How I've reduced my procrastination with pomodoro, things and rescuetime

October 13, 2011

Sometimes i have a hard time with distraction, i've found the most efficient solution for me so far is the pomodoro technique. The workflow is very simple, I have a list with all the tasks for today, I simply choose one task:

  1. Work for 25 minutes on the task.
  2. Take a break for 5 minutes.
  3. Repeat.

If I'm done with the task I pick a new one.

How I collect and organize my tasks

I Use Things to collect tasks. I have it installed on both my Mac and iPhone, so if I'm on the run I can still type it in.

How i start a pomodoro

I use this nifty little app pomodoro. When you start a pomodoro it can see all the tasks from today through things, but the best part is that you can script it. When it starts a pomodoro this little applescript is fired off:

tell application "RescueTime"
  activate
end tell

tell application "System Events"
  tell process "RescueTime"
    click menu bar item "RescueTime" of menu bar 1
    key code 125
    key code 125
    key code 36
    key code 36
  end tell
end tell

This activates RescueTime which blocks distracting sites like news.ycombinator, reddit, facebook etc.

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