظم وقته باستخدام منبه على شكل طماطم)

التقنية باختصار هي أن تعمل ل 25 دقيقة متواصلة دون فقدان للتركيز لأي سبب، ثم تستريح 5 دقائق، وهذه الوحدة تدعى حبة طماطم
وكل 4 حبات تستريح لمدة نصف ساعة

ولكن هذا التنظيم وحده لا يكفي لضمان فعاليتك، عليك أيضًا أن تخطط في بداية اليوم ما هي أهم أولوياتك، وكم حبة ستخصص لكل منها وأن تلتزم قدر المستطاع.
وفي نهاية اليوم ترصد مقدار ما أكملته، وكم حبة أمضيتها بتركيز دون أي مشتتات داخلية أو خارجية، وتقارن ذلك بتوقعاتك في أول اليوم.
ومن خلال هذا التحليل تحسن توقعاتك في الأيام التالية وهكذا، بحيث يكون تنظيمك لوقتك قائم على أسس علمية.

التقنية ممتازة، وفعالة بدرجة كبيرة لأني أعاني منذ فترة من التشتت بسبب مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي
ولكني أجد مشكلة في الراحة ل 5 دقائق فقط، ربما ينقصني الانضباط بعض الشئ ولكن سأحاول الالتزام ولو لأسبوع أو اثنين وأقارن الفارق
5 نجوم وأكثر

أما الكتاب فهو عرض لها، الجزء الأول بعض الأفكار عن طريقة عمل المخ كان يمكن الاستغناء عنه، وكذلك الجزء الأخير المتعلق بتنظيم الوقت في جماعة لم أعتبره مفيدًا.
العنوان مضلل فهو ليس "مصورًا" وإنما كتاب عادي مرفق ببعض الرسومات (السيئة).
الفائدة الحقيقية هي في التقنية نفسها وتقسيمها فصولا قصيرة لفهم كافة جوانبها وكيفية التعامل مع المشتتات وما إلى ذلك.

كان من الممكن أن يكون أقصر وأوفى
3 نجوم للكتاب

[Ajith Warrier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Focus on a particular task for 25 min, break for a few minutes. Keep a timer and a count of these 25-minute units (called pomodoro here). Useful and effective!

[Stefan Kanev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting technique, presented in an inspiring fashion. It might take me some time to implement, but it made me enthusiastic about doing it.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book of practical tips and theory behind the pomodoro productivity technique.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the method and I'm going to give it a try. I've been using the 25 minute timer to be more productive, but the entire process with time for planning and then end of the day reflection makes it most effective. Felt personally called out by "Inbox to Zero" haha Ready to tackle an email clean up. I'll add it to my "To Do Today" list tomorrow. =)

My favorite quotes I want to remember:
"The mental state characterized by the following properties is known as flow: Clear goals, concentration and focus, a loss of the feeling of self consciousness, a distorted sense of time, direct and immediate feedback, balance between ability level and challenge, a sense of personal control, intrinsically rewarding, the merging of action and awareness. Flow is a state of creativity. Wouldn’t it be highly effective to always have flow? No it wouldn’t. Flow is not compatible with overview. Creativity is not compatible with real control. For example now and then I want to see the big picture and make strategic decisions about the activity that I will dedicate myself to during my Next flow. Before I enter a flow., I want to wind up a timer that later wakes me up so I can temporarily put on my strategy hat and see the big picture. Then I’ll go back to float again. It’s rhythm. Also bear in mind that the prospectives for getting into the flow are much better when you are rested, seated, and focused than when you are just hanging around waiting for inspiration."

"There are three outstanding sources of procrastination: 1. that other people force you to do something against your will, 2. your own pressure for making a perfect performance, 3. fear of making mistakes or receiving criticism….. Procrastination feels like a reward. It gives you temporary relief from stress. Remember that stress comes from the inside, and the cure is to find a starting point for your project."

"I never accidentally glance through my email inbox in the middle of a pomodoro dedicated to some other activity. When, however, I have planned to read and act on my emails then I apply the Inbox to Zero principle. David Allen describes it as a three step process: 1. Start from the top, 2. Take one thing at a time, 3. Never put something back into the inbox.
I think about the next action for every new email. If it takes a minute or less to answer, then I’ll do it immediately. If I can delegate it further, then I delegate it right now. When I know it’s an activity that I will do but that takes a little longer, then I don’t start it now. I write the item on my activity inventory sheet, move the email to an archive folder, and mentally drop the activity. Activities that I can’t do because I need information from other people are similar to the delegated activities. I’ll send the request to that person and then move the email to an archive folder. I also always think about whether I will benefit from this email in the future. Otherwise, I delete it immediately. Loads of emails that will never lead to any action creates information overflow. It hides the emails that are new, that are important and that really require action. "

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read and basic introduction to the Pomodoro Technique. I do not recommend reading this on a kindle. The illustrations are hard to see and black and white. I accidentally bought the actual book because I forgot that I had borrowed the kindle version from my library, and the paper format's illustrations are easy to read and in full color.

