Category Archives: Post A Week 2011

staying focused with the pomodoro technique

Posted on by
Reply
Pomodoro technique

Image by lucamascaro via Flickr

How do I stay focused when life is full of distractions? That’s a good question, but my answer is not very well.

I’ve recently been trying the Pomodoro Technique which is Italian for tomato. It was created by an Italian guy who used his tomato shaped egg timer to create a technique to stay focussed.

You simply chunk your time into 25 minute slots:

  • Work for 20 mins solid – jot down any distractions, but don’t follow them; then
  • Have a 5 minute break, where you can check your distractions
  • Every four “pomodoros” take a longer break (15-20 mins)

I’ve tried using this at work with reasonable success. The key is to break your work down into chunks that can be managed in 20 minutes. Once you have this down pat, you become really productive, and the time spent on distractions decreases over time.

How do you stay focused?

three countries i’d like to visit (and why)

Posted on by
Reply

1. Luxembourg: ever since I read Bill Bryson’s: ‘A Walk in the Woods’ where he briefly describes walking through the small European country of Luxembourg, I have wanted to do just that.

Bryson makes it quite clear that Europe sets the standard that he admires, noting, for example, that in Luxembourg, footpaths lead us into a cultural landscape of fields, wood lots, farms and villages, an encounter with “the whole of Luxembourg, not just its trees,”

Nacho Libre

Image via Wikipedia

2. Mexico: ever since I watched Nacho Libre, I have wanted to visit Mexico, and become a great fighter. Just kidding, but there is something about what I have seen about Mexico that makes it so appealing. Sanitation issues aside, I might one day visit there, but not when junior pixels is small and vulnerable.

3. Singapore: I’ve never visited Singapore, and the reason I want to visit one day is to try to see if it’s actually as bland as people say it is, because I reckon you could find something exciting about it if you really tried.