Plan Your Pomodoro

1. The facilitator leads the session by explaining the background to the Pomodoro Technique and why it can be useful to better plan our time. 

Francesco Cirillo developed an simple and effective time planning method. Wwheen working, we set a 25 minute timer to focus on a project, or group of tasks, take a 5 minute break after each 25 minutes. Each 25 minutes is called a Pomodoro (Italian for tomato) because he used a tomato-shaped timer to measure his time slots. After 4 Pomodoros, we take a longer, break, perhaps a 20 minute coffee break, or 30 minutes for lunch, maybe a 20 minute walk.

This exercise works by planning our day ahead into smaller, more manageable chunks. We'll do the exercise together in 25 minutes

2. The facilitator sets a timer for 25 minutes. Participants are invited to create a to-do list for the day, and plot them next to four pomodoros (two-hour slots) in which they think they can achieve their goal.

3. The tasks are broken down into manageable chunks of the day, remembering that each pomodoro represents 25 minutes of time.

4. At the end of the timer, participants can spend 5-10 minutes in reflective discussion, sharing their thoughts.

Further points

• This exercise can be repeated daily or weekly, to grow skills in self-management
• The to do lists can be revisited so that participants can reflect on whether or nor they have over estimated or under estimated the time it takes to complete a task.