Taming Procrastination with a POMODORO
Whenever I’m asked to tell about myself, with other qualities, procrastination inconvertibly comes along. Writing this blog a day prior to the deadline self-proclaims the fact. Ironically, procrastinating and still meeting the deadlines further fuels the procrastinator in me.
Learning about this time management activity, with a very interesting name, of course, in Amal coursework, the curiosity in me urged me to just try this out and see how well does the hype about it prove to be true. Would it really accelerate my productivity and save time? Or it’s just going to be another technique kneeling down to my delaying tactics. Tickled with such thoughts, I chose my task for the POMODORO, which was completing the Amal Resume Course along with formulating my own ‘Superhero Resume’.
Setting the timer to 25 minutes, I started pursuing the coursework. I usually do my tasks in one sitting (as that becomes the only option due to long delaying), sometimes extending to 6 hours straight with an aching back on the completion of the task. And I rarely get disturbed by my family as they acknowledge my working routine. However, on this day, I was called thrice during the first 15 minutes of my 25-minute slice, making me start over the activity thrice. That was the first challenge I faced with this technique.
The first time-slice thus seemed longer than the rest. Quickly I drew a star on a blank paper as an acknowledgement of my baby-step accomplishment. In the second time slice, luckily, I did not have to start it over again. The cunning of the devil is always ready to let you get into the trap, so I got some hitches like ‘Why don’t I check my phone, get some updates, somebody might have messaged’ and guess what? I got trapped too. Scrolling down the social media, I all of a sudden realized that the timer had rung. Marking my second star, the feeling I had was not of accomplishment but self-realization. A wave of fathomless consciousness spread through me that how easily I got carried away with the distraction, that how this pointless scrolling took away a whole chunk of my 25 minutes. If it’s that easy to manipulate and distract me, how would I even be of any productivity and worth? This time while eating candy in my 2-minute break, I committed to myself that I would not let the devil win from now on.
Carrying on with the course, I prepared the resume side by side. After some time, there were three other stars on my page denoting another three time-chunks. And this time, not even with one distractive thought.
To my surprise, I did not even want to take my duly earned 15 minute reward time. The flow and spirit induced with that little realization proved to be my motivation for getting things done faster. At the end of my POMODORO, I had my ‘Superhero Resume’ ready in hand as my ultimate reward with a feeling of achievement.
