Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
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Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
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Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#2>Extending the length of the 25 minute pomodoro. If I’m in the deep work flow, I’ll continue past the 25 minute alarm.
Someone told me that its 25 minutes because it prevents you from building too much context in your head that prevents you from taking a break at 25 min mark. You can't do creative work if your brain is filled with lot of context. eg: TDD goes really well with pomodoro because you are only thinking about the next test and you can break on failing test so you can pick up right back. Is this a reason for 25 min for Pomodoro?
Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#3>Extending the length of the 25 minute pomodoro. If I’m in the deep work flow, I’ll continue past the 25 minute alarm. Someone told me that its 25 minutes because it prevents you from building too much context in your head that prevents you from taking a break at 25 min mark. You can't do creative work if your brain is filled with lot of context. eg: TDD goes really well with pomodoro because you are only thinking ab…
I used to advise friends to stick to the 25 / 5 minute break, but more because I thought that this enabled one to sustain this rhythm for longer. However, currently I'm experimenting with longer pomodori, with the reasoning that if I'm in the flow / deeply working, the value of that flow is too great to take the risk that I might break it because of an arbitrary break.
I think a better advice now would be to experiment, and see what suits you best in terms of sustainability, output and fulfilment.
Today I my pomodori were between 25 minutes and an hour. It's home time now, but I feel great due to a large part of the day filled with flow.
Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#4i've never seen anyone actually use a pomodoro in real life, and the occasional day i've given it s a shot, I end up thinking "this is silly, I'll just focus on my work".
I guess my protest is that it seems silly, especially when I'm focused on something and the timer goes off and I'm supposed to stop. It seems like its adding structure only for the sake of structure. Has anyone actually started using pomo, and stuck with it, and seen positive results?
Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#5>Extending the length of the 25 minute pomodoro. If I’m in the deep work flow, I’ll continue past the 25 minute alarm. Someone told me that its 25 minutes because it prevents you from building too much context in your head that prevents you from taking a break at 25 min mark. You can't do creative work if your brain is filled with lot of context. eg: TDD goes really well with pomodoro because you are only thinking ab…
I'll be honest; I've never understood this mindset. The idea of purposefully interrupting my flow every 25 minutes, explicitly dropping my context is ghastly. If you could design an ideal hell for me it would involve hard, interesting programming problems and constant (every ~10-20 minute) seemingly random external interruptions. (Its not an accident that I don't have children.)
Most of the work I'm really proud of happens in 1-1.5 week long coding binges, during which I code ~14 hours a day, don't eat well and don't get outside much. During that time my entire being is oriented around the problem. I sleep when I'm too tired to be productive and wake up with the problem spilling out of me.
I usually need a couple of weeks recovery time afterwards during which I'm pretty useless for anything thats not light and fluffy. But that time is 100% worth it. If I could work at that intensity for 1 week out of each month I'd be more productive than I have been at any 9-5 job I've ever had. Well, for a given definition of productivity.
So I guess I like pomodoros - I just think they should be about 1 week in length.
Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#6>Extending the length of the 25 minute pomodoro. If I’m in the deep work flow, I’ll continue past the 25 minute alarm. Someone told me that its 25 minutes because it prevents you from building too much context in your head that prevents you from taking a break at 25 min mark. You can't do creative work if your brain is filled with lot of context. eg: TDD goes really well with pomodoro because you are only thinking ab…
> You can't do creative work if your brain is filled with lot of context.
Intuitively I'd assume that the context and information in working memory is precisely what enables one to do "deep work". Constantly requiring you to rebuild your in-memory cache feels like it would lead to sub-standard work.
Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#7i've never seen anyone actually use a pomodoro in real life, and the occasional day i've given it s a shot, I end up thinking "this is silly, I'll just focus on my work". I guess my protest is that it seems silly, especially when I'm focused on something and the timer goes off and I'm supposed to stop. It seems like its adding structure only for the sake of structure. Has anyone actually started using pomo, and stuck…
I've had positive results with pomodoro. I honestly think it's more likely to be useful for people who are worse off than you are and can't focus or manage time. If you can sit and focus on your work without help, you don't need it.
Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#8i've never seen anyone actually use a pomodoro in real life, and the occasional day i've given it s a shot, I end up thinking "this is silly, I'll just focus on my work". I guess my protest is that it seems silly, especially when I'm focused on something and the timer goes off and I'm supposed to stop. It seems like its adding structure only for the sake of structure. Has anyone actually started using pomo, and stuck…
I use it, although I admit not religiously. Writing down my tasks I need to get done, then 'estimating' them in 25 minute chunks really helps me get my brain around the concept of time, just how little of it I have in a workday, and just how fast it passes, which is the real issue for me.
Also, there's nothing wrong with doing 2 or 3 in a row, if you feel like it.
Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#9>Extending the length of the 25 minute pomodoro. If I’m in the deep work flow, I’ll continue past the 25 minute alarm. Someone told me that its 25 minutes because it prevents you from building too much context in your head that prevents you from taking a break at 25 min mark. You can't do creative work if your brain is filled with lot of context. eg: TDD goes really well with pomodoro because you are only thinking ab…
I'll be honest; I've never understood this mindset. The idea of purposefully interrupting my flow every 25 minutes, explicitly dropping my context is ghastly. If you could design an ideal hell for me it would involve hard, interesting programming problems and constant (every ~10-20 minute) seemingly random external interruptions. (Its not an accident that I don't have children.) Most of the work I'm really proud of h…
Do you mind me asking if you are self-employed? The rhythm you describe very exciting, but impossible in most work places. What you are doing though is probably the only work pattern that surely qualifies as "a sprint".
Re: Deep Work: A welcome kick in the butt
#10i've never seen anyone actually use a pomodoro in real life, and the occasional day i've given it s a shot, I end up thinking "this is silly, I'll just focus on my work". I guess my protest is that it seems silly, especially when I'm focused on something and the timer goes off and I'm supposed to stop. It seems like its adding structure only for the sake of structure. Has anyone actually started using pomo, and stuck…
I've had positive results with pomodoro. I honestly think it's more likely to be useful for people who are worse off than you are and can't focus or manage time. If you can sit and focus on your work without help, you don't need it.
Haha, I wish! I have a notoriously hard time focusing through the day, especially if personal matters are weighing on my mind.