Pomodoro at work

An office day is cut into pieces by meetings, messages and people. The method does not remove them. It helps you protect a few solid rounds between them.

Be realistic about the number

A student on holiday may complete twelve pomodoros. In an office job with meetings, calls and shared work, far fewer are possible, and the remaining hours are not wasted: they are the part of the job that is done with other people. Count your free blocks first. If today has a 10 o'clock meeting, lunch and a 4 o'clock call, you may have room for six or seven rounds. Planning for sixteen only produces guilt.

Pick the work that deserves a round

Not everything needs a timer. Use pomodoros for work that needs thought and suffers from interruption: writing a proposal, building a spreadsheet model, reviewing a contract, preparing a presentation, analysing figures, writing code. Routine work such as approvals, short replies and filing can be grouped into one "small jobs" round. The page on splitting and grouping tasks explains this.

Put the hardest round first

For many people the first hour at the desk is the clearest of the day, and it is often spent on email. Try reversing it: one or two pomodoros on the most important task before opening the inbox. If your job requires a morning check of messages, limit it to ten minutes with the timer, note what needs action, and then start the round.

Colleagues and chat

• Say it once, plainly. "I am working in 25 minute blocks to finish the report. I will come to you at quarter past." Most colleagues accept a clear time.
• Set your chat status. A status such as "Focus until 11:25" answers the question before it is asked.
• Batch your replies. Read chat and email in the short break only if something is expected; otherwise in fixed slots, for example at 11, 2 and 5.
• Know the real emergencies. Agree with your manager what counts as urgent and how it will reach you, such as a phone call. Then everything else can wait 25 minutes.

The interruptions page gives the exact words and the method for noting each interruption.

Meetings

A meeting is not a pomodoro and is not a break. After a long meeting, take five minutes before you start a round, and use the first minutes of the round to write down the actions that came out of the meeting. If your calendar is full of half-hour gaps, one pomodoro fits in each gap, but only if you already know which task it is for. Keep a short list of "one-round tasks" ready for such gaps.

End the day with a record

Before you leave, count the rounds and note which task took them. Over a month this record becomes valuable. You will know that a monthly report costs you nine rounds, not "a day or so", and you can say so when deadlines are being set. It also shows which days are destroyed by meetings, which is useful evidence when you ask for a meeting-free morning.

If your work is mostly reactive

Support desks, reception, sales counters and similar jobs cannot shut the door. There, use the method for the non-reactive part only: the hour of paperwork, the training module, the monthly summary. Even two protected rounds a day, at a quiet hour agreed with your team, move that work forward.

Working from home brings its own problems; they are covered on the work from home page.

Questions people ask

Open the timer

More guides

An independent site. The method described here was created by Francesco Cirillo, and Pomodoro Technique is his registered trademark. This site is not connected with him or his company. The timer is free, needs no login and keeps your settings and counts only in your own browser.