I’ve been reading Staffan Nöteberg’s book on the Pomodoro technique and I’m almost ready to try it out. Basically, one selects several “work items” in the morning and then work on those in 25 minute sessions.  After every session there is a 5 minute break, and a 30 minute break after four sessions.  There are various other rules but not too many.  It seems to be just on this side of the border between crazy and sensible.  (By “this side” I mean the sensible side.)

I’ve have all of the materials: pencils, index cards, and an egg timer. I’m still figuring out exactly how to fit it into my routine, though. I have to teach for 50 minutes several times a week, adding up to roughly 8 hours per week.  And there are several informal meetings where the egg timer just won’t work. Or perhaps I’m just afraid to commit. In truth, I’ve discovered this technique at just the wrong time. It would have worked well in my “off” season, but next week I start teaching. I don’t want to do it just for one day — tomorrow — so I’ll probably postpone it for two weeks or so.

In the meantime I have thought of an excellent application for the egg timer. I’ve been drawing up the schedule for the mid-year Honours presentations, and a major problem is that the students overshoot their time limits. Well, the egg timer has quite a loud ring which I plan to put to good use.