Comment by tomxor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tomxor | Hacker News Reader

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I've come across "Pomodoro" many times over the years but one thing has always prevented me from bothering to consider it: when "in the mode" 20 mins or 30 mins or some other arbitrary length of time just isn't long enough... If you've ever been "in the mode" you might know what I mean.

However, I get stuck just like everyone else, and I think "getting stuck" is the problem Pomodoro is _really_ trying to solve, but to me it feels unnatural. My own method of getting unstuck is:

1. First consciously "notice" deviation (being susceptible to 30sec check of HN or whatever), I tend to start deviating because I have found a natural break or because I am stuck (deviating in quick succession). Either way I should make it a proper break, go make a cup of tea and leave the computer, think about where I am. Recognising this is not as easy as you might think at first.

2. If this is a repeat occurrence within some short period of time then I am stuck... noticing this is important because rather than just grinding away harder, it is likely a change strategy is needed in order to get back into "the mode". There is no silver bullet here, but I have a few tricks, for coding in general i find that moving to work on different areas or levels of abstraction help prune the decision tree higher up which can get you out of a little local minima with too many decisions that are grinding you to a halt.

I suppose what I am doing that Pomorado seems to lack is finding natural breaks and trying to introspect in the natural break to determine if I am breaking too frequently and if there is a reason (I'm not suggesting it should be ok to have absolutely no breaks, but that lack of concentration can sometimes be an indicator of an issue with your strategy for the current work.)

The 'unnatural' breaks you get from Pomodoro do have some advantages, though. If you use 'natural' breaks -- when you have finished a task, or got stuck -- you are breaking at precisely the point where it will be hardest to resume work.

When your break is on a fixed schedule, you're more likely to have something left half-finished. That makes it much easier to jump back in 5 minutes later.

Personally I gain more from the easy resumability than I lose by not having the break-for-abstract-thinking which you describe. Doubtless this varies massively between from person to person.

> when you have finished a task, or got stuck -- you are breaking at precisely the point where it will be hardest to resume work.

This might make sense from a procrastination point of view, but my point is that you should stop there to revise your strategy so that it will be _easier_ to resume. But with pomorado you just have to grind through because your 20mins isn't up yet... To me that seems inefficient.

When I say stuck I don't mean a hard challenging or complex part, I mean you really are stuck and that's why you should stop, because you aren't making significant progress and it's inefficient. You don't necessarily need to give it deep thought like I suggested, sometimes simply having a break is enough to give you a fresh perspective once you go back.

Anyway, it's all subjective, not only to the individual but probably also the task.

> This might make sense from a procrastination point of view, but my point is that you should stop there to revise your strategy so that it will be _easier_ to resume. But with pomorado you just have to grind through because your 20mins isn't up yet... To me that seems inefficient.

I think you people use different definitions of "break". What you (tomxor) describe as "revise your strategy" is probably a task that the other person thinks should be done within the 20 pomodoro minutes, and then a break is not "stop your actual work to think about your work instead" but rather "play angry birds" or "have a water cooler chat".

At least to me, if I get stuck but know that I have time left in my 20 minutes, I am more likely to switch to rethinking my strategy than if I feel like I have the option of taking a break right now.

Maybe you are right... I think i'm also forgetting there are many different degrees of "stuck" :P . Although most "micro stucks" in my experience definitely fit into a break with your mind in diffuse mode, but at the other extreme it needs some serious and prolonged thought that could well be considered a task in itself.

Having used Pomodoro extensively in the past, the short breaks are short enough to allow you to stay "in the mode/zone".

The trick to that seems to be that the break is something mundane like walking around, getting a drink; not focusing your attention on something else.

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