Actually Resting and the Pomodoro Technique – A small lesson on Focus

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“Focus is the key to the world”
- Scott Dinsmore

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I think the lifeblood of any kind of project you ever try to complete is focus.

You know the drill: If you spend most of your time doings tasks that will actually help you achieve what you want to achieve (even when they are uncomfortable), instead of wasting most of your time doing comfortable and insta-pleasurable things that don't help you get closer to what you want to achieve... well, then as long as you keep doing that, it will be just a matter of time before your project finally comes to fruition. YAYZ!!

Duhr. Common sense, right?

But if we already know how this works, how come so many of us still get distracted so easily? Not just in terms of IM “shiny object syndrome”, but getting distracted with Internet entertainment, and other kinds of entertainment as well?

How come some of us are just not putting enough time into our work when we have all the tools and time available for us to do so?

There are many aspects about focus that I could discuss here, really. Maybe you really don't see the work you are doing as enjoyable and meaningful, or maybe you are suffering from an addiction to certain kinds of entertainment (like me). Maybe you are having a hard time getting through uncomfortable tasks, or maybe not having deadlines gives you the “mental permission” of not doing as much work as you can each day... there are many, many things that I could try to tackle here.

In this article I want to address just one of these focus-related problems (the one that has affected me the most), and offer a possible solution to it.

And the problem is... focus is NOT unlimited.

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The key to focus on anything

We know focus is the ability of not letting yourself become distracted from what is truly important to you. If you are writing an article for your website, and the success of your site is truly important to you, then focusing on the task at hand (like writing that article) means you don't stop working on it until it's done, period... even if you start feeling several urges for doing different activities that hardly (or don't) contribute to your website project in any way.

Now, you might be enjoying the work you are doing (you should!!), but those urges will most likely appear anyways. And when they do, you can either give up and succumb to the distractions, or suck it up and keep working in spite of the urges hovering over you. And let me tell you... doing that is uncomfortable.

You know what I think is the key to be able to focus on anything you want?

To completely accept and embrace the discomfort that comes from those urges you will feel when trying to get something done. In other words, being comfortable with discomfort.

As Leo Babauta, one of my favorite authors say:

"If you become comfortable with discomfort, you can master the Universe."

I think this is a very empowering message... but we must also have in mind that the human brain has energy limits.

The idea of spending 14 hours a day, non-stop, writing and backlinking and writing and tweaking your websites and writing and researching and testing stuff and writing and contacting people and writing some more sounds noble and legendary, sure... but in practice it is not sustainable.

Not only life gets in the way and you will be interrupted from your work, but staring at a computer screen for hours and hours will quickly drain your focus. After all that time looking at a bright screen, thinking straight becomes difficult and your brain will go rouge and say:

“Screw this crap, let's do something else... like watch some lolcats!! Right NOW!!” And if you insist on keep working, without rest, without stopping... that discomfort will eventually grow into pain, and you don't want that to happen.

Working non-stop until you cannot concentrate anymore is NOT productive. We need to rest periodically while we work in order to refresh our minds and maintain our focus high (insert an analogy about refreshing your computer RAM... or something like that here.)

I think the problem is that people don't know how to really rest.

I bet that most people (and I might be wrong) think of resting from work as doing a different kind of activity from working, like drowning in the social networks, watching YouTube videos, browsing meme sites, playing flash games, or even doing something else away from the computer, like reading a book or phone-calling a friend to chit-chat.

But that is not resting. That is playing.

There is nothing wrong with playing per se. Playing is fun. Playing might also give you ideas you can implement in your work. But alternating between working and playing will not keep your mind refreshed. Instead, it will drain your focus much faster, and you will most likely end up playing or consuming content instead of working.

Playing here and there while you work is not resting.

Instead, resting is to... do nothing. At all.

