Thursday, January 24, 2019

Writing and Tomato Timers




I have the attention span of a peanut.  Not that I cannot focus, just getting myself to last the distance can be a P-A-I-N (all caps).  So I read about this method called the Pomodoro Method.

This Italian guy Francesco Cirillo came up with the Pomodoro Technique. Whatever the task, you break it up into chunks, working 25 minutes at it and then resting 5 minutes. Repeat cycle. After four repeats, take a longer rest say 15-30 minutes.

I use this method when writing. If I make four cycles, two hours, I take a nice long break, get some ice cream, play with the cat, and catchup on Netflix offerings.  Sometimes I don't make four cycle, but I still eat ice cream and play with the cat. The method was devised to decrease internal and external interruption of the creative flow. For me, it takes an insurmountable task, like writing a 100,000-word book and knocks it down into bite-size chunks.

Pomodoro is Italian for tomato and the original method used a tomato shaped timer.  You can find them on Amazon . I used my wife’s Owl Timer at first. Later I progressed to a timer on my Android Phone. Check out Google Play Store for Pomodoro Timer.  I am sure an app exists for the Apple iphone.




Interesting to think: if Francesco had been from the South, it might have been the Okra Method. We’d call him Frankie then. Maybe Bubba for short. 

Happy writing.  Try the tomato timer method.