Focusing To Your Design & Coding Tasks Better: 5 Free Pomodoro Technique Apps
Every designer-developer can have hard times on concentrating to the projects they are working on. Sometimes, it is the project which is not exciting anymore or, sometimes, it is the beautiful weather outside.
I have (recently) met a popular method named "The Pomodoro Technique" that helps me work much more effectively since then. Let;'s hear about it from Wikipedia:
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that uses a timer to break down periods of work into 25-minute intervals called 'pomodori' separated by breaks. Closely related to concepts such as timeboxing and iterative and incremental development used in software design, it is based on the idea that frequent breaks can improve mental agility.
To sum up, it helps focusing on a task for a given time, taking breaks and performing this process regularly.
If you need a better concentration to complete that client website or the-next-killer-web-app you are working on, I suggest giving the technique a try.
Here are 5 free Pomodoro technique apps for an easy start:
Focus Booster (Windows, Mac, Linux, Web)
Focus Booster is an app with 2 versions: desktop (Adobe AIR) and web-based.
It has an elegant interface and comes with few settings like changing the session/break length or enable/disable sounds.
Pomodairo (Windows, Mac, Linux)
An Adobe AIR application that combines to-do-lists with the Pomodoro Technique.
Tasks can be defined, re-ordered with drag 'n' drops and any of them can be selected to start working on.
It keeps the logs for future analysis and there is a Twitter integration (which is experimental for now).
Pomodori (Mac)
The application is fixed to counting 25 minutes on a single session and has a very nice logging feature that displays hourly + daily pomodoris completed with their explanations (entered by the user).
Tomatoist (Web)
Tomatoist is a free web-based application that is very easy to work with by simply clicking to the few actions provided.
It can be reached from a custom URL, the application displays the past actions and also exists as an application on the Chrome Web Store.
Keep Focused (Windows)
A portable application that doesn't require any installation and keeps the logs of tasks being worked on.
If you want to read more about the Pomodoro Technique, there is a free e-book and cheat sheet on the subject.
P.S. This article is also written with the technique using few Pomodoris : ).
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