Books

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

"If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will."

The Art Of Less Doing: One Entrepreneur's Formula for a Beautiful

Life- Ari Meisel
Still, planning out your day in advance with your calendar can help you
focus on those tasks that matter most. "No matter how you look at it,"
Art of Less Doing writer Ari Meisel says, "tasks involve timing." (His
technique is to use FollowUp.cc to get reminders via email of tasks at
just the right time.)

zapier.com /blog/flowtime-technique/

If the Pomodoro Technique Doesn't Work for You, Try

Flowtime
Finding the perfect productivity system is like finding the perfect recipe. Sometimes, a
recipe with a really high rating tastes terrible. Sometimes, you find a comment that
suggests adjustments, and those adjustments take it from mediocre to outstanding.
And sometimes, you only use the recipe as a guide, modifying it to cater to your
unique preferences and tastes.
The best productivity technique, like the best food, is personalized.
Productivity techniques can be adjusted, mined for their best parts, and mixed with
parts of others until you've found a perfect blend. And that's exactly what Zoë Read-
Bivens did to create the Flowtime Technique—an alternative to the Pomodoro
Technique for people who dislike Pomodoro's consistent alarms.
The Flowtime Technique Is a Twist on Pomodoro
Flowtime is modified Pomodoro, so to understand the Flowtime Technique, it's
helpful to first revisit the framework of the Pomodoro Technique.
While in college, Francesco Cirillo—the creator of the Pomodoro Technique—figured
out that it was easier to stay focused when he 1) put a time limit on how long he
planned to focus on a single task and 2) rewarded himself for staying focused by
taking frequent breaks.
From that discovery, the Pomodoro Technique was born. Cirillo recommends doing
focused work in 25-minute increments throughout the day. After each pomodoro (25-
minute focus session), take a five-minute break from your work. And after completing
four consecutive pomodoros, take a longer break, usually between 20 and 30
minutes.
Cirillo used a kitchen timer designed to look like a tomato to time his focus periods
and breaks, which is how the Pomodoro Technique got its name—"pomodoro"
means tomato in Italian. But today, there are dozens of Pomodoro timer apps you
can use to automatically time and track each of your pomodoros and breaks.
The Problem with Working in Pomodoros
Before introducing the Flowtime Technique, Read-Bivens wrote about some of her
struggles while working in pomodoros:
The first problem with the Pomodoro Technique is that the timer is a tyrant. The
indivisibility of a pomodoro is supposed to prevent interruptions. Instead, it often
forces an exhausted me to work longer than I'm comfortable with, or it interrupts me
when I'm engaged and working well.
As Read-Bivens describes, one of the big problems with Pomodoro is that the timer is
a consistent interruption that inhibits your ability to get into a flow state. Flow state
describes a period of time in which you're fully engaged and immersed in a task.
While in a flow state, you're highly focused and productive, and your ability to stay
focused and productive is effortless.
So let's say you've achieved flow state, you're highly focused and productive, and
then a timer goes off signaling that it's time for you to take a break. If the distraction
of the alarm alone doesn't take you out of flow state, the break most certainly will.
Pomodoro is a great approach to tackling tasks that you don't want to do (like
studying for an exam) or tasks that require little thought (like copying and pasting
data from a document into a spreadsheet). The short duration of pomodoros and
promise of a break as a reward can encourage you to stay focused and do what you
need to do.
But other tasks like writing, coding, or creating art—tasks that require creativity,
innovation, and/or problem-solving—may not be ideal to break into pomodoros.
Limiting how much time you dedicate to those tasks may prevent you from getting
into flow state and enjoying the benefits of its resulting boost to your productivity and
focus.
The Flowtime Technique Solves Pomodoro's Big Problems

Flowtime Technique is Read-Bivens's solution to Pomodoro's problems. Here's how it

