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The obvious answer is to make less interruption and focus more on a job, but it seems not so easy as it sounds. If you know methods those make your pomodoro technique more effective and allows you to complete more pomodoros in a day , please kindly share them.

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4 Answers

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Planning is essential.

What I have found that when you create task list - it's important to write specific "next action" not whole project in your todo list. Not like "1.build website" but

  1. Plan site structure.
  2. Create site mockup.
  3. Make list of pages.

etc.

And when I make tasks as small and specific as possible it always helps me to pick them up, keep moving and complete more.

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up vote 2 down vote

but it seems not so easy as it sounds

Why is it not as easy as it sounds?

Track down what is keeping you back and look into how to decrease interruptions and improve focus.

Other than that, you could change your sleep schedule so you get more hours in a day.

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I have theory that pomodoro technique is not easy to adopt as it seems. When I'm looking at pomodoro statistic here tomatoes.heroku.com I see only 10% users who makes more than 2 pomodoros a day in a week. I'm not criticising pomodoro technique, just trying to ask people who succeeded in it give hand to people who have problems with starting on pomodoro technique. – port tester Aug 6 '11 at 21:29
@PortTester: "but it seems not so easy as it sounds" is a subjective statement so you must have a reason why you don't find it easy to adapt. Tomatoes isn't even qualified to be a statistic in terms whether the Pomodoro Technique itself is easy to adopt, you are basing yourself on a very small subset of Pomodoro users that are just testing the site out which might not be a good tool for the Pomodoro Technique and that's why they might stop using it. Furthermore, keep in mind that people don't work 7 days a week. – Tom Wijsman Aug 7 '11 at 14:03
2  
Even without that site in mind I can falsify your theory based on statistics: I can work more than an hour a day, hence, I can complete more than 2 pomodoros a day. I'm not saying your criticizing The Pomodoro Technique, I'm just asking why you don't find it as easy as it sounds. As in: What's holding you back? – Tom Wijsman Aug 7 '11 at 14:04
up vote 2 down vote

An important aspect of the pomdoro technique is planning. I've been working with it for a while now (about almost 500 of them I think) and I mostly just start to do some pomodoro's, without thinking about organisation. But I realise I need more planning and commitment to my work.
We al have some planning in our head to go trough the day, but mostly not very specific. A lot of the power in the Pomodoro technique is to make the list of commitments (todo today list) and estimate the number of Pomodoro's you will be spending in getting each task done. This gives you a clear view on your overal day.

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up vote 2 down vote

I'm going to write a general answer and then a specific one. I could separate them but I think they make a lot of sense together.

Answer 1

Before applying an external organizational technique or method you should find out what are the reasons you don't have the productivity you wish. This is relevant because there is no point in using a method if it does not attack the real source of your problems. Introspect a little and think what are y*our shortcomings* and the limitations of your work environment. Based on that introspection choose the right strategy and don't be afraid to change it if it doesn't work out.

Answer 2

I use a mix of GTD and Pomodoro. The GTD enables me to know what tasks need my attention in an effective and quick way. The Pomodoro is mainly used as a way to force myself to work ininterruptly in a task and say no to the distractions that surround me.

I hope this helps

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