Forgot to add, I use the focus booster application as a timer http://www.focusboosterapp.com/
On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 6:50 PM, Aditya Bhattacharyya < [email protected]> wrote: > To be honest I had never heard of the Pomodoro Technique before and I tried > it only after I read your mail. And I am glad I did. My execution has > possibly improved (I am a procrastinator par excellence:)) but more > importantly I have a much better feel of how much work I can handle in a > day. > > I have tried to implement the Pomodoro technique in MLO and this is what I > have done. > > I have used flags. I have assumed that on a perfect day I can execute 12 > pomodoros and have enabled 12 flags naming them Pomo1 to Pomo 12. I also > have a Planning Pomo flag and a Recording pomo flag. > My "activity inventory list" is the MLO outline view. > For my "activity for today list" I have enabled a view that shows me tasks > that are due upto today + tasks I complete today. > The filter I have used is > Action Filter : All > In Advanced Filter > * Rule 1 : DueDateTime on or before Today (AND) > * Rule 2 : Active Action is True (OR) > * Rule 3 : CompletedDateTime on Today > In Group /Sort > * Group by Flag > > While in this view I decide which tasks would get done in which pomodoro > and apply the appropriate pomo flag to the task. I capture the estimated > time (in effort area) against each task. As soon as the sum of task times > against a flag reaches 30 min, I assign the next pomo flag to > the subsequent task and so on. > > What about tasks that take more than 1 pomodoro to complete? What I am > doing is that I create a duplicate of the task and assign the task to the > next pomodoro flag. In any case I try and break up tasks so that each task > is not more than 1 pomodoro long,so this is not such a huge issue. > > Recording : I have enabled several views which looks at completed tasks by > Top Parent (The top parent in my outline view captures my broad goals in > life (Areas of Focus)), by day, by project etc that gives me a view to how i > am doing and whether I am being productive enough. Going over these views is > basically what I do as a part of my recording & review. If the time I take > is very different from my estimate, I capture it in the notes area. It has > issues because deviations from estimates being captured in notes which does > not show in the column view. However since most of my tasks are 1 pomodoro > or less, the deviations are not too great. However this is a weak area and I > do not know how to solve it. > > Another thing that I have done is I have enabled contexts based on the type > of activity like @Call, @Learn, @Mail etc and try to bunch similar activity > types in a pomodoro. > > regards > Aditya > > On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 5:39 AM, Richard Collings <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Yes - so I gather but as a peripheral member of that community, it had >> completely passed me by up until now. >> >> One of the things that I liked about it from an initial scan was the fact >> that he draws on the work of a range of other interesting people one of whom >> is Tom Gilb who, it could be argued, originated many of the agile concepts >> 15 years before they became fashionable and who has been one of my guiding >> lights since the mid 1980's. >> >> Are you using MLO in a Pomodoro sort of way? If so, I would be really >> interested to hear how. >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: >> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Mark Levison >> *Sent:* 13 November 2009 1:41 a >> *To:* [email protected] >> *Subject:* [MLO] Re: The Pomodoro Technique >> >> I and much of the Agile Software Development community have been using it >> for years. >> >> On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 5:18 PM, Richard C <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> >>> Has anybody come across this time management technique. It looks >>> really interesting and aligns with some stuff I have been trying to do >>> with MLO - namely short term planning (ie: for the next few days) >>> which GTD and other time management just don't seem to address (but I >>> am not an expert) >>> >>> The website is here http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/ >>> >>> I think there are any featues in MLO that could be used to work with >>> this technique (or visa versa). However, the key thing that is >>> missing from MLO is a better mechanism for recording estimated time >>> and for adding up time. >>> >>> The Pomodoro technique uses 'Pomodoros' as its unit of effort >>> estimation and time measurement which are half hour blocks (go to the >>> website to find out why he calls them pomodoros) For each >>> significant task, you estimate how many of these time blocks it will >>> take to complete (eg this is a 4 Pomodoro task) and you then add up >>> the total number of Pomodoros you have for the task that you have >>> planned for the day and compare this to the number that you know you >>> are able to complete in a day. >>> >>> So if was possible to calibrate the Task Effort slider using numbers >>> (eg 1, 2, 3, etc) and if you could then show the total of the Task >>> Effort for all the tasks in a group (eg a day), then this would really >>> help with planning. >>> >>> And I feel sure that many of the other features of the technique could >>> also be supported by MLO - either as is, or with some relatively minor >>> enhancements which would (hint) potentially open up a new market for >>> MLO (over 6500 people downloaded the book in one month). >>> >>> Just for the record: I have no relationship with the people other >>> than the fact that it looks as if it addresses areas which I have yet >>> to see any other technique address >>> >>> Richard >>> >>> >> >> *Mark Levison* | Founder and Consultant - >> TheAgileConsortium<http://theagileconsortium.com/>| Agile >> Editor @ InfoQ <http://www.infoq.com/about.jsp> >> Blog <http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/> | >> Twitter<http://twitter.com/mlevison>| Office: (613) 761-9821 >> Recent Entries: Agile Mailing Lists a >> Survey<http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2009/06/agile-mailing-lists.html%20>, >> Do You Suspect You Have a Less than Productive Person on Your >> Team?<http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2009/01/do-you-suspect-you-have-a-less-than-productive-person-on-your-team.html> >> >> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MyLifeOrganized" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]<mylifeorganized%[email protected]> >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en >> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- >> >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. 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