#pomodoro technique

[lupusmaxima]

2024/09/10

september’s going by so quickly already. my exam date will be here in no time… ahhhh!

[bl-mitchum]

Me: there’s no way the pomodoro method works! You are interrupted so much!!

Me (using it for the first time last night): Ohhhh… I worked for two hours and I’m not drained!! I see!!!

[yarensdiary]

How Hardworking Students Should Rest: A Guide to Staying Productive and Balanced:🎀

As students, we often find ourselves buried under a mountain of assignments, exams, and extracurricular activities. While it’s important to work hard and stay dedicated, it’s equally important to give your mind and body the rest they deserve. In this blog post, we’ll explore why rest is crucial and how to balance work and relaxation effectively.

Why is Rest Important?

Rest isn’t just about sleeping or being lazy; it’s an essential part of maintaining mental and physical well-being. Continuous study sessions without breaks can lead to burnout, stress, and decreased productivity. Taking regular breaks helps to:

• Refresh your mind: Breaks improve focus and retention of information.

• Boost creativity: Rest allows your brain to form new ideas and solutions.

• Reduce stress: Taking time off helps in managing anxiety and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

How Often Should You Rest?

The key to effective studying is incorporating regular breaks into your schedule. Here’s a general guideline on how often to rest:

1.The Pomodoro Technique: Study for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. After four cycles, take a longer break of 15-30 minutes.

2.Hourly Breaks: If you prefer longer study sessions, try studying for 50 minutes and then taking a 10-minute break.

3.Daily Rest: Make sure you have time each day to unwind and do something you enjoy—whether it’s exercising, reading, or spending time with friends.

4.Weekly Rest: Dedicate at least one day a week where you limit your study time and focus on relaxing and recharging.

Thank you!

[lutiaskokopelli]

I have an issue with constantly getting distracted, so I got distracted from working by making a 100% customizable Pomodoro App to keep my future self from getting distracted. Have a Google Drive download link.

The Pomodoro technique, if you don't know it, is a discipline method for keeping track of when you are working and when you are taking breaks, notably through the use of a timer.

There are tons of apps centered around this, and yet after looking at so many of them, I somehow could not find one that would do the most basic thing I'd like to have for a study companion: change the background of the app so that yes, I do have a timer telling me to work harder, but I also have an image of my choice to cheer me up along with it.

So what did I do? Did I take the rational, reasonable path, to just suck it up and stick to one of the already existing apps even though it would mean saying no to having my adorable Hearthian OC sleep in a corner of my screen?

Or did I go the hyperfocused insane route of utter procrastination and learn a whole new programmation language from scratch just in order to get my frikkin baby to comfort me while I work?

Yeah, who could have guessed.

So! The Google Drive link I shared will let you download everything you need in order to run your own version of this little app, including a tutorial on how to customize it to suit your needs.

The first thing you will see after unzipping the archive is this:

The "ast" folder (standing for "assets") contains every image used by the app -- which means that you can change them as you please! I even gave you transparent versions of the buttons in the "Asset Creation Help" subfolder, in case you like the shapes but want to change the backgrounds.

You think that's cool? Oh, but the image assets are far from being the only thing you can change for this app's behavior! You can change EVERYTHING that this app is doing (which isn't much because it's literally just three different types of timers, and even then there are some trickier details with more coding than others (but I still give tips on how to handle those), but shush. Everything this app can do, you can customize to your heart's content).

How do you do that? Well, this is what you get when you right-click on the "Pomodoro.ps1" file:

The Pomodoro.ps1 file is the "app" itself, written in PowerShell code that I made as legible as I could make it. There is a whole tutorial in there, made easier to read if you right-click on this file's icon and choose the "Edit" option. Have a preview!