works:
You start by writing down what one task you plan to work on during a focus session.
Picking one task—what Read-Bivens calls "unitasking"—is the "one hard and fast
rule of the Flowtime Technique."
Once you've picked your task, write down the time you start working on it, and then
work until you feel like you need a break. You're not working for any specific amount
of time, and there's no timer that signals when it's time for a break. Instead, you just
have to monitor your focus and thoughts. When you start feeling tired or distracted,
write down the end time, and take a break.
The length of your break is also up to you, though Read-Bivens offers a few
suggestions:
 For 25 minutes of work or less, take a five-minute break.
 For 25-50 minutes of work, take an eight-minute break.
 For 50-90 minutes of work, take a 10-minute break.
 For more than 90 minutes of work, take a 15-minute break.
However, she notes that "the break times I suggest aren't rules. If you need a 10-
minute break after working for 40 minutes, that's fine. Refreshed work is orders of
magnitude better than fatigued work." So take a break for however long you need to
feel refreshed. And if you're struggling to determine when you need a break, she
recommends picking smaller tasks to focus on until you get a better sense of when
you're feeling fatigued.
With the Flowtime Technique, you're essentially still breaking your day into pieces
and rewarding yourself with breaks when you need them just like in Pomodoro. But
because you're not tied to a timer, you're more likely to find yourself in a flow state
from time to time. Plus, you don't have to suffer through staring at your work when
you're distracted and waiting for an alarm to signal that it's time to take a break.
The Benefits of the Flowtime Technique
We've already discussed how Flowtime enables flow state, which is one of its primary
benefits. But there are many other benefits to the approach.
First, because you're documenting start times and end times for each task, you can
actually use your Flowtime data for time-tracking to see how much time you're
dedicating to different types of tasks. Knowing how much time specific tasks usually
take you can help you create better estimates for how long future tasks will take
and discover what activities you need to eliminate to make time for new goals.
Second, Read-Bivens also recommends adding a column to track interruptions—
things like calls, texts, emails, or desk drop-bys that pull your attention away from the
task you're working on. Tracking this data could help you discover your biggest
sources of distraction so you can take steps to eliminate those distractions.

With Flowtime, you can track the number of times you were interrupted or include
notes detailing what those interruptions were.
Or if you work in different places—home, the office, a coffee shop, or a coworking
space—tracking interruptions could help you find out which space is best for working
when you need to stay focused.
Third, keeping track of how long you were able to focus naturally can help you
identify days and times of the day when you're most focused or most easily
distracted. This information can help you plan your day better, scheduling work that
requires deep focus during times when you're naturally inclined to be focused.
And finally, if the more structured Pomodoro method works better for you, you could
use Flowtime's approach for a couple of weeks to create your own personalized
lengths for pomodoros. For example, if you find that you're usually able to focus for
60 minutes at a time in the morning and 15 minutes at a time in the afternoon, you
could set your Pomodoro timers for those times to maintain the structure of
Pomodoro without impacting your flow state potential. You can also keep track of the
length of your breaks to determine the ideal length and frequency of your Pomodoro
breaks.
Tools That Help with the Flowtime Technique
Read-Bivens recommends two options for recording your focus times and breaks for
Flowtime: pen and paper or a spreadsheet.
And while both of these methods work, pen and paper isn't the most efficient way to
review historical details, and long spreadsheets with tons of data can be difficult to
scroll through to find what you're looking for. For these reasons, one of the following
apps might be a better choice.
Toggl (Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, Chrome, Firefox)
Best for people who want something that's as easy to use as pen and paper

A lot of time-tracking apps are designed for tracking billable hours to a project or
client, meaning there's a ton of setup required to start tracking your time. Toggl has a
much more lightweight approach. You can start tracking time for tasks by typing in
the name of your task and clicking enter. That starts the timer, which then runs until
you press stop.
Over the course of your day, type the name of the task you're getting ready to work
on and start the timer. Toggl tracks the time you work on the task down to the second
and lists your start and end times once you stop the timer. You can track your breaks
in the same way: Type Break as your task and start the timer, then stop the timer
when you return from your break.
Toggl saves all of your tasks, breaks, and session lengths, and you can access that
data at any time from Reports. Pick a date—or a date range—in its calendar view to
access your tasks and session lengths for any date in the past.
And if you want to be able to see how you're spending your time in a calendar view,
create a Zap—an automated workflow by Zapier—that adds an entry in Google
Calendar every time you start a timer in Toggl.
Or if you want to make sure you track the time you spend in meetings, use this Zap to
start a Toggl timer when an event on your Google Calendar starts.
Toggl Price: Free for up to five users; from $10/month for the Starter plan that
includes scheduled email reports and unlimited team members.
TMetric (Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, Firefox, Chrome,
Opera, Edge)
Best for seeing your daily focus sessions and breaks in a timeline view

TMetric is another time-tracking app you can use for Flowtime, and its big benefit is
that it shows you a timeline of how you spent your day. Focus periods appear in dark
gray, and breaks appear in light gray. Hover over an entry in the timeline to see the
exact amount of time you spent on it. A summary of the total time you spent on
tasks/breaks also displays.
The best way to use TMetric is to create tasks at the beginning of the day for any
item you're going to focus on during a focus period. Then, when it's time to start
working on that task, click the play icon next to it to start recording your time. When
you're finished, click stop. You can log your breaks throughout the day or add them
later to gaps in your timeline.
When you need to view your performance for previous days, select the appropriate
date in TMetric to see your tasks and timeline for that day. And if you already have a
to-do app you like to use and don't want to have to retype everything into TMetric,
you can create a Zap that sends your tasks from Todoist, Jira, Asana, Trello, or
Google Tasks to TMetric automatically.
TMetric Price: Free for up to five users; from $5/month for the Professional plan for
access to budgeting and invoicing features.
HourStack (Web, iOS, Android)
Best for a detailed weekly view of your focus sessions and breaks

HourStack is another great option for the Flowtime Technique, giving you a visual
weekly picture of how you spent your time. It's like a calendar, but it's for things you
did in the past instead of things you need to do.
To track your focus sessions and breaks in HourStack, add an entry and enter the
name of the task you plan to focus on. You can also add an estimate for that task if
you're curious to see if you can accurately estimate exactly how long it will take.
Once you've created the task, click on the task card and select Start to begin tracking
your time. When you're finished, click on the task card again to pause the time or
mark the task as complete. Then, do the same thing to track your breaks.
At the end of the week, you'll have a complete calendar view of each of the week's
focus periods and breaks, alongside your estimates for how long you thought each
task would take (if you added those).
And if you have your to-do's and tasks logged in another app already, you can send
them to HourStack using one of its native integrations, or connect HourStack with
more than 1,000 other apps using one of Zapier's HourStack integrations.
HourStack Price: From $7/month for the Personal plan that includes one user, app
integrations, and unlimited entries.
Finding the Productivity Technique That's Right for You
Both the Pomodoro Technique and the Flowtime Technique were created by regular
people who were simply looking for ways to stay focused and productive. And
Flowtime is a great example of taking an existing technique that kind of works and
putting your own spin on it, much like you would a recipe or anything else where
preferences and tastes come into play.
In the end, the goal of using a productivity technique isn't to follow its rules to the
letter. It's to discover new ways to stay focused, to get things done even when you
don't want to, or to find better methods for prioritizing and tackling your to-do list.
Maybe neither Pomodoro or Flowtime is right for you. Maybe the best solution for you
is a blend—a PomoFlowTime where you use timers when working on tasks you hate
and don't when working on things that inspire you. And if that's what works for you,
that's great. But if you write about it so others can use it, please don't call it
PomoFlowTime.

The Time Blocking Method

Time blocking simply means planning out your day in advance and
dedicating specific hours to accomplish specific tasks. Doing this
requires determining in advance what you will accomplish and exactly
when you will accomplish it. Once you have those in mind, enter these
into your calendar and then get to work on those tasks at the
appropriate time during the day.
When scheduling out tasks, it’s important to block out
both proactive blocks and reactive blocks. Proactive blocks are when you
focus on important tasks that you must get done. This is when you
make progress on important projects, draft important documents, or
sketch out a prototype for your next great product. Reactive blocks are
when you allow time for requests and interruptions, such as email and
impromptu meetings.

For example, you could schedule your most challenging tasks for the
first two hours of the day and plow through your inbox during the
afternoon. This allows you to do undistracted work and still know you’ll
get to things like email and phone calls.

This method has the advantage of helping you know exactly how you’re
going to use your time and exactly when you’re going to accomplish
specific tasks. Standard to-do lists present you with a list of tasks to
complete in your own time. Time blocking provides you with a list of
tasks and a specific time frame to complete each task.
By forcing yourself to work within a rigid structure and to accomplish
tasks in a given time, you are forced to bring laser focus to every
activity.

Productivity guru Cal Newport swears by the time blocking

method, saying:

Sometimes people ask why I bother with such a detailed level of planning. My
answer is simple: it generates a massive amount of productivity. A 40 hour time-
blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour
work week pursued without structure.

The challenge of time blocking is that there are times when

interruptions are unavoidable. When a single task gets interrupted, you
either must reschedule the task or drop it until the next day.
Additionally, people often underestimate how long a task will take,
result in tasks bleeding into each other. This is why experts like David
Allen prefer not to use the calendar as the to-do list. As he says in his
book Getting Things Done: "Trying to keep a list in writing on the calendar,
which must then be rewritten on another day if items don’t get done, is
demoralizing and a waste of time."
Still, planning out your day in advance with your calendar can help you
focus on those tasks that matter most. "No matter how you look at it,"
Art of Less Doing writer Ari Meisel says, "tasks involve timing." (His
technique is to use FollowUp.cc to get reminders via email of tasks at
just the right time.)

