Why I love timers

Oh humble tomato timer.  How useful you’ve become!  Some of you might remember this timer from your youth, or perhaps you’ve seen it in someone’s home.  While seemingly archaic, it is, in fact, exactly what you need. Or what I need.

Some people refer to this as the “pomodoro” method.  The concept is simple and something that I recommend to students and friends alike.  The idea is to divide each of your tasks into small usable chunks of time.  Traditionally, this is done in 25 minute increments of work with a 5 minute break.  Repeat that 4 times, then take a 10 minute break.  I’d like to say I’m disciplined and do it that way.  I’d be lying.  BUT, I do work in 25 minute chunks of time.  Sometimes, my breaks might be a bit longer than 5 minutes…I do have a tendency to get, distracted.  But working for 25 minutes does get the job done and having the timer there helps me from switching between windows on my computer.

There are many options when it comes to timers.  Some offer more regular tracking (I’m talking to you freelancers and data nuts).  Other timers, are just timers.  It just depends how you what you want.  I’ve worked with both.  I want to be data head and track my whole day…but I just can’t seem to do it.  Dreams.

Here are some options that I recommend:

www.toggl.com: Excellent for freelancers or anyone else who wants a powerful timer for multiple uses.  They also have a handy browser extension.

www.pomofocus.io: More basic but you can also do some basic tracking with it.

Or go old school and get yourself a real timer! There are a ton on Amazon