Eat that Frog with a Pomodoro
Eat that Frog with a Pomodoro
In this course, I came across this Pomodoro technique which is basically a way to track the time you invested in doing work. I found it quite interesting so I decide to use this technique in completing my next online course which was Creating Resume.
So the next day I set my laptop with the charger connected and nothing to take notes because I was planning to use Google keep for this purpose. I set an alarm of 25 minutes and started the course. I was very much engrossed in the course when my phone pinged and I was going to see whether it is important or not, but then I suddenly remembered that I have to fight distractions. I opted to ignore the notification and continued my course. When the alarm went off after 25 minutes I took a break of 2 minutes and checked my phone for the notification. After checking the notification’s source I was happy that I choose to ignore it because it was an advertisement email notification.
I started again by setting an alarm for 25 minutes and busied myself in the course and amazing DIY activity. This time surprisingly I did not face any distractions which in my case is really wonderful because I am used to saying for myself is that I’m full of distractions. I took another 2 minutes break when my alarm went off. I set the alarm for the third time again for 25 minutes. Before the alarm went off this time I was quite happy because I had completed the first section of the course and I don’t think that I would have completed the task at the same time if I had not tried to apply the POMODORO technique. After this, I wanted to have a bigger break then decided to go against my wish and started the next 25 minutes cycle. Later this decision of mine proved to be a blessing in disguise for me as I was able to complete the next 2 sections of the course before the alarm went off. And because it was the fourth time I was allowed to take a bigger break, of 15 minutes, than the previous breaks.
In this break, I started scrolling Instagram which was not an intelligent decision because when I came back to start my course I had already spent 30 minutes scrolling. I was quite disheartened and sad about what I did but then I thought it's alright to do mistakes but it’s not good to learn nothing from them. I started the next section with more determination and resolve and set an alarm of 25 minutes again. I repeated the same process once more and I was done with my course. I was quite happy because I never thought it will take much less time to complete the course.
It was my first time doing any task with such a short time range and I was quite worried about the task completion but then I thought why not I try something new and see what I learn from this. The main challenge I faced is also my major distraction, during these 3 hours, which is random and useless social media scrolling. I am not implying that social media can’t be used in an effective way but in these breaks I was not able to use social media for my benefit. Whenever I glanced towards my phone it felt like it is calling to me and it is missing me quite desperately. It wanted me to play with it like a spoiled youngest child who weeps until you leave your work and carry him and play with him.
I believe we have effective learning when we face challenges. So this challenge also taught me something. I learned to forgive myself for the mistakes I can commit unintentionally because it’s human nature to make mistakes. So what can we do is instead of feeling guilty and wasting more time lamenting and criticizing ourselves why not start with more determination and resolve and work more efficiently. I also learned that having yourself confined with deadlines might open a different portal of your brain for creativity and you might end up doing the task assigned differently and more creatively.
So after this excellent experience with the POMODORO technique, I decided to use this for further tasks too. But running with the clock the whole day didn’t sound quite a brilliant idea so after consideration, I decided to do at least one task a day which I find difficult and time-consuming to be done using this method. The steps I will be taking would firstly place my phone upside down in a separate room and arrange my things related to tasks in a separate room. This way I will be able to avoid my major distraction. And during my bigger breaks, I will be checking my phone for important notifications but with a timer of 15 minutes. This way I will be able to get maximum work done in less time and increased chances to learn more new things to utilize the time I saved.