The Most Important Task Method (MIT)

The MIT method is all about focusing on the essential. Rather than
writing out a massive to-do list and trying to get it all done, determine
the 1-3 tasks that are absolutely essential and then relentlessly focus on
those tasks during the day. It’s not that you never do more than three
tasks in a day, but that you don’t do anything else until you’ve
completed the three essential tasks.

The reality is, most days there are only a few essential things
that must be done. Yes, there are a thousand voices clamoring for our
attention, but most of those voices aren’t crucial. The notifications
blowing up your phone and the emails filling your inbox can all wait. If
you can complete the 1-3 essential tasks, everything else becomes
secondary or even unnecessary.
This is the core topic of Gary Keller and Jay Papasan's excellent book The
ONE Thing: "What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by
doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?"
Once you determine your 1-3 most important tasks, they are
scheduled first in your day. You then make progress on essential items
before you get bombarded by distractions. You can use this in
conjunction with the time blocking method, saving your initial hours for
the most important tasks. Email, phone calls, and meetings come later,
after you’ve completed your essential tasks.
By focusing obsessively on your most important tasks, every day is
productive. You never have a day where you waste time on meaningless
tasks. Productivity expert James Clear puts it this way:

If you do the most important thing first each day, then you’ll always get something
important done. I don’t know about you, but this is a big deal for me. There are
many days when I waste hours crossing off the 4th, 5th, or 6th most important tasks
on my to-do list and never get around to doing the most important thing.

The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is all about working in short, massively

productive, intensely focused bursts, and then giving yourself a brief
break. It’s incredibly simple, in that all it requires is a timer, and it allows
you to break down a large task into manageable intervals.

Here’s how it works:

 Choose a task

 Set your timer for 25 minutes

 Work on the task until the timer ends

 Take a short break (around 5 minutes)

 Every 4 Pomodoro sessions, take a longer break (15-30 minutes)

This technique allows you to accomplish a significant amount over the

course of the day while still taking adequate breaks. The relatively short
time of each session also allows you to intensely focus without
becoming mentally fatigued.

Some people absolutely swear by the Pomodoro Technique. Paul Klipp,

president of Lunar Logic's Polish branch, says this about using Pomodoro:

You might think that a person could do 16 of these cycles in a day. I'm lucky to get
more than two in a day without interruptions. But in those 50 minutes I get more
done than I do in the other seven hours of my work day, at least in terms of
advancing the most important aspects of my most important projects.
Despite its beautiful simplicity, there are some downsides to the
Pomodoro Technique. Pomodoro sessions are supposed to be
uninterrupted periods of focus, meaning you can’t pause mid-session
and then pick it back up later. If a coworker stops by and asks for a few
moments of your time, you need to either politely decline or stop the
session all together.

However, as Klipp noted above, it’s possible to accomplish a significant

amount in only a few sessions.

90-Minute Focus Sessions

The human body operates on cycles called "ultradian rhythms." During
each of these cycles, there is a peak when we are most energized and a
trough when we are exhausted.

With the 90-minute focus technique, you take full advantage of the
energy peaks and troughs that occur throughout your day: Work 90
minutes and then rest for 20-30 minutes. In discussing peak
performance in a 1993 study, Anders Ericcson pointed out that those rest
periods between intense work sessions is essential for improvement.

Most people pay little attention to the natural rhythms of their body
and use stimulants like coffee to power through periods of low energy.
This almost always results in a complete crash around 2:30pm, which
corresponds with a trough in your ultradian rhythm.

Working in 90-minute bursts allows you to correlate your maximum

energy levels with your task list, which then gives your productivity a
major boost. You're working with your body instead of against it.

As Digital Strategist Tom Gibson puts it:

We need to start thinking of productivity and output in cyclical, rather than linear
terms. Many already recognise that they have peak times during the day in which
they’re better workers. Other times, they’re better thinkers. Other times, all they’re
good for is Netflix.

We’ve been trained by the 8 hour workday to assume that we should

work steadily from 8am to 5pm with only a break for lunch, to exert
maximum output from the start to finish of the workday. And while this
method certainly allows managers to stay on top of employees, it
hampers productivity.

Of course, this system does have its drawbacks. If your boss comes into
your office and finds you napping on the floor, he may not be pleased,
even when you explain that you’re working in conjunction with your
ultradian rhythms (and, we might add, improving your memory). And there
will be deadlines which give you no choice but to put your nose to the
grindstone.
But when you don’t find yourself up against the clock, you may want to
consider the natural rhythms of your body when deciding on your
scheduling method. Your body might not fall exactly in line with the 90-
minute cycles, but monitor your energy levels throughout the day for a
few weeks to see if you can find a pattern for yourself.
Polyphasic Sleep Method
This is a somewhat bizarre scheduling method that only works for a few
select people, but if it works for you, you’ll achieve uncommon amounts
of productivity in a single day.

