Pomodoro Technique Illustrated: The Easy Way to Do More in Less Time (Pragmatic Life)

As the first book after Cirillo's original masterpiece dedicated to the Pomodoro Techique in it's entirety, Swedish Software Programmer cum Pomodoro guru Staffan Nöteberg's Pomodoro Technique Illustrated escaped my notice for 2 years. Better late than never, I ordered my copy, set my Beloved It's Pomodoro Time to 7 Pomodori and I read on!First of all, this is a respectable effort in every which way: Nöteberg blends a good amount of practical Pomodoro experience with secondary research on human brain, psychology, and various cognitive theories to appraise the technique from all sorts of angles. In doing so, Nöteberg not only lays a strong foundation for future Pomodoro researchers, but also widens the practical appeal of the technique as he shows it to be highly compatible with the findings of cutting edge research in time management.Along the way, Nöteberg makes quite a few unique contributions to the Pomodoro practice. I found his "Now" list particularly useful. Like most intuitive things that make you go "How come I didn't think about this?", "to-do now" list points at the obvious: Build a manageable daily to-do list and add your top priority task to your 1-task-only "now" list. And then just do it. Simple, eh? Like loading a gun with a single bullet and then firing it...Nöteberg addresses every imaginable aspect of Pomodoro practice including tools, management of break and Pomodoro periods, group work, effort estimations, handling interruptions, managing your task list, and many others with a friendly yet authoritative voice. The book is full of sound, practical advice delivered crisply and concisely that would serve both novice and expert Pomodoro practitioners equally well. I'd like to quote a few here:-"...working overtime is like shopping with a credit card. With it, you buy things you can't afford right now"-"with the pomodoro technique, rating 25 minutes of effort as a success gives us immediate feedback"-"focused, quality work is the goal of the Pomodoro, and a focused, quality relaxation isthe goal of the break"-"never switch activities in the middle of a Pomodoro"-"when you estimate that an activity will take more than seven Pomodori, the it's too complex. You'll need to break down the activity"I found a few topics in the book, such as his emphasis on constant reassessment (just how many times a day can you set strategic goals?) and Recording & Processing begging a bit more clarification.Finally, there is something to be said about the eye-catching illustrations on virtually every single page of the book. They are so cute that it hurts - possibly reflecting the playful and intiutve nature of the Pomodoro Technique. Well done Mr. Nöteberg!

This is a very simple and easy book to read. It is by no means a comprehensive time management system.Many time management systems focus on strategic goals in life - i.e. 7 habits of highly effective people.The pomodoro technique is highly tactical. Rather than answering the question, "what should I do in life?", it attempts to answer the question, "What should I do right now?"The technique involves basically prioritizing tasks for the day, and then commiting to working on particular tasks in 'pomodoros' which are blocks of focused time - recommended at 25 min a piece. For a particular pomodoro, one commits to ignoring all distractions - including distractions from OTHER work pulling at you.Sound simple? It is and it isn't. Anything that interrupts a pomodoro invalidates it. A coworker interrupts, a bathroom break? Doesn't count as a pomodoro.The purpose is to truly instill the discipline of focus. and to learn how to divert interruptions. The technique urges timing each pomodoro, and keeping a record of interruptions, so that one might improve at it. Between pomodoros breaks are allowed, but these are recommended to be time boxed as well.In practice, it is surprisingly difficult to complete more than 4-6 pomodoros in a day (for me at least), and striving to do so has improved my prioritization and focus. The author does NOT recommend that a person live their life by the pomodoro, but rather use it as a tool for when they want to get serious work done. I find that it complements other agile practices quite nicely and have found it useful to implement from time to time when appropriate.Recommended.

The Pomodoro Technique Illustrated is a small little book about a simple personal time-management techniques called "Pomodoro". It was invented by Francesco Cirillo (who does a foreword) and involves small 25 minute time-periods called Pomodoros in which you intensely focus followed by a short break. The technique asks you to measure your focus so you can reflect and improve.The Pomodoro Illustrated book consists of seven chapters. The first two chapters sort-of provide the background. Especially chapter two covers a lot of ground but all very brief and shallow, but does give some background on why the Pomodoro technique works. Chapter 3 is the actual Pomodoro explanation and then chapter 4 and 5 explain how to deal with interruptions and give some hints on estimation. Chapter 6 talks about whether and how you should adapt the Pomodoro technique and chapter 7 closes the book with some ideas on how you could apply it in a team context.The book is short and easy to read (the technique isn't very hard). Each of the pages comes with an illustration that explains or clarifies the concept describes (or provides some fun). The illustrations make the book quite special. Based on the content of the book, I'd probably rate it at 3 stars as it does what it should do but didn't feel incredibly special. Considering the illustrations, I've bumped up the rating to 4 as the illustrations do make the book special.All in all a simply book and if you want to know about using Pomodoros for managing your own time, then this book will be for you. If you've read another description, then do think twice because the book will give you some additional information but doesn't surprise much in the technique as the technique is just incredibly simple. Nice job.