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I was really disturbed one day when the Asana desktop app updated and it put a giant "pomodoro" window on top of my screen. I almost uninstalled Asana because o

I was really disturbed one day when the Asana desktop app updated and it put a giant "pomodoro" window on top of my screen. I almost uninstalled Asana because of it. Anyway, work that requires focus should have natural rhythms: There's things that need to stay in my head, and if I get interrupted it's very hard to find my place. So I work without stop (except to pee) while these things are in my head, and I take a break once I finish enough that I can "forget" what's in my head. It's something you'll understand if you've ever written complicated programs, or had to do something that requires intense concentration. For example: I had to tweak a server-side Blazor application to deny access in a certain situation. Last Friday I did it in the UI, but that's not a good solution because there's ways to accidentally bypass the UI. The right way to deny access is in the Middleware, but I didn't have a lot of experience working with ASP Middleware. Thus, I couldn't start working with the Middleware in the last few minutes of the day (too much to learn). I spent about 90 minutes this morning learning how to hook into ASP's middleware so I could deny access to the application. Once I learned how to do that, I ate lunch. After lunch, I closed all the browser windows that had the documentation for Middleware and wrote the error page. Now that I opened the PR, I'm taking a break on Hacker News. Trying to fit that into a timer is impossible: If the timer went off while I was trying to figure out how to work with the Middleware, I'd have to re-read a lot of the stuff to get back into the puzzle.

JohnAaronNelson 3y ago
Don't knock it till you try it. I was originally of a similar impression upon discovering the technique. The breaks are not so you stop thinking about what you're doing. They're to take you away from it. I continue to think during my breaks about what I'm doing.. I am just not allowed to do it. It allows me to step back from what I'm doing and re-evaluate if what I'm doing at this very moment is what I should be doing. Otherwise, it's easy to get stuck just wanting to finish what you're doin It also does allow me to stop thinking about what I'm doing, for a brief moment, while leaving the train of through intact in the subconscious. Typically, when someone loses their train of thought because of distractions, it is because they have to switch what they're focused on. The train gets derailed because it has to go along another track. Pomodoro breaks are more like stopping the train to look around than switching tracks. Furthermore, removing distractions and staying in your train of thought is what the technique is fundamentally all about. Once you start the technique, you'll notice that the requirement that you keep track of your distractions, allows you to focus on ridding yourself of distractions first and foremost. Once you have found a way to rid yourself of distractions, every moment of those 25 minutes becomes precious, your mind sharpens, and solutions become clear. The breaks allow you to dis-engage, providing greater focus and clarity.
- gwbas1c 3y ago
  > The breaks are not so you stop thinking about what you're doing. They're to take you away from it. I continue to think during my breaks about what I'm doing.. I am just not allowed to do it. They're called pee breaks. Do you drink enough water?

JohnAaronNelson 3y ago

Don't knock it till you try it. I was originally of a similar impression upon discovering the technique. The breaks are not so you stop thinking about what you're doing. They're to take you away from it. I continue to think during my breaks about what I'm doing.. I am just not allowed to do it. It allows me to step back from what I'm doing and re-evaluate if what I'm doing at this very moment is what I should be doing. Otherwise, it's easy to get stuck just wanting to finish what you're doin It also does allow me to stop thinking about what I'm doing, for a brief moment, while leaving the train of through intact in the subconscious. Typically, when someone loses their train of thought because of distractions, it is because they have to switch what they're focused on. The train gets derailed because it has to go along another track. Pomodoro breaks are more like stopping the train to look around than switching tracks. Furthermore, removing distractions and staying in your train of thought is what the technique is fundamentally all about. Once you start the technique, you'll notice that the requirement that you keep track of your distractions, allows you to focus on ridding yourself of distractions first and foremost. Once you have found a way to rid yourself of distractions, every moment of those 25 minutes becomes precious, your mind sharpens, and solutions become clear. The breaks allow you to dis-engage, providing greater focus and clarity.

gwbas1c 3y ago
> The breaks are not so you stop thinking about what you're doing. They're to take you away from it. I continue to think during my breaks about what I'm doing.. I am just not allowed to do it. They're called pee breaks. Do you drink enough water?