Most people are monophasic sleepers, meaning they get their daily sleep in

one chunk (or phase). Biphasic sleepers get their sleep in two smaller
chunks, such as 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the late
evening. Polyphasic sleepers take this method to the extreme, breaking up
sleep into multiple short phases, which allows for less sleep overall and
significant increases in productivity. The amount of sleep in each phase
can vary, with some people sleeping only in 20-minute naps and others
grabbing larger chunks of sleep and then supplementing with naps.
Eugene Dubovoy is a project manager from Russia who has adopted a
polyphasic schedule of sleeping 3.5 hours every night supplemented by
three 20-minute naps during the day. As a result, he has significantly
more time at his disposal and gets much more done than he would
otherwise. As he told Business Insider: "The biggest benefit is that I have
about two months of extra time each year. Time is the most valuable
resource in our lives."
Chris Jeub, another polyphasic sleeper, agrees: "My polyphasic sleep
schedule has me feeling healthy and alert, has given me more satisfying
sleep, and has helped increase my productivity by up to 28 hours per
week."
This schedule has some very obvious drawbacks. Steve Pavlina noted the
challenge of having this type of schedule while still maintaining a sane
family schedule. And if you miss any of your scheduled sleep sessions, it
can significantly throw off your sleep schedule.
But this schedule also has some massive advantages, like getting extra
hours every day. If you only sleep four hours per day, you add
approximately 28 extra hours to your week (assuming normally
sleeping 8 hours).

The 1-3-5 Method

The 1-3-5 method is all about lists. You think up one big thing, three medium things and five
small things you want to accomplish throughout your day. The timing of those things doesn’t
matter, and you can choose to do them whenever you want.
One nice thing about this method is that the website gives you the checklist, leading to a sense
of accomplishment when you see a task is checked off. To curb your urge to procrastinate or
do something else, you can set the 1-3-5 site as your homepage, so it pops up every time you
want to open a tab for Facebook.

Anything you don’t get done can go on the list for the next day. And if you aren’t feeling “in
the zone,” you can start small, like sending out emails, and work your way up to your big
project.

Power Hour
If you’re working on a team at your business, the Power Hour technique could work well for
you. It’s similar to the Pomodoro, but it’s shared with all of your colleagues. You have one or
two hours each day where you just sit down and work with no interruptions. If you have
questions about the project, you write them down and wait until after to ask. Instead of
random interruptions throughout the workday, questions are usually consolidated into the
fifteen minutes before and after power hours.

The Pros and Cons of Pomos

I am abandoning the Pomodoro Technique. This might just be temporary insanity, but I have
encountered several problems with the way P and I get along. This post will come to you in
three parts.

First, in this post, I’m going to explain the Very Important Ideas of the Pomodoro System and
the things I like and don’t like about it,

Next, I will explain the system I have designed.

Then, In a week or so after using my new system, if I am still alive, I’ll post an update on how
it went.

People everywhere credit the Pomodoro Technique for revolutionizing their productivity. If

the Pomodoro Technique is the first time management system someone uses there are three
characteristics the Pomodoros that will undoubtedly improve their productivity. These three
characteristics are vital for any effective time management system, and these three
characteristics will guide me in creating a new system.

The three Important Characteristics are:

1. Recording how you spend your time
2. Sustained focus on one thing (no multitasking) 
3. Taking breaks

When an athlete is trying to run faster or get stronger, the first thing they have to do is
measure how fast they run or how much they can lift. When we are trying to become more
productive, we have to measure ourselves first and foremost. The Pomodoro technique gives
you a strategy for measuring your productivity. When you use it you record how many
Pomodoros a task takes, how many Pomodoros you do in a day, and how frequently you have
internal or external interruptions. If you know exactly how much time a task took you, you’re
better prepared to combat the planning fallacy and accurately predict how long a similar task
will take and set aside that much time when it comes up.

When you’re focused on one thing for a long period of time, you are able to get deeper into it.
Becoming engaged in your work takes time. When you approach your work you have to
reorient yourself: What do I have to do? What have I already completed? Where were my
trains of thought headed? The more often you disengage from your work the more time you
spend re-engaging with what you actually want to be doing. You waste time and prevent
sustained engaged work.

