The Danger of the Pomodoro Method (why most people are using it wrong)

the pomodoro method has revolutionized the way i study but when i first started using it i wasn't using it right i would often lose focus get burnt out or just not study well i realized that there are certain ways that you can actually make the pomodoro method better there are certain ways to upgrade the pomodoro method and that's exactly what this video is about upgrading the pomodoro method [Music] so what is the pomodoro method if you don't know the pomodoro method i'm going to go over the pomodoro method in this video and i'm going to

say pomodoro method about a million freaking times so let's start a pomodoro counter right around somewhere here but okay so it is this method invented in the 1980s by a guy named francesco cerillo cerrillo i definