Why I Dislike the Pomodoro Technique — A Better Method For Focusing

Aaron Crow
7 min readDec 19, 2020
Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash

Here’s a familiar situation — you sit down, set a timer for studying, and go at it for as long as you can. You then proceed to glare at your monitor or notebook for as long as you have to to convince yourself that you’re learning and making progress. The problem is, you aren’t.

I’ve found that the way most people “study” is through brute mental force, attempting to somehow push themselves to take in information that they simply do not find interesting

In my experience, this is just the age old problem of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole — it just doesn’t work, no matter how hard you try. A few methods and studying techniques have been developed to circumvent this issue, but my experience with these is that they only create the illusion of increased productivity.

The Pomodoro Technique is one of these methods, which aims to help those who need to study but don’t have the self-control or focus ability to do so for longer than a half-hour. In essence, the technique revolves around setting a timer for around 25 minutes, working on whatever it is you need to, and then taking a 5-minute break. This would be repeated as many times as necessary and aims to keep your focus short and concise.

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Aaron Crow
Aaron Crow

Written by Aaron Crow

Aspiring writer and full time student. I enjoy writing about my perspective on life, learning, books, philosophy, and work.

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