Comments on: Managing Distractions

By: Shawn Hoover

Shawn Hoover — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:01:47 +0000

I don’t do pomodoro, but in a fit of inspiration from http://www.43folders.com/2008/08/07/clear-line about making time to make, I implemented a policy of no IM in the mornings. It works for me because my coworkers are 3 hours behind and I would only be chatting with friends during that time. I’ve pruned away all distracting apps, so as long as I only check email “occasionally” I’m in good shape as far as totally unrelated distractions. The problem is there are worse distractions that happen to LOOK like work, like twiddling with an emacs config or checking out the code or docs from other projects.

By: Anthony Panozzo

Anthony Panozzo — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:16:21 +0000

The virtual desktops / text document for distractions is pretty much the format that I follow as well. Makes it pretty easy to separate what you are working on. I follow the same strategy for twitter as well, although typically I only do this once or twice a day. At some point was thinking about doing a followup post because it was one of the more popular posts I had, will keep these things in mind as well. Still haven’t figured out the answer to Hammer’s question awhile back about how this works in a team environment.

By: jon

jon — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:29:25 +0000

Alright! You twisted my arm enough! I added graceful degradation for non-Win7 systems now.

Give it a shot, let me know what you think. (It’ll take 25 minutes+Growl before you get any feedback at all that its working… I’ll add a timer view eventually, for those folks without Win7)

By: Daniel Meyer

Daniel Meyer — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:56:48 +0000

I need something like this!

I downloaded Pomodo7o and tried to run it (Snap!) but it is either only for Windows 7 or I don’t know what I’m doing.

Thanks for helping me get moving on this. Too much waste!

By: jon

jon — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:49:42 +0000

It definitely helps to have a decent sized list, but I tend to not have a problem while I’m at work. If I run out, I’ll just go grab something from the board.

I use it at home to keep focused on chores that I don’t enjoy doing or other items that need focused attention (preparing talks, researching living arrangements, etc.). When I run out of things to do… drink beer/watch basketball/’check out’.

By: Derek Hammer

Derek Hammer — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:37:30 +0000

The pomodoro technique is great but when I’ve tried it I’ve found it to be most effective when you have a long list of tasks to get done.

It was hard for me to maintain a long list of things to get done. Is this true for you?