Working in Sprints

Why the Pomodoro Technique is so Effective!

If you talk to any ADHD’er about getting started on projects, most will tell you, it’s difficult, especially if the project is not something they are interested in.

Your ADHD mind is wired to be engaged.

When you are not engaged, getting started becomes harder and harder to do. Quickly, you find yourself in a procrastination loop and then shame rears it’s ugly head!

How do you prevent this dangerous cycle? 

There are several ways, but for this post, I’m focusing on one... working in sprints. 

Working in sprints means you are working in smaller increments of time.

This may not work for every task but it does work on many of them. One of the best ways to practice this theory is with the Pomodoro Technique.

(According to Wikipedia)

The Pomorodo Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980’s. You use a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short 5 minute breaks. 

It won’t surprise you to know that I believe any strategy should be made to be your own. So the amount of work and break time is up to you. I recommend practicing with different time frames with different projects, and figure out what works. 

Why is the Pomodoro Technique good for ADHD? 

• It’s much less overwhelming to work on something for 25 minutes than 3 hours. 

  • If you have three hours of work to do, break it down to 6 pomodoro’s. 

• Break the avoidance trap, change the work time from 25 minutes to 5 minutes, you can do anything for 5 minutes.

• One of the ways to get started is to make the task more engaging. If you make a game out of the Pomodoro Technique, you make the task easier to do. This is especially true for household chores. Challenge yourself to get as much done as you can before the timer goes off! 

Thank you for your time and attention! 

-Nikki