Beating the Pulp Out of Pomodoro: Smashing Procrastination

I came across the Pomodoro technique in 2016, or maybe early 2017, when I was reading How to Win at College by Cal Newport. Since then, he has been one of my favorite productivity writers, and a very ardent supporter of Digital Minimalism. Then, a year ago I followed Ruby Granger on YouTube, and she is super productive. I watched basically to give myself some panic alarm to go do something of value, instead of just scrolling down social media. On a personal note, I only used this technique during my exams, when it’s racing against time, and the course you have been ignoring for a long while, do not try this at home. So yeah, I tried this technique this time to finish ahead of time.

I had to write a research proposal and it was scaring me a lot. Instead, I did other tasks like going on a movie spree or just idling around at home or cooking some weird stuff. I was avoiding it till the last minute and somehow decided. Eh! Whatever! Let’s smash this monster of Procrastination. The key is just to start; it doesn’t get easier, but at least you find momentum.

So, I set up the timer for 25 minutes and then started reading the citing material, going through important tasks. 5 minutes break and then back to the task. This helped me in getting stuff done in a short while. I lasted 3 hours, then another day some more hours and so on. Also, I felt so down, was about to give up, but then my friend gave me the same challenge, do it and so I did. Pomodoro saves time for people like me, too much into details that they forget the bigger picture sometimes.

Hope it gives some assurance to procrastinators out there that they can beat their procrastination. Signing off as I write these words, while a Pomodoro timer is running in the background.