The Pomodoro method: stay focused on your revision

Have you ever noticed that you find it difficult to stay focused on a task when you’re revising or during your working day? Have you ever felt that even if you spent hours completing a task, you didn’t really make any progress?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, don’t panic, you are not alone. Francesco Cirillo created the Pomodoro method based on his own experience as a student.

In the 1980s, when he was still a student, Francesco Cirillo was looking for a way to stop procrastinating. He came up with the idea of working in intervals and timing his work sequences with a kitchen timer. This timer, called “pomodoro” in Italian, is where the method gets its name.

This approach is based on the principle that the more complex and time-consuming a task is, the greater the risk of procrastination. The aim here is to break down tasks into smaller, more manageable, and therefore more motivating sequences.

There are 4 stages in the implementation of this technique:

• Determine a task to be carried out. Don’t hesitate to divide your important tasks into several smaller tasks.
• Set a timer for 25 minutes and do nothing else but the task you have set for yourself during this time. This interval is called a “Pomodoro”.
• Give yourself a 5-minute break after each pomodoro to do whatever you need to do before diving back into a new pomodoro.
• After completing 4 pomodoros in a row, take a longer break of 20 minutes and do what you enjoy.

This method can be beneficial in your studies because of its many advantages:

• Getting started: Getting started on a full afternoon of revision can be difficult. The task seems so complex that we tend to procrastinate. With the Pomodoro technique, you have a clear goal to achieve work for 25 minutes without distraction. It feels much more attainable.
• Promote concentration: By focusing on one task at a time, the method prevents you from getting distracted. It also makes it easier to deal with distractions by putting them off until later. And if you are ever bothered by a distracting thought, write it down to free yourself from it. You can come back to it during your break.
• Reduce your fatigue: Breaks are necessary for your well-being. The great advantage of this method is that they are frequent and will feel like small rewards. However, in order not to overflow, also use the timer to schedule your breaks and don’t engage in activities that are too demanding during these short breaks (social networks for example).
• Stay motivated: with this method, you have a clear objective and a quick reward: your break. This clever mechanism will keep you motivated throughout your revision session.
• Better evaluate your progress: the advantage of timing everything is that you can take stock of the time spent versus the tasks you’ve completed during that time. You can therefore easily quantify the time it takes you to complete your assignments but also track your progress.

• Before you start revising, prepare a schedule and program your revision sessions with SCRIBZEE alerts. You will be reminded before each pomodoro session.
• Set a goal for each pomodoro. To do this, determine your overall goals beforehand, which you will break down into smaller tasks to achieve.
• Set your timer for 25 minutes: put your phone on aeroplane mode and do nothing but the task you are working on, no emails.
• Take your 5-minute break: during this short break, stretch your legs, chat with your friends. Avoid social networks as you can get caught up in them.
• Do 3 more pomodori at this pace. Then, before you take your break, write down your goal for the next pomodoro. You won’t waste time getting back into your revisions when you start a new pomodoro.
• Take your 20-minute break: During this longer break, take the opportunity to change your environment: see your classmates, go for a walk to really recharge your batteries, do whatever makes you happy.

The Pomodoro method is simple to implement. All you need is a stopwatch and the will to improve your productivity. With it, you can work more efficiently by staying focused on the tasks you need to do. No more frustrating periods of revision without feeling like you’re making progress.