The Pomodoro Technique - Francesco Grillo

•  Employing easy-to-use, unobtrusive tools reduces the complexity of applying the Technique while favoring continuity
• Many time management techniques fail because they subject the people who use them to a higher level of added complexity
• Time-boxing
• Pause
• A chance to do something good for your health will help you to do your best during the next pomodoro
• its not a good idea to engage in activities that call for any significant mental effort
• Using the remaining portion of the Pomodoro to review or repeat what you've done, make small improvements and note down what you've learned 
• (basically: reflection)
• At the end of the day, the completed pomodoros can be transferred in a hard-copy archive
• Self-observation and decision-making aimed at process improvement. You can ask yourself how many pomodoros a week you spend on working acitivities and on explorative activitities, or how many Pomodoros you do on an average day of the week etc

• Every time you feel a potential interruption coming on, put an apostrophe on the sheet where you record your Pomodoros
• Intensify your determination to finish the current Pomodoro
• If a Pomodoro absolutely has to be interruped - void the current Pomodoro. Then put a dash. The next Pomodoro will go better!
• To be aware of the number and type of internal and external interruptions. Negotiate them and reschedule them
• Set aside one Pomodoro a day to take care of urgent interruptions
• Successfully delay these Pomodoros as far as possible
• Gradually cut down on the number of Pomodoros used for organizing the interruptions

• A timetable delineates the separation between work and free time. ... This leisure time is fuel for our minds. Without it, creativity, interest, and curiosity are lost.
• A timetable measure the results of the day. ... If time runs out and these activities arent done, we try to understand what went wrong.
• So you tell yourself: "Today I'll work late to make up for lost time." heroism and guilt makes you breach the limit set by the timetable. ... performance is ineffective tonight, then tomorrow night, and the night after. The more the timetable is systematically prolonged, the more overall results will diminish. Guild intensifies.
• A dangerous vicious circle

• best case scenario
• He might use this Pomodoro to look over all the things he did the day before, to skim over the Activitiy Inventory and fill in the To Do Today Sheet, ... 
• That everything on his desk is in place and ready, and tidies up if its not
• He starts feeling tired. He still has a few more Pomodoros to go. He wants to get a good rest, and he tries to detach as best he can by taking a little walk.

• The Pomodoro represents an abstaction of time
• Time boxing concept
• time running backwards
• generate positive tension (eustress)
• capable of facilitating the decision-making process
• assert yourself and accomplish activities
• The passage of time is no longer perceived as negative, but positive
• opportunity to improve
• rapidly reorganize
• feeling ofanxiety is assuaged
• enhanced consciousness, sharper focus on the here and now, clearer mind in deciding your next move. 
• The result is higher productivity
• Breaking down activities
• less complex
• deliver incremental value
• Frequent breaks are essential, More lucis, conscious and effective mental capacity.
• But the break really has to be a break.