The narrative is a bit verbose, with little stories to assist the teaching of the method, but I found them to be less helpful than the explanation of the method. However, the explanation was light on helpful content - a method was explained very quickly and I'm not sure I understood all of the terminology.

That said, I've played what I call "The Timer Game" to help me accomplish tasks I usually avoid. My version is 15 minutes on/15 minutes off. It's useful for tasks at home, but not as useful for work tasks. The Pomodoro Technique is more structured, starting with an Activity Inventory, or what I call the Master Task List. From there, you write out a Daily Task list with an estimate on how many Pomodoros the task will require. Working from your Daily Task list, you use pomodoros to accomplish the tasks. After a certain amount of Pomodoros, you get a longer break. But you always take a break after a 25 minute Pomodoro. At the end of the day, you record how many Pomodoros you achieved, and some other information but that part of the book was a little vague. You also compare how many Pomodoros it took to complete a task to how many you estimated it would take. That helps you make better estimates in the future. There was a lot of discussion about how to deal with and minimize interruptions.

This is enough to help me adapt my Timer Game to my work. I like the estimate and evaluate techniques, which is something I never did while playing the Timer Game. I'm not sure I like the idea of using a mechanical timer. I tried it and the ticking is distracting. But I'm easily distracted by any ambient sound, so I'll probably just use my phone timer and possibly the Freedom app if I find myself unable to complete a full Pomodoro because I'm distracting myself with social media or news.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Effective than I thought it would be

I've heard about Pomodoro for years but never really looked into it because it just sounded so obvious... You set a timer and work until time's up. Duh. That's how we've all been doing things since our moms set the kitchen timer and told us we had to sit there and work until it went off. Nothing revolutionary about that.

But it's a few details that for me made all the difference and I didn't understand those details until I read this book. One is that a Pomodoro is atomic. For any non-science people that means that if you try to break it into a smaller piece, it explodes. This helped me immensely with getting things done. Zero interruptions allowed because that would explode the Pomodoro, which helps me focus for the whole time. My kids really took to this concept and finally stopped interrupting when I work from home. I use a Time Timer so they can see if I'm in a Pomodoro and not "explode" it.

Another concept that helped me immensely was gauging success not on how much I produce but how many Pomodori I complete. It makes sense that if I'm maintaining really focused work, I can feel successful even if I'm not finished. This has been revolutionary for me. I hate doing my computer work. I've discovered it takes me about 4 Pomodori to complete a week's worth of my least favorite task. I always felt drained by how long it can take. And some parts take longer than others and then I get discouraged. Now I just focus on completing those 4 Pomodori and with each one I feel proud of myself for focusing that long.

I'd recommend this book to someone who isn't sure if the Pomodoro technique is for you... Because it might be!

[Harry Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about the Pomodoro technique from Learning to Learn on Coursera. There are some good contents. However, the book is too long to my taste considering that I can summarize the gist in a few sentences.

In addition to setting a 25-min timer I learned before, the most beneficial things I have learned is to create a To Do Today list and an Inventory list. Put everything I want to do in the Inventory list. For each day, drag items from the Inventory list to the To Do Today list. This is a very powerful and useful idea for me personally. After I apply this method, I find myself focus my attention more on things with high priority. I am less stressed by the amount to work waiting for me since I only fix my attention on a few items in the To Do Today list.

The second thing I learned is that during the 5 min break between the Pomodoro sessions, I need to really relax such as lying on the bed or sofa instead of watching my phone and just sit.

Another good point from the book is to do a reflection on how I spend my time at the end of each day. This also sounds like a good idea since I can learn and improve from my own experience.

[HDubbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pomodoro method is on of my favorite ways to get things done. I use it everyday at work at do feel that I get more done in less time. That being said....

This book is totally unnecessary. To do the Pomodoro Method all you need to do is set a timer for 25 minutes work during this time without interruption. Set the timer for 5 minutes and take a break. Repeat 3 more times. Then take a long break of about 15 minutes. If you want to ease into it, because you’re a sever procrastinator then just adjust the work timer to 10 minutes and slowly work your way up. There are plenty of great apps for the pomodoro method as well, which track the amount of time worked.

That’s all the pomodoro method is. There’s no reason to read a book about it. Just try it.

[Anton Antonov · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a compliment to the namesake Pomodoro book I read and reviewed back in 2014, this one is also one I read back then for a more in-depth opinion on the topic. Pomodoro's review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

Now, about “Pomodoro Technique Illustrated.” Just like the original one, where I was gifted a Pomodoro timer by a friend, to this date, 10 years later, I was excited to try out the technique and have some visualizations at hand.

Unfortunately, the illustrated retelling of Pomodoro is very, very pointless if you’ve read the original book. Just read the original one.