Through editing this file, you can then run a Pomodoro app from which you can have the window's appearance customized, from its size, opacity (if you want to still half-see what's sitting behind it), and start position on your screen (the window can be dragged around, but if you have a preferred position you can tell the app to always load it in that preferred spot right from the get go), to stuff like the custom messages you get whenever the timer progresses:

So, yeah. I made a little app meant to help with productivity. One out of many already out there, sure, and it's probably not as cool as many others (but I'll just remind you that three days ago I knew absolutely nothing about PowerShell as a whole, so- I guess that would be still a little impressive that I was able to make a working app like that at all? xD), but as far as I've looked, it's the only one that will let you have your favorite images keep you company while you use it.

I don't know whether anyone other than me will like it enough to use it, but just in case, it's here! Hope it's as easy(-ish) to customize as I made it out to be, or at least close enough.

PS: The version I use for my own personal choices uses some slightly different assets compared to the version I share in the .zip file on my Google Drive. This is because the version I share online solely uses official Outer Wilds art (while the version I made for myself notably uses one piece of OW fanart that I did not make myself, and it didn't sit right with me to share that piece uncredited, even in an edited form. If you are curious, this is the artwork in question).

[raven27ceigo]

12.11.2024 ~~ i had a day off so i went out to try a new food place with my friend 🍂🍜🥘🍹

13.11.2024 ~~ locked in since morning till the evening... I'll be continuing after dinner 💪✨

⁠✯

✯

You can do it!! o⁠(⁠(⁠*⁠^⁠▽⁠^⁠*⁠)⁠)⁠o

(ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠) ✯

[eclipsellium]

Why I hate the pomodoro method.

You’ve probably seen someone suggest the Pomodoro method before— you do short sprints (typically 25 mins) followed up by a quick break (typically 5 mins).

I don’t like it, and I will never go back to using it. Don’t get me wrong, it can work really well! My sibling only gets anything done if they use this method, so there is something good about it. However, I’m going to talk about the downsides and what else to do instead of this method.

1. It focuses on time spent rather than results.

Many tasks are quite flexible in how long we take to complete them. Take walking home for example. When I am in a rush to school, it takes about 20 mins uphill, but my legs cramp really bad. When I’m just listening to my music and vibing, it takes about 30 mins downhill.

It's a similar idea for studying. Apply pressure on your learning and assignments, and they get completed faster. Too much pressure, you get exhausted or can’t think straight. (HINT: Procrastination). Too little pressure, and it takes forever to get anything done.

Different results require different amounts of time and pressure.

Trying to strive for a specific time frame undermines what your true goal is: to get some something done. The repetitive cycle assumes a “one size fits all” but that is rarely ever the case. Saying “I studied for two hours today” means nothing compared to “I wrote my essay, read a research paper, and annotated my notes from yesterday.”

2. It discourages focus and flow.

When I was trying out the method, I kept trying to find the ideal time for work and for breaks. The problem is it's never the same. Some days, you are more mentally exhausted and need longer and more breaks, otherwise you are just going to be miserable.

As it is, the five-minute break isn’t long enough to go on a short walk, take a dedicated snack, or fully disconnect. It’s a waste of time that taunts you with distractions that aren’t conducive to a good work environment.

The opposite is also true. Good days can be rare, so when you get into the zone, there’s no reason to come out of it for anything other than a natural transition. A ticking timer to your productivity doesn’t help, and breaking up that “flow state” isn’t maximizing your time or your efforts.

I also haven’t heard many people mention stamina. If you are in school and taking tests, you realize they are typically around the same length (90 - 120 mins where I am). The pomodoro method contradicts this. For a lot of people, focusing and doing your best on a test for such a long period of time can be difficult.

Oh, but that’s just life.

Maybe a part of it is, but you can take steps to improve your stamina during test taking. Spending upwards of two hours studying or taking practice tests, especially leading up to huge exams, can make the test fly by. Simulating test conditions is also a great way to study or increase pressure, which is what long term study periods achieve. Taking longer study periods also relates back to breaks. With the same amount of break time, you consolidate it into a greater block. You can grab a snack, watch an episode of your favorite show, take a walk outside, or do your hair. All fun stuff you can’t do with pomodoro.

3. It brings technology back into the equation.

If you’re using pomodoro method, most likely, its on your computer or your phone. Which means you have to have a device in reach and visible (for work on paper) or be constantly switching tabs (for work online).

Distractions are a huge part of this modern age, which means that you could inadvertently be teasing your mind with a computer game or social media or whatever you enjoy. Even if you don’t give in, you *are* losing focus.

Forget the clocks, forget the devices, forget the notifications. It’s so much easier to be productive if you have nothing else to do and no distractions to take you away from something that, at the heart of it, you enjoy. Because if you hate studying, why are you still reading this??????

This is really long so I’ll make another post about different study methods next week.

[ranoutofficssoiwritemyown]

Anyone else using lads quality time with them for pomodoro method and body doubling?? Helped a lot ngl idk why I didn't think of that before😭

[lady-nienna-the-magi]

Brain fog + study tips

Currently fighting against the brain fog as usual. I have studied for 1h out of today's 5h. Currently on my pomo break. My brain is worse than a plinko machine atm everything just disappears to the void.

My strategy at brain fog is:

Read/study slower !!!

Ask questions mentally (what is this segment about? What point are they trying to make? From which viewpoint? Are they having academic feuds towards something, if so, what and why? What key terms? What other scholars do they reference? When has this been written? Where has this been written, from which "field position"? etc etc)

Underline said observations

Write said observations down (with page numbers)

Cut your pomo slots shorter and let your mind just stare to the void for a bit, it's better for your brain than being in ig, tumblr whatever

A short nap is more refreshing than caffeine (sadly)

If still nothing works; try again later

[inbetweencoffees]

trying new methods🕰️

tried the pomodoro technique for the first time today and it worked surprisingly well! I got all my homework and studying done within an hour (unbelievable right?) and even managed to organise my notes. Today was filled with anxiety and a lot of exhaustion from yesterday. My math exam apparently was more draining that I thought and being a ta in the late afternoon didn’t help. Let’s make tomorrow a fresh start.

I’ll now try and see if the pomodoro thing helps with finally getting the next chapter of my fanfiction done, I by now feel sorry for the few readers :‘) exam season and writers block got the best of me. Update, 5:40pm.: I finished the chapter and uploaded it! Woho!

Todays highlight: saw one of my favorite teachers who seemed quite happy to see me as well!!<3

[objection-dot-lol]

@kupalinka6 I’m trying your strange tomato studying method wish me luck

[cordialbunny]

3/100 days of productivity

Had a nice lazy beach day and even though I'm panicking about exams I'm trying to not feel guilty about it bc it was my last full day with friends and family before I head back home.

-did one pomodoro session

-found a Spanish grammar book to work with

-made a Qatar student flight account

-made an effort to put away my phone when spending time with friends

-skin care routine

-showed my family I loved them

-got 10 k steps :) (still had to run across the room 100 times to get that)

[rainyblazepost]

Yesterday my procrastination got me, and it was awful as always..

Yet it wasn’t that bad, since still i managed to get done few things. In fact I kept revising Histology.

The pomodoro technique was really helpful yesterday. I made three sessions of hall an hour, divided by 5 minute breaks (a cookie break because studying makes me sooo hungry 😣)

First pomodoro 🍅

cellular junctions

cartilage

exocrine glands

Second pomodoro 🍅

pharyngeal arches, pouches and grooves

Third pomodoro 🍅

thyroid and tongue

osteoclasts

Good work to anybody who is reading this!!✨💕 Manifesting for procrastination to leave us alone!(at least for today).

[coralinefl0wers]

pomodoro timers my beloved, just found one w rain ambience and classical music for the breaks, blessings to whoever made it

[study-core-101]

Popular Study Methods I dont like

(By Jay)

A list of study techniques that dont work for me at all. But study methods can work amazing for one person and then just complicate studying more for another. If they work for you, awesome, i'm happy about that. These are my personal experience with them, a lot of people wont relate and thats fine, people are different. But if you relate why these common/popular methods dont work for me, know you arent the only one and that there are more options. People might tell you "this method is amazing, you should do this" and there for you is shit.