Using the Pomodoro technique to get from multitasking to unitasking saves time and gets you
into a flow state.

Taking breaks refreshes your mind and prevents burn out. Just as walking around or stretching
a little gives your body a break from sitting in one spot, letting your mind wander gives it a
break too, and gives it a chance to solve problems without you getting in the way. This type of
thinking is casually referred to as diffuse thinking.

Part of The Pomodoro technique is taking regular breaks, so it’s great for that

There are other things I like about the Pomodoro Technique. Their blocky nature makes it
easy to build my day. A (kosher) Pomodoro is always 25 minutes plus 5 for a break. I can
think about my time like “Oh I should do two Pomodoros before lunch and 4 afterwords”

I like being accountable to the timer. Starting it forces me to start my work. Knowing it’s
running pressures me to keep working and avoid distraction. I like that the break timer keeps
from getting lost in Reddit for eighteen hours.
Also, it’s such a universally awknoleged concept. It’s a fixture in productivity advice. There
are apps everywhere, there are even online pomodoro co-working chatrooms. There is so
much infrastructure for the Pomodoro-er.

There are a lot of good reasons to use the Pomodoro Technique, and it might work for a lot of
people but it just isn’t working for me:

It stresses me out

The first sign of the PomoStress was that I normally can’t do more than four a day. That’s 2
hours. 100 minutes of actual work, not including breaks. In A day.

The first problem with the Pomodoro Technique is that the Timer is a tyrant. The
indivisibility of a Pomodoro is supposed to prevent interruptions. But instead it often forces
an exhausted me to work longer than I’m comfortable with, or it interrupts me when I’m
engaged and working well. When the Pomodoro drags on, all I am thinking about is the five
minute break. Towards the end of the Pomo I am fatigued and I get frustrated by my lack of
progress. When it finally ends I’m grumpy, and frazzled The break is too short.

Sometimes I’m excited about my work. I’m figuring out the puzzles of the problems I’m
facing, I’m piecing together concepts and I feel like I’m in a different world, at least I’m
seeing this one better and then with a pleasant jingle I am WRENCHED out of my flow state.
Again the frustration.

This TooLong TooShort duality leads to watching the timer. Checking the timer is a kind of
disengagement. When I’m so conscious of time passing it’s impossible to let myself do my
work with all my attention.

A Pomodoro is TooLong and TooShort and there is nothing you can do about it. Part of The
Technique is that a Pomodoro is Indivisible (at least to a Pomodoro Zealot). So, when
following The Technique you can’t avoid the TooLong and Tooshort . And, on top of that
sometimes lifehappens. Having to break a Pomodoro makes me feel guilty. What If I’ve been
doing good quality work for 18 minutes and my family invites me out to lunch? What if I
suddenly ReALLY HAVE TO PEE?? There are lot’s of good  reasons to break a Pomodoro,
but the system tells you that doing so means that you fail.

Going into a Pomodoro, — putting myself under the Tyrannical Timer — knowing that it will
take twenty five whole minutes of my life is daunting and stressful and often I just don’t want
to do it. Twenty five minutes doesn’t seem like a long time. But, after a long day (or even a
medium day), with all the Problems that come with Pomo-ing a Pomodoro seems like a big
commitment.

So, I need something new. Something that eliminates the stress and guilt that come with the
Pomodoro Technique but something that still still holds the 3 Important Characteristics that
make it effective.
The Flowtime Technique – Alternative

The Flowtime Technique I have created does all these things,

while also encouraging Flow. Flow is when you are completely
focused and immersed in a task. 

This is what it looks like:

First, pick a specific task. Make sure it has an end in sight. If you
have something in mind that doesn’t have an end in sight, set
your sights a little shorter. This goes under tasks.

Next, start your work. Don’t set any kind of timer but record the
time under Start. Now, when you are working, you can only
work on the thing that you have written down. And unless
you’ve written a stop time you cant switch it up. This is the ONE
Hard Fast Rule of the Flowtime Technique: Unitasking

The next step is the hardest step. When you feel like you need to
take a break, take a break. If you want to stop the task, stop and
take a break. If you’re having difficulty focusing or you notice
your attention slipping, stop and take a break. If you’re getting
mentally fatigued, take a break. If you’re frustrated, take a break.
It’s better, at first, to start breaks more frequently than you think
you might need to. It takes time to learn what “I need a break”
feels like.

