Eat that Frog with a Pomodoro!

Procrastination is a lethal force, impossible to fight. Trust me, I know. But thanks to Francesco Cirillo (and Amal), I have learned a new method to trick my brain into focusing better and being more productive: ‘Eat that Frog with a Pomodoro’.

Pomodoro literally translates to ‘tomato’ in Italian. And a frog is, well, a frog.

Analogically , the frog is the task you have ahead of you and a Pomodoro is a timer.

The approach is to set the timer to 25 minutes and work on your task until it rings. If a distraction pops into your head, you write it down, but immediately get back on the task. After the timer rings, you put a star or a tick on a piece of paper and take a 3–5 minutes short break before repeating the steps until you are done with the tasks.

This is a great method to focus on your task better and actually get things done, increasing productivity.

When I used this method on studying for a very difficult and rather boring test I had in two days, I was skeptical because I had tried countless times to overcome my very strong habit of procrastinating but failed every time.

But this approach actually worked and I had a really good experience as well!

At first I was very distracted, as usual, but I forced myself to sit through for 25 minutes. The first 25 minutes were not very fruitful and most of the elements on my distractions list came from that interval.

However, as I progressed through the intervals, I discovered that my focus and attention span increased and I was able to get a lot more done in 25 minutes than I would normally.

For someone like me, who tends to lose focus in 5–7 minutes max., this technique did wonders. I plan on using it in my routine life and would definitely recommend to you as well.