Unusual Allies: Pomodoro and Flow

A Friendship I Thought Impossible

Photo by Roy Muz on Unsplash

I came across a video on YouTube whose thumbnail features the icon of the Pomodoro Technique as part of the word NOPE, and where its creator arguing that it isn’t suited to reaching flow, citing Andrew Huberman and what he pointed out in one of his videos, since focus is built up, and not a categorical skill you can jump in and out of.

I only partly agree — the Pomodoro Technique saved my focus and deep work throughout many years.

The statement of this method being inadequate to enter flow is about the 25/5 formula of the technique, and I agree that it isn’t compatible with flow, since the break might arrive right when you’re entering the zone, ruining the moment. But who told you that you have to adopt the same rigid formula? You can tweak it as you wish, as I’ll show you in today’s story.

Before that, I need to specify that my deep work doesn’t use the same structure every day. Here’s a summary of what it looks like:

• Monday: editing and scheduling three Medium posts.
• Tuesday: writing two harder/longer Medium posts I needed research for.
• Wednesday: reset day. I usually chill and read two long Medium stories.
• Thursday: writing three lighter Medium stories for which I didn’t need intensive research.
• Friday: research two topics for two stories, summarizing both into a map to use as reference, and personal research through a video and a book.
• Saturday: short story writing.

Every task has a different duration. I found the optimal duration for each through trial and error.

• Editing and scheduling can take me from 20 to 45 minutes.
• Writing long/difficult stories can take me from 20 to 60 minutes.
• Writing short posts takes me 20 minutes.
• Researching, reading and summarizing my findings into a map takes me 30 minutes.
• To write a short story I use the Trollope method, where you write in increments of 15 minutes each. I allocate two sessions every Saturday.

I rarely need longer sessions than those above, so when the timer rings, the task at hand has reached its natural completion.

If I need more time though, the solution is simple. I quickly check if I need to drink or go to the bathroom. If I don’t need to do any of those, I ignore the timer and I keep working, restarting the timer and skipping the break, and keeping my flow intact.

If mid-session I’m starting to get distracted because I need to go to the toilet, I pause the timer, I use the toilet and go back to work still feeling in the zone.

My breaks aren’t long. I usually stretch, take a stroll around the room, use the bathroom and then I’m ready to work again without feeling drained. I prefer to take longer breaks to expose myself to sunlight or grab a snack when I’m done with the deep work. It’s wild to think that the most popular productivity technique has its own biggest limits in its formula. As I already said, nobody ordered you to use it as is, instead of modifying it following your needs.

One trick I took from the video mentioned above, which I’ll link at the end of the story, is to start small, even 5 minutes is enough, to help you fight the friction of starting to work, and then increase the duration of the following session, and rate your focus at the end of every session to see how focused or distracted you were.

Avoiding the rigid structure of the original technique I was able to build my focus up, maintain it and enter the state of flow with ease. I have quite the two strong allies here, don’t you think?

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