Theo van der Sluijs

I started using the Pomodoro Technique at the end of August. I first read the book, look and read a lot of sites/blogs and look at the documentation written about the pomodoro technique. I use a digital timer (having my headset on) as I don’t want to disturb my colleagues.

I was working on multiple tasks at the same time, and none of them got finished!

I’m using the Pomodoro Technique for tasks I have to do at work, and stuff I wanna do at home (like writing blogposts).

At first I had no idea how long a task would take, not in 25 minute anyway. We are using Scrum at work and I could say that a task would take 2 or 3 hours up to 16 hours. But putting tasks in 25 periods is something I never did and thought of.

I tried to split the tasks in even smaller tasks, until they became so small that they took only a few minutes. Then I started putting them together until i reached a complete task that fitts into one or multiple pomodoros.

Now I am able to make a better estimation on how long a task will take.

Okay, I’m a Manager… so a lot of people come and go. So… doing a pomodoro is really difficult as people interrupt me every 5 minutes. Not only by walking in, but also by mail and phone.

Well, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Mail was the easiest. Just close outlook while doing a non email related pomodoro. But the walking in and phone was something different. I talked to my colleagues about this and I just planned pomodoro at the beginning of the day. So the first half of the working day is for pomodoros, the second half is "walking in" time. When I recognise the phone number of a colleague on the phone I take the call (as they know that in the morning they may only call when the place is burning down). When I don’t recognise the number of who is calling, the call is being forwarded after 3 rings to another colleague. Of course when my colleague start using the pomodoro, we’ll have another problem.

Multiple! First of all I have a more organized day! I always start early whenever I can (preferably before any colleague’s start working) so the goals I want to achieve in the morning is that all tasks are done. Secondly people now know when do not interrupt me.

At first I did not know how to make tasks small enough to make them fit into pomodoros.

I started really with a low profile. I just started cutting and cutting and cutting a task into little (really little) pieces. At that moment I could exactly say how long a mini task would take. During the time the estimation become more accurate and I started putting mini tasks back together to become a real task . So at a certain time I started the day updating the activity sheet fitting the activities in pomodories. My working pomodoro day never goes over 8 pomodoros. Recording the estimates really helped with this. At first it was quite a shock to see that the tasks did not seem to fit into any pomodoro:-).

Estimations are more accurate and I actually get things done within the time I calculated!

At first it was to fit tasks in a pomodoro, and the interruptions didn’t help.

Well, the biggest change was telling my colleagues that they couldn’t just walk in anymore. Also I really had to push my self to record all the pomodoros. At first I was more a do-er instead of a thinker. Now I think first and than start the task.

Tasks became easier to work on as I had more information.

As a Manager it was quite difficult to find the right time table.

I just recorded for a week when people walked in, when phone calls where made e.g. After one week I had a pretty good feeling about what were the busiest times. After two weeks I told my team and other managers about the pomodoro technique and we decide for the interruptions. Now as a manager there is always important work that should be done today. But when? Often I just do those tasks at home in the evening. When the kids are in bed I work with the pomodoro on the tasks with high priority on the top of my activity list.

Work gets done! Even when my day is chopped into half. And I even can work on private tasks like working on a blog at home or filling out a Pomodoro request for a Certified Pomodoro Master in Pomodoro World.

My personal objective was working on my blog once again. Because of my work and busy life at home (wife, two kids) I did not have time to do other stuff.

Actually I dont have difficulties, I am starting to use the pomodoro also when I am writing blog posts.

By starting the Pomodoro Technique!

The big benefit is that I’ve more time for my hobbies.