Using the Pomodoro Technique to produce productivity gains and get things done. Presentation touches upon using the Pomodoro Technique to support developers new to pair programming

1. Qaiser Mazhar

2.  Employees have pressure to perform at work
 Skilled workers need to concentrate on tasks
 Ego depletion
 Procrastination
 Open plan offices
 Multi tasking
 Day to day distractions

3.  Unhappy workforce
 Stress
 Sick days
 Burnout
 Long hours/Low productivity

4.  David Allen
 Core concept: break tasks down into actions and store
them in an organized fashion outside of your brain
 Grouping actions by contexts allows you to be more
productive by batching similar tasks
 Storing planned actions enables your brainpower to be
spent on more important things

5.  Image credit: http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/episodes/2976-After-the-Jump-Episode-16-Finding-Your-Voice-with-Amy-Azzarito

6.  Break your tasks down into small prioritized chunks
 Razor sharp focus for 25 minutes
 Don’t check mails, Facebook etc
 Indicate to others you are in a pomodoro
 If things come up, log them as tasks and continue your
work
 5 minute break time
 Try not to do more work during your break (this is
sometimes difficult to achieve)
 Reprioritise new tasks and enter the next pomodoro
 Celebrate 4 successful pomodoros with a longer 15 break
 Try to stretch your legs and rest your eyes

7.  Similar to agile on a nano scale
 Breaking down your tasks aid creativity and
understanding
 Small tasks eliminate procrastination
 Timeboxing of difficult tasks
 Quickly raise issues/concerns
 Avoid burnout and other unhealthy side effects
 Predictable structure to your day helps to develop good
work and personal habits
 Ticking off tasks gives you a frequent sense of
achievement

8.  Brilliant way to equally share driving time
 Pomodoro fun builds good team bonds
 Upfront clarity on paired task
 Non-driving pair remains completely engaged
 Use tokens to signal to other pairs you need help
 Red and green poker chips
 Pomodoros and pairs are separate concepts but work
extremely well together

9.  Whole team is not using pomodoros
 Volatile/time critical environments
 Highly collaborative teams
 Junior colleagues in a non-pair environment
 Falling out of “flow”
 Too many interruptions
 Pomodoro/break times too long or short
 The low barrier for entry makes trying pomodoros an
easy thing to do in most environments

10.  25 minutes and 5 minutes break is a beginner
guideline
 Customise focus and break time durations
 Keep timer visible to colleagues at all times
 Timer alerts should not disturb nearby colleagues
 Long group sessions can also benefit from pomodoros

11.  http://gettingthingsdone.com/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique
 Pomotodo (All)
 Clockwork Tomato (Android)
 TeamViz (Desktop/All)

12.  Picture credit http://lifehacker.com/pomotodo-combines-pomodoro-with-a-to-do-list-that-track-1604536855