Qaiser Mazhar
Employees have pressure to perform at work
Skilled workers need to concentrate on tasks
Ego depletion
Procrastination
Open plan offices
Multi tasking
Day to day distractions
Unhappy workforce
Stress
Sick days
Burnout
Long hours/Low productivity
David Allen
Core concept: break tasks down into actions and store them in an organized fashion outside of your brain
Grouping actions by contexts allows you to be more productive by batching similar tasks
Storing planned actions enables your brainpower to be spent on more important things
Image credit: http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/episodes/2976-After-the-Jump-Episode-16-Finding-Your-Voice-with-Amy-Azzarito
Break your tasks down into small prioritized chunks Razor sharp focus for 25 minutes Don’t check mails, Facebook etc Indicate to others you are in a pomodoro If things come up, log them as tasks and continue your
work 5 minute break time Try not to do more work during your break (this is
sometimes difficult to achieve) Reprioritise new tasks and enter the next pomodoro Celebrate 4 successful pomodoros with a longer 15 break Try to stretch your legs and rest your eyes
Similar to agile on a nano scale
Breaking down your tasks aid creativity and understanding
Small tasks eliminate procrastination
Timeboxing of difficult tasks
Quickly raise issues/concerns
Avoid burnout and other unhealthy side effects
Predictable structure to your day helps to develop good work and personal habits
Ticking off tasks gives you a frequent sense of achievement
Brilliant way to equally share driving time
Pomodoro fun builds good team bonds
Upfront clarity on paired task
Non-driving pair remains completely engaged
Use tokens to signal to other pairs you need help Red and green poker chips
Pomodoros and pairs are separate concepts but work extremely well together
Whole team is not using pomodoros
Volatile/time critical environments
Highly collaborative teams
Junior colleagues in a non-pair environment
Falling out of “flow” Too many interruptions
Pomodoro/break times too long or short
The low barrier for entry makes trying pomodoros an easy thing to do in most environments
25 minutes and 5 minutes break is a beginner guideline
Customise focus and break time durations
Keep timer visible to colleagues at all times
Timer alerts should not disturb nearby colleagues
Long group sessions can also benefit from pomodoros
http://gettingthingsdone.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique
Pomotodo (All)
Clockwork Tomato (Android)
TeamViz (Desktop/All)
Picture credit http://lifehacker.com/pomotodo-combines-pomodoro-with-a-to-do-list-that-track-1604536855