When you decide to take a break, write down the time you stop
under Stop. Then decide how long your break will be and set a
timer for that length of time. Right now I’m going with 5
minutes for around less than 25 minutes of work time, 8 for
around 25–50, 10 for around 50–90 and 15 for more than that.
The break times I suggest aren’t rules. If you need 10 minutes of
break time after 40 minutes of work that’s fine, refreshed work
is orders of magnitude better work than fatigued work. Less time
is fine too, as long as you are letting yourself get enough of a
break in. It’s better to break longer than wear yourself out with
tiny breaks.

Sometimes you get interrupted or distracted, either internally or

by someone else. When this happens, thats fine. Just record the
time you get interrupted, deal with whatever has come up, check
the — | part of the table and then continue as normal.

Repeat until you’re done with what you have to do!

You can record your Work Time (in minutes) as you go, or when
you finish a task, or even at the end of the day. This is important
data you can use to plan your day, notice your most productive
times, and notice any correlation between lengths of breaks and
sustained work time.
How the Flowtime Technique fulfills
the 3 characteristics that make
Pomodoro effective

1. Tracking time
 With the Flowtime Technique you input your start time,
end time, break time, work time, and whether or not you
were interrupted.
 With the raw data you can see when and how long you
worked, and thats enough for most people
 With a bit of data mining and maybe plugging stuff into
exel, you can graph your productive times of day, how long
you can work after an x minute long break, what your
average work length is what times of day you are most
productive, etc.
 With the data you gather with FlowTime you don’t only see
how many big chunks it takes to complete a certain type of
task, you see the exact time the task took, you will see your
patterns of fatigue and recovery, and you will learn to
schedule your most difficult and fatiguing tasks in your most
energized part of your day.

2. Unitasking
 By picking one task and writing it down you commit to only
doing that one task between the time you start and the time
you choose to stop.
 A timer might not be watching you work but you are still
putting yourself on the hook by writing down your one task.
 The flexible breaking makes necessary switching between
tasks easy, so you never have to “just take this one call” while
you’re trying to finish a Pomodoro.

3. Taking Breaks
 With Flowtime you never interrupt flow with a mandatory
break.
 You always get a break when you need one
 Because you’re paying attention to the state of your mind
and body, your skill in self awareness gets a +1
 A timer will never interrupt your train of thought or your
time in flow.
Schnuffel is an animated Bunny which was created by the german company Jamba in end of
2007. The first song was the "Kuschelsong". Originally, it should only be a ringtone. But the song
was very successful and was awarded with the Platinum Sound Plate. There are now three
albums, six singles of Schnuffel and an audiobook series with 6 episodes. He's 8 years old and
loves Schnuffelienchen,

 How would you handle interruptions through breaks?

When I'm interrupted, i record the time under stop and put "yes" in the interrupted
column. Under 'breaktime' I estimate how many minutes it will take to take care of
the interruption . Was that a helpful answer? anything else I can explain? :)

Wonderful technique, im in love with being in control rather than stopping with
pomodoro interruption. One quick question, if Im having quite a few interruptions is
the work time estimated since you cant actually measure it if you arent using a
stopwatch when youre having an interruption. I was just wondering the rationale
behind writing work time with interruptions. Thanks a lot lightsandcandy keep up the
motivating work.

The interruptions column is just a yes/no box, it asks "is this end-time an
interruption or did you choose to stop" What I do when I'm interrupted is to record
the time under "stop" and put a "yes" in the interruption column, you might end up
with a lot of rows, but thats ok. Worktime should be exact, but if an approximation
works better for you, awesome. 
If you find yourself not
taking breaks.

So you’re trying Flowtime and you find yourself hours into a

piece of work and totally burnt out, There are a couple of things
you can try to increase the frequency of your breaks.

First, try picking smaller tasks. Try to choose tasks or segments

of tasks that can be completed in a reasonable time, so that
when you switch tasks, you take a break. Instead of “Math
homework chapter 7.4” for your task, (which could take hours,
believe me) choose “Math homework chapter 7.4 problems 1–3”.
If you get it done in a shorter amount of time than you expected,
cool you get a break.

If that doesn’t work. Then you have another option. This is

the NUCLEAR option, the strongly not recommended,
the temporary option for until you figure out what needing a
break feels like. Set a timer. Set a timer for the maximum time
you want to work without taking a break. I suggest ninety
minutes to two hours. This doesn’t mean that you have to work
until the max work timer goes off. If you feel like you want or
need to take a break before that timer goes off, take that break.
You did it! thats the point! If the timer goes off and you are in
the middle of something and don’t want to stop, reset the timer
for 5 minutes.

