I've found the 25 minute timer to have multiple benefits: 1. If I'm struggling to start, telling myself I only need to spend 25 minutes on it gets me started

I've found the 25 minute timer to have multiple benefits: 1. If I'm struggling to start, telling myself I only need to spend 25 minutes on it gets me started 2. I can pretty easily hold myself back from checking slack/email or context-switching when the block is 25 minutes - I can always peek at messages after to make sure nothing important happened. 3. It gives me a target - frequently there is something concrete I think I can _complete_ in 25 minutes, and that gives me motivation to push to get it done by then. If it goes a little over, that's fine 4. Because these periods of 25 minutes are really intense, I can't do them back-to-back all day. I have found switching to an interesting YouTube video for 5 minutes during a break (and trying to completely rest the brain during this time) re-energizes me more quickly, and lets me do more pomodoros without needing to stop for a while