ADHD

Love it, nothing would get done without it. A few tricks and changes I applied over the decades:

• When you are in a hard spot, or habit building, or a child, 25 minutes can be too much. How about 10 minutes. The thought that after those 10 minutes I'll be more skilled at X than ever before IN MY LIFE can be quite motivating.
• Similarly, how about just ONE session? Seems ridiculous, but what I got done with that over 10 years is nothing short of amazing.
• Be super-serious about it. You can get water upfront, you can go to the toilet, but not once the session started. It's essentially Squid Game, and only the player who crammed the most into their head survives. If you have to pee, you pee in your pants. You don't get water. When you do break the rules, e. g. because there is literally a fire (react to fire only if survival chance is < 90 %), the session is marked as failed and you are done for the day. It's DEFINITELY better than half-assing two sessions even a little bit, like reacting to a phone buzz or door bell or getting water.
• Audio-Log. Your task is serious (see above), it's like reviving a frozen Neanderthal. Example: "It's Jan 1 2025 3 p.m. Ready to start the 25 minute countdown and point of no return ... now. Ok, max performance needed. Item of highest priority: Find position in book and recap what we learned yesterday with a 42 second timebox. Note: After 42 seconds, acquisition of new information directly will become more effective than preparing for it. Timebox counting down now on second timer. ..." I just hope nobody ever finds my audio logs, or I'm in the nuthouse for good.

One of the things I love about it is that it gives a unit of measure. It's no longer like: I want to be a programmer, so I have to do this for a couple of years with no clear end. It's a unit of progress that can go on a todo-list and be checked off.

So yes, for learning new things, it's still my way to go. Usually with 1 unit per day only, 45 minutes, sometimes 25. Most other tasks offer a different breakdown. E. g. cleaning up - can't just do it. But it is less threatening with checkable tasks like: 1. put all garbage in a bag. 2. put all non-foods in box 1. 3. ...

My friend tried to get me to do this and I've tried so many times and failed to get it to work every single time. I'd do it for like a day or two if that and start to continue tasks past the timer or not start a different task and everything just unravels from there

The interval thing never worked for me. But the timer helped me keeping focus. I use an app where the timer gets the name of the task I'm doing and every time I get distracted, I can see what I am supposed to do and refocus. The timer is just set to the minimum time I want to work on that task or if I need to finish it, the time i think I'll need for it.

It doesn't work for me, sadly. I hate timers and time blocking. What works for me is setting up reminders, and then doing things whenever I've mustered up the energy to; it's been proven to be pretty efficient so far. I will always do that - unless there's something that I absolutely need to set up a timer for, or time block. That usually includes meetings or working on a project with someone else.

Doesnt work for me. 25 is too long if I'm struggling, and if I start getting into it, a five minutes break spoils my flow. I've had more success with "I know you don't want to do this, so let's just do as much as we can in 10 minutes". And sometimes ten minutes is all I need to break a tasks back (writing some email I'd been avoiding), or I kinda get into it and am fine to continue. And if I'm really stressed and just want to escape even after starting, then I go spend some time de-stressing and try something else.

I found pomodoro to be great for eating the elephant one bite at a time. If I have a large task or project that just needs time to work on the constituent parts, for me it’s a great way to set up guardrails so I don’t wander into another obscure corner of the internet. Gamifying this kind of work is helpful for me.

I've tried it a few times but so far it made things worse. Knowing there is a timer running just distracts me so much. Like I want to look at it or at least I think about it all the time.

It helps me a lot for getting started and staying on task. I used to use the countdown timer with alarm, but now I use Windows stopwatch timer with it set to be always on top so it's near the top right corner. Whenever I get an automatic impulse to open a distraction tab it helps me catch myself. I let it run until I notice I'm over 25 min. Then I decide to break or keep going. If I break, I set it to count up again so I see how much time I've spent on break. This seems to be a decent compromise for flexibility for me.

Never works for me. Sometimes a task just gets less boring and Pomodoro interrupts that. If I super simplify what works for me, I prefer scheduling a task I like after the one I'm struggling to do because I find it boring or stressful. So I keep myself motivated by reminding myself, the next one is fun, I just need to get over the boring one.

It's a great starting point. Live it, customize it to your needs, internalize it, then discard it like training wheels

When I finish a task, I get up and walk. When I get frustrated, I get up and walk. When I think I've found the answer, I get up and walk. When I realize I'm on the wrong path, I get up and walk

Over learning does nothing but bore me, sometimes a task is so easy I plow through the next one, sometimes a task is too big or I reach a good stopping point and walk to recollect myself. I don't need to think about it anymore

I don't need a timer anymore, my body is a variable timer - time is subjective after all. But I used pompdoro to instill the habit, then I grew beyond it - my version might not work for you, maybe you'll even need the timer - but it's a great technique, so use it, take the good and discard the useless, and adapt it to you over time

Never heard of it. Enlighten me please.

Use it for tasks you tend to put off and don't use it for tasks you tend to hyperfocus.

Right now I mostly use it for boring time-consuming chores, otherwise I don't bother.

I will hyperfocus when I am coding at work, so I never use it then

After mediocre performance at school and undergraduate degree, I started using Pomodoro for my masters and crushed it. It helped significantly by keeping me on task. If you’re interested, I highly recommend you try it and see if it works for you.

They definitely help me stay on track. I usually spend the 25 minutes on a hyper focus activity that I get lost in and could spend hours on, and the 5 minutes on a painful task like cooking where I wouldn't know where to start and wouldn't begin spontaneously (the 25 minute gap gives me time to plan what to do next, and the 5 minutes of manual work gives me time to check I didn't get sidetracked on the main task)

Works... sometimes. Could never really follow it, tried different versions of it(50-10, 40-20, 30-10) and results are mixed.

I would say not to focus too much on the timer , get up and walk around if you feel like so, just remember to not touch addictive stuff in the breaktime (Video game, YT, etc....).

Did something similar before being diagnosed and it sucked and I hated it. Too rigid to maintain focus when I actually started to focus, too many interruptions.

Doesn't work for me. The breaks break my focus entirely.

What did work was "if I can study for 20min, I will have studied enough for today." Which sometimes followed with hyperfocus resulting in studying for a time. 20min or 2hours were both victories in my book.

I’ve found that it destroys my hyperfocus periods, which is the only time I’m actually able to be productive, so I stopped doing it.

I don’t know how people get anything done with constant interruptions. My brain does that enough already.

The extended approach with fixed intervals and breaks doesn’t work for me, but I’m using a timer to get started on things that I can’t commit to otherwise. It’s mostly initial momentum in my case.

How long have you been trying it out for?

It may just need tweaking so it fits your goals.