QUICK EXPLANATION- THE FLOWTIME TECHNIQUE CHEATSHEET

1. One task at a time (enter Start Time)

2. Take a break when you need to (Stop Time)

3. Record whether or not you were interrupted (I use this symbol in shorthand 
— |)
 4. Take breaks that are as long or as short as you need them to be (try 3min break
for up to 25 min work , 5 min break for up to 40 min work, 7 min break for up to
60 min work, 10 min break for up to 80 min; 15min break for anything over 80
min work. Adjust as needed)

5. Set a timer for breaks

6. Record your work time in minutes

7. Repeat

I have all kinds of problems with the Pomodoro Technique, so I started brainstorming an

alternative to the that eliminates the PomoStress I’ve been experiencing while still 1.Tracking
my time 2. Encouraging unitasking, and 3. Enabling breaks.

The Flowtime Technique I have created does all these things, while also encouraging Flow.
Flow is when you are completely focused and immersed in a task. It feels great, it’s very
productive, and it’s the kind of productive feeling that we all strive for. It’s hard to achieve
flow when you’re worried about being interrupted.

This is what it looks like:

The six columns are: Task, Start, Stop, -| (interruption), WT (work time), and BT(expected
break time)

Or you could do it by (Very Messy) hand

YES, my handwriting is terrible.

Instructions

First, pick a specific task. Make sure it has an end in sight. If you have something in mind that
doesn’t have an end in sight, set your sights a little shorter. This goes under tasks.
Next, start your work. Don’t set any kind of timer but record the time under Start. Now, when
you are working, you can only work on the thing that you have written down. And unless
you’ve written a stop time you cant switch it up. This is the ONE Hard Fast Rule of the
Flowtime Technique: Unitasking

The next step is the hardest step. When you feel like you need to take a break, take a break. If
you want to stop the task, stop and take a break. If you’re having difficulty focusing or you
notice your attention slipping, stop and take a break. If you’re getting mentally fatigued, take
a break. If you’re frustrated, take a break. It’s better, at first, to start breaks more frequently
than you think you might need to. It takes time to learn what “I need a break” feels like.

When you decide to take a break, write down the time you stop under Stop. Then decide how
long your break will be and set a timer for that length of time. Right now I’m going with 5
minutes for around less than 25 minutes of work time, 8 for around 25–50, 10 for around 50–
90 and 15 for more than that. The break times I suggest aren’t rules. If you need 10 minutes of
break time after 40 minutes of work that’s fine, refreshed work is orders of magnitude better
work than fatigued work. Less time is fine too, as long as you are letting yourself get enough
of a break in. It’s better to break longer than wear yourself out with tiny breaks.

Sometimes you get interrupted or distracted, either internally or by someone else. When this
happens, thats fine. Just record the time you get interrupted, deal with whatever has come up,
check the — | part of the table and then continue as normal.

Repeat until you’re done with what you have to do!

You can record your Work Time (in minutes) as you go, or when you finish a task, or even at
the end of the day. This is important data you can use to plan your day, notice your most
productive times, and notice any correlation between lengths of breaks and sustained work
time.

How the Flowtime Technique fulfills the 3 characteristics that make

Pomodoro effective
1. Tracking time
 With the Flowtime Technique you input your start time, end time, break time, work
time, and whether or not you were interrupted.
 With the raw data you can see when and how long you worked, and thats enough for
most people
 With a bit of data mining and maybe plugging stuff into exel, you can graph your
productive times of day, how long you can work after an x minute long break, what
your average work length is what times of day you are most productive, etc.
 With the data you gather with FlowTime you don’t only see how many big chunks it
takes to complete a certain type of task, you see the exact time the task took, you will
see your patterns of fatigue and recovery, and you will learn to schedule your most
difficult and fatiguing tasks in your most energized part of your day.
2. Unitasking
 By picking one task and writing it down you commit to only doing that one task
between the time you start and the time you choose to stop.
  A timer might not be watching you work but you are still putting yourself on the hook
by writing down your one task.
 The flexible breaking makes necessary switching between tasks easy, so you never
have to “just take this one call” while you’re trying to finish a Pomodoro.
3. Taking Breaks
 With Flowtime you never interrupt flow with a mandatory break.
 You always get a break when you need one
 Because you’re paying attention to the state of your mind and body, your skill in self
awareness gets a +1
 A timer will never interrupt your train of thought or your time in flow.
 Flowtime Technique Troubleshooting: If you find yourself not taking breaks

So, Im really excited about this technique. I am going to use this system exclusively this
upcoming week, my first week of class. I will give you guys an update on how the system
works for me, and show you all a bunch of my Flowtime data and analysis.