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