Truly resting means closing your laptop, shutting off the lights, lying down (or remain where you are) and closing your eyes for a period of time. No light (as possible) getting in your eyes and no input from any kind reaching you (maybe some music... maybe). Just you and your thoughts.

THIS is actually resting. And if you want to maintain your focus on the work at hand each day, you need to intercalate between work and rest... and maybe leave playing for the very end of your working day.

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The Pomodoro Technique

Now... how do you implement this, exactly? How long should you work before you start resting, and how much should you rest before starting to work again?

There is no definitive answer for this, but one of the most known work-rest time ratio formats goes like this:

1 -- Work for 25 minutes, uninterrupted. If something external interrupts your work, attend to the interruption, and then re-start the timer at 25 minutes.

2 -- After 25 minutes of working, rest (actually REST) for 5 minutes

3 -- Repeat steps 1 and 2, four times

4 -- Then rest for 25 minutes (in addition to the 5 minutes of the fourth time)

5 -- Then repeat from step 1

This work-rest ratio format receives the name of the Pomodoro Technique.

... ok, that's a bit outstretched... but you get the point.

All you need to implement the Pomodro (“Tomato” in Italian) Technique is a timer. You can download many free timer apps on the web, or use a free service like focusboosterapp.com/live. You can also use one of many different timer apps available for your smartphone. I use one called Timers4Me on my Android device.

One important thing: I honestly think that implementing this technique (or a variation of it) can help you maintain your focus more easily. The problem is that getting used to implementing this technique takes conscious effort.

Most people will read this article and go all “Oh, this sounds kind of interesting...”, and forget about it the next day.

Some will say “Oh, this sounds like an useful idea... I will apply it tomorrow!”, and when they try to apply it... well, they try and work for 25 minutes, then rest for 5, then work for 10 minutes and decide to go grab a snack, then get bored, go browse Facebook, shut down that darned alarm when it starts ringing, and waste the rest of the day jumping from one entertainment place to another... and maybe end up doing 10 more minutes of work before going to bed.

I struggle implementing this technique too.

Many times I hear the go-rest alarm and say to myself “Nah, screw that alarm. I can keep working! I'm in the FLOW!!!11”... and yes, maybe I get some stuff done for 2 hours or so... but then my thinking starts drifting and I can't concentrate anymore. And then, my unrested brain says to me “Hey, you know what would be aweeeeeesome right now? Let's browse 9gag!! Yeah, nothing like some memes to clear up the mind, right??”

(yeah, right...) … and the rest of the day is wasted watching comics and funny pictures. And watching YouTuve videos. And afterwards, not only haven't I progressed but my mind is FAR from rested.

Better to slow down and rest those 5 minutes than risk burning your focus and end up being entertained all day instead of working.


Other times, while working, I start thinking things like:

“Hmm... I should check my email to see if there is anything new”

or “... I feel like reading about the solar system on Wikipedia!"

or "Hey, I remembered a really funny YouTube video. I wanna watch it again NOW!!”

or... well, any excuse to engage in instant-useless-gratification or content consuming instead of work. And thinking about this stuff happens sometimes... but the problem comes from actually breaking the Work for 25 minutes uninterrupted rule to engage in these things instead of leaving them for the end of the day/week.

Something that helps me control those impulses is to simply write them down, so I don't have to think about them until the end of the day.


The Pomodoro technique helps you maintain your focus through periodic resting, but you still need to keep applying that focus and NOT succumb to distractions that don't help you get closer to your goals. There is a time for playing and there is a time to consume content and learn new things, but when it's time to do work... well, freaking work!

Just like the Most Interesting Man in the World up there, I don't always implement well the Pomodoro Technique... but when I DO... oh man... good times!! :D

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These ideas are nothing groundbreaking, but I hope you found them interesting.

Who knows, maybe if you start applying this particular technique, or a variation of it, you could start progressing much faster in your own projects... but you will never know until you decide to give the technique a solid chance. So get started!

Thank you for reading! :D