How Pomodoro Timer App helped me regain focus

For me, focusing was never a problem. I was that annoying kid who could concentrate for 8-10 hours at a stretch without complaining. This was a pattern that continued into adulthood, until I had to experience my own set of tragic events. Intractable neurodegenerative diseases claimed the lives of my parents and 17-year-old dog. It didn’t help that it happened alongside a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic. And because I’m a genius, I decided to make digital media my bread and butter, an industry held together by fraying duct tape and brain worms.

Needless to state, 2022 started out as a hot mess. My focus was lost in all the doomscrolling and grief. Things spiraled to the point where I’d walk into a room, forget why I was there, return to the room I came from, remember what I was supposed to do, walk back into the first room, and forget again. But the reality of adulthood is you only have a month before you’re expected to resemble a functioning human again. My problem was I didn’t know how. Surprisingly, I found the answer in a tomato-timer.

Pomodoro timesrs can be used to help you remember your time. Pomodoro Technique. Francesco Cirillo invents the idea of dedicating 25 uninterrupted minutes to one task. When you’re done, you can take a five- to 10-minute break. Each 25-minute interval is called a Pomodoro, and after four Pomodoros, you can take a longer 15–30 minute break. You can use the time left to review your work and plan for future Pomodoros if you finish earlier. You can also adjust the intervals and breaks to make it work for you.

I’ve used Pomodoro timers off and on for the past decade (perhaps longer), but they never really stuck. I used them mostly in school to study for my exams. The timer was only used in my school days to study for exams.

Along with meeting work deadlines, I had also to plan funerals at my home and in South Korea. I had to consult with probate lawyers, learn how to be an executor of my parents’ estates, deal with real estate sharks, and even spend 45 minutes explaining to a Citibank rep that my mom was dead and couldn’t come to the phone. Because everything was urgent and I had a lot of things to do, I didn’t know where to begin. These receipts resembling CVS receipts. Worst, I couldn’t focus on anything more than a few seconds at a stretch. I needed a Pomodoro with an integrated to-do-list.

After searching the internet, I came across this site. The Things You Need to Do. I didn’t expect much — it’d never stuck before, so why would it now? Although I made a lot of mistakes, the first week showed me a small improvement. I was much more efficient at getting the little things done. The little tasks that seem to be annoying but are not completed often get put off the agenda. These tasks make me anxious but I felt tremendous relief this week.

Focus To-Do will give you an estimate of the time it will take to complete your list. It helped me see what I could accomplish today and what could be moved to the next morning. It helped me to see how much time I spent on repetitive tasks. I know that it takes six to eight Pomodoros for me to write 2,000 word.

My little breaks allowed me to take some time off. I stopped scrolling Twitter in search of more brain worms. Instead, I made myself leave my desk. My rule was I could do anything I wanted so long as I wasn’t chained to my keyboard. I’d pick up packages, water my plants, or declutter my kitchen counter. For longer breaks, I’d go for a walk outside or Play with my rotund cat. During my grief, it always felt like I couldn’t do anything I enjoyed. This affected every aspect of my daily life, making it difficult to do anything other than go to work. But what this silly little timer did was create space for me to relax — knowing the work would get done. For the first time in a long time, I’m starting to feel like myself again.

All of this took time. It all happened slowly over the course of this past year. I didn’t even notice how much had changed until a few weeks ago. Each person has their own ways of dealing the loss and mental fog over the past three years. But if, like me, you’ve been scrambling for a way to organize your time, this is a free, widely available tool to try. You don’t have to use the one I do or follow the Pomodoro Technique to the letter. (I definitely don’t.) A kitchen timer can be an actual device or an app that you have on your phone. Sometimes, all you need is a little push. For this, tomato timers are a great option.