There's not much to dwell on. The chapters are a picture and a few sentences that are a retell. Suppose that works for you, great. I think it's redundant. :))

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, not sure why it was "illustrated", other than to give a quirk and simple look to the book. like how it acko=nowledges that it isn't adding much to teh self helpo world but a few techinques. Having down some value mapping (really just process mapping) at work I don't think I need the structure of 25-minute blocks. I've been doing that in longer time periods already and if it gets taken up by a meeting then I either lose the time that day or get a smaller amount of time. Malcolm Gladwell is always a win, will try some of the priority setting techniques and turn off my email and phone more often.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

实践番茄工作法断断续续也有一两年，仍处于入门阶段。今天第一次把原作者的著作看完，有了一些新的收获。

精华部分都在“法则”仅一页的内容里，自然不用赘述。我自己值得精进的地方在于：

就像记账熟练之后要学会做预算一样，时间管理到后期也要会做估测。自己对某天、某个任务有多少个番茄时间、会��到多少个番茄时间，在心里有一把秤。
如果只是把它用作集中注意力的方法，当然也很好，但是就失去了提高个人时间管理能力的潜力。
难怪我重度拖延症呢……
除了估测，还有就是回顾。就像做收支预算是为了回过头来评估自己的开支方便，好做长期打算一样，时间管理也得把时间当作金钱来统计回顾。好在现在手机上很多同类型软件，找个趁手的长期使用下去吧。

还有就是仪式感特别重要。包括两个方面：可视化、手动化。

可视化是说能通过图表直观看到自己对时间的使用记录。

手动化是指不要用一个番茄时间结束后自动开始循环的那种功能，必须手去点一下。这个动作会给人心理暗示。
最后就是怎么组合和切割，书里已经给了答案：

如果活动预计所花时间不够一个番茄时间，把类似活动累积起来。

如果任务预计要花超过5到7个番茄时间，将它分解开来

最后：在休息时候继续想着工作，这就不是真正的休息。

[ferdinandliebtluise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eine Technik, die mein Leben verändert hat! Intuitiv, ohne sie zu kennen, habe ich sie bei meiner Bachelorarbeit verwendet. Die Bachelorarbeit war eine 1,2! 😍🥰 Noch Fragen?! Nun vor meiner Masterarbejt bin ich über dieses Buch gestolpert und habe mich belesen. Ich liebe diese Technik und ich komme an eine Effizienz heran, die ich vorher nie erreicht habe. Danke Staffan Nöteberg für diese tolle Ausarbeitung und vor allem für die wunderbaren Zeichnungen. Genau das richtige für chaotische Genies 🧞‍♀️ 🥰

[Jan David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book as an easy-to-read refresher on the Pomodoro Technique. I’ve always been interested in the technique, and experimented with it a few times. But the practice never stuck, and I felt like I was missing an important aspect beyond just setting a timer.

This book introduces daily plans and reviews as artifacts around the Pomodoros, which make it possible to continuously monitor performance and make adjustments to one’s planning or execution. It’s the self-reflection that I was missing, and I can’t wait to give Pomodoro another try now.

[Дмитрий Давыдов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Довольно короткая книга, читается легко. Рассматривает метод помидора в деталях, выходящих за рамки "поставить таймер на 25 минут/сделать перерыв на 5 минут". Здесь рассказано и о ведении статистики, и о том, как она может пригодится, и даже о том, как можно попытаться адаптировать метод помидора для работы в команде. А в целом, после прочтения становится понятно, что данный метод - не только действенный способ сфокусироваться, но ещё и полноценная методика каждодневной работы, позволяющая оценивать и планировать задачи в терминах "помидоров"

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book has a lot of filler, but in the end the advice is good and I have found the Pomodoro technique very helpful. I'm naturally organized, but I don't have the best attention span sometimes. Using the timer helps me focus and it's not so bad when you know there is a break right around the corner. I really surprised myself a few times with the amount of work I could get done in 25 minutes when I wasn't distracted. I would recommend this to anyone interested in time management.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 2 out of 5]

A guide for better time management.

The idea of allotting twenty five minute blocks of time to tasks seem quite appealing, but I suspect that it will only work for people that organised in the first place. The illustrations were a bit poor and there were a lot of sections that came across as a bit pointless, plus seeing some of the comments on this site I'll probably look up the original book on which this one is based.

Reading time around ninety minutes.

[Nathan Holiday · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a simple book, but very effective. Ignore the drawings, and the dialogues -- focus on the substance. Lots of wisdom distilled in here from sources like the Now Habit and others in the productivity world. Use it as reference when you get stuck -- or feel like your work session quality could use a little bump.

[Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief introduction of pomodoro technique, an approach for time management. This approach can help people to better focus on the tasks by segment the time into chunks and let the people to focus on one task in each chunk.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick read that does a great job introducing the Pomodoro technique and gives some insider hints from someone you can tell has been a practitioner for quite awhile. I definitely plan on rereading this one once I have some more personal experience with Pomodoro.

[Russ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good intro to Pomodoro

Hands on learning guide to Pomodoro Technique for getting things done. Could be difficult to implement at institutions resistant to change. Probably some techniques applicable to anyone