The blog

For you who pre­fer lis­ten­ing to read­ing, this post is also avail­able as an episode of the ​“Done!” pod­cast:

A way to stay focused

Many peo­ple like it and say it helps them stay focused on their most impor­tant task longer, mak­ing it eas­i­er to fin­ish with­out drift­ing to oth­er things. I use it now and then, but not every day.

A break at the wrong time

Oth­ers aren’t quite as keen. They find that the break timer goes off just when they’ve ​“got into the flow” and that lock­ing them­selves into 25+5‑minute ses­sions feels more restric­tive than help­ful. If that sounds famil­iar, let me tell you what Cal­i­for­nia stu­dent Zoë Read-Bivens did about it.

Flow­time for unin­ter­rupt­ed flow

Few meth­ods are set in stone, so I was pleased to read that Read-Bivens recent­ly adapt­ed the Pomodoro method to her lik­ing so it suit­ed her bet­ter. She calls the result ​“the Flow­time Tech­nique.” Here’s how it works:

1. Choose one (1) task to work on.
2. Start work­ing on the task and note the time when you begin. Keep a log in Excel or on paper, or use an app such as Tog­gl Track.
3. When you feel tired, take a break. If you lose con­cen­tra­tion, take a break. If you feel that you’re done with the task, take a break.
4. When you take a break, note the time and see how long you worked on the task.
5. Vary the length of your break accord­ing to how long you worked: after a long work ses­sion, take a longer break, and after a short ses­sion, take a short­er break.
6. Choose a new task and car­ry on in the same way.

Is this real­ly a method?

But doesn’t this sound like sim­ply ​“work­ing”? You do some­thing and take a break when­ev­er you feel like it?

Well, accord­ing to Read-Bivens, what makes this dif­fer­ent from work­ing on autopi­lot is that:

1. You work on a sin­gle task until your break.
2. By log­ging how long tasks take, you can both ana­lyze how long you’re able to focus on dif­fer­ent types of tasks and get bet­ter at esti­mat­ing how long tasks will take to complete.

Do this

If you haven’t been able to make the pop­u­lar Pomodoro method work for you, see if Flow­time suits you bet­ter.

If that isn’t quite right for you either, adapt Flow­time in turn, grad­u­al­ly shap­ing it into a work rhythm that best sup­ports your personality.

A rhythm that works for you

If you take pop­u­lar work-rhythm meth­ods you hear about and adapt them to suit you, you’ll find the per­fect bal­ance between pro­duc­tive work and restora­tive breaks. The rhythm you work in may dif­fer from one day to the next, but every day it will fit you like a glove.

What do you do?

Have you also adapt­ed the Pomodoro method to suit the way you pre­fer to work? Write to me and tell me about it. Per­haps you’ve even come up with a catchy name for your ver­sion? ​“The Para­mount Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty Pulse”? ​“The Rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing Rhythm”? 

(If you like work­ing after the Pomodoro Tech­nique and lis­ten­ing to music while doing so. Check out this tip I got to cre­ate playlists in toma­to for­mat!)