Memorazing

Avoid this. Yeah, I know I said it's subjective but this is the exception to the rule. When you memorize you dont learn. You cannot conect concepts because you dont understand. One thing is memorazing formulas, which is nessesary, but memorazing everything doesnt work. Understandment is way better. Yes, we need to remember and storage the information in our memory, but memorazing is different. Knowing the theory word by word is shit if you cannot explain it in different words, connect it with other concepts or put ut in practise.

Flashcards

Yep, studyblr favourite study method. Bear with me.

For me, it is a really passive way. When i make the Q&As of the flashcards, i remember the answers. I dont think. I associate the words. And then, when the test has the questions phrased different, my mind goes blank. It seem liked i learned because i remember but i wasnt actually learning.

Now you are probably thinking "use it for vocabulary". That doesnt help me either. Maybe it helps for knowing the meaning in a reading, but writing? I cant remember the spelling. For learning to spell a word i need to write it down. Use it in a sentence. Reading it over and over doesnt do anything.

All-nighters

Oh god, there is nothing worse than an all-nighter. One all-nighter will ruin your sleep schedule for weeks and tired=learn less. Plus, too much all-nighters lead to burn out.

With better time management, all-nighters wouldnt probably exist, or at least, be reduced by a lot

Also, as someone with chronic migraines, an all-nighter'd only give me a week straight with only terrible pain and i prefer failing a subject than that (i'd had to learn the hard way that lesson. always prioritaze your health)

Pomodoro

It's a little bit hypocrital of me to put it here, as I usually reccomend it to others. But personally? It just de-motivaties and stresses me. (disclaimer: it is a good technique, thats why i recomend it even if it doesnt work for me).

I'll explain why. The only way i can do a lot of productive stuff together (or just a long assignment) is to "get in the mood" or have like a "streak". I usually have to power through the first 5-10 minutes of studying and then i get super motivated and do a lot until my brain asks for a break. When the timer rings, it breaks it and i have to repeat the rutine again. It wouldnt be so bad if it wasnt that i work 3 or 4 times faster when i motivated than when i am powering through.

Also, having the self-impose deadline of a pomodoro (i know it isnt technically a deadline, but for some unknown reason, my brain processes it as one) makes me nervous and gives me anxiety. Just knowing the timer is going to go off anytime un-focus me. It's unnesesary stress.

[pixiedust111]

How to Learn Effectively?

(Tips and tricks!)

1. Apply Pomodoro technique, that is, study for 25 minutes and then take rest for 5 minutes. Do not look at your cellphone in this time, rather go, have a walk to refresh your mind. After 4 sessions, take a long break. Or you can modify it according to your convenience, e.g., study for 50 minutes and take rest for 10 minutes. It's okay to study less, but you have to get deeply absorbed into what you're studying.

2. Imagine the topic as you're studying. Use analogy and visualization. For example, "What is API?" Imagine a restaurant where the kitchen is the backend, and where you sit to eat is the frontend, now API is the waiter who takes your order, goes to kitchen and bring you ready food!

3. Take notes as you're learning, then freshly rewrite it in an organized way on your notebook.

4. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. For example, a math or figure drawing requires practice. Now do it without having a look at the solution. You'll make mistakes, but then you'll get to see your weakness, where you need to improve. Practice is boring but it's the most effective way.

5. Try to have at least 8 hours of sleep at night. Sleep helps consolidate memories by strengthening synaptic connections formed during the day, making temporary information more likely to be stored in long-term memory. So, it's a must for effective learning.

6. When you're bored, pick an interesting topic. When you're stuck, skip the topic and move ahead. But don't give up.

7. Study consistently. No matter how little you study, it's better than not studying at all.

"My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time." — Charles Dickens

[lifeofgracie]

Last night was thoroughly getting wrecked by my history notes, still have over 20 pages to take notes on, but pomodoros with cats will forever keep me going.

(Also cinnamon horchata tea from yogi with milk and sugar is a top tier study beverage if your hitting the books a little bit before bedtime...no caffeine but warm n sweet, perfect study drink imo)