Eat That Frog with Pomodoro
Procrastination exists in all of us in one way or the other. Some have less procrastination while others, like me, are taken over by it entirely.
Haven’t we all experienced something like that? Are there any other justifications for missing deadlines? No, we procrastinators, haven’t. The irony here is that it’s not our fault at all. There is a scientific justification for it. It’s actually the fight between 2 parts of the brain i.e. limbic system & prefrontal cortex. The first is associated with pleasure & emotion while later with logical thinking & decision making. When the unwanted task arrives the limbic system dominates & hence we are taken over by procrastination.
So the question is how to prevent it? The solution was presented/put forward in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, an Italian national. He came up with the technique to eat up his frogs of life. Later it became a technique to tackle frogs of other people’s lives as well.
Wondering what exactly is the technique? The answer is in the title. If you look at the title of my blog, there are two things that stand out, a frog, and a Pomodoro. Frog is a subjective term, it describes what is the thing that you absolutely hate to do and in turn, start procrastinating over it. Most of us have a few frogs in our life that we avoid at all costs. Whereas Pomodoro is the solution for that frog. It involves breaking down work into smaller parts spanning over 25 minutes in length and followed by a small break of 5 minutes. The person using this technique repeats the process described again and again until he/she reaches their desired goal or result.
For me, Online Course 2 for this week proved to be the ugliest frog as I had limited time left due to a lot of traveling this week. So I decided to eat that frog with Italian tomato i.e. Pomodoro. In order to apply this technique, I set a timer to 25 minutes & start the first section of the course. I was almost about to complete ( 80% progress) the toolkit but I was distracted. Unexpectedly I have some guests in the home and I had to attend to them. It took almost an hour until they left. I never felt bad about the arrival of guests but this time my mind was stuck in the completion of my task as soon as possible. After that, I disheartedly started again. This time I look for that corner of my house where no one can find me and start the work again. This time I completed the second toolkit without any major distraction. This thing boosted my energy. So after a 5 minutes break, I started section 3 and completed it in just 15 minutes. This momentum carried on and, in short, after the fourth cycle I completed 90% of my course. Following the Pomodoro I took a 15–20 minutes break. I went out of my room, took some fresh air, and asked for a coffee.
In the next cycle, I not only completed the remaining 10% of my task but found time to organize my notes well.
This experience was quite wonderful, amazing & sensational. It awakes in me the sense of achievement in me. Now I am eager to make the Pomodoro technique a habit in order to eat all those frogs that make me procrastinate.
If you plan to make yourself a better person, I suggest you use the Pomodoro technique to eat the frogs of your life as it will help you achieve your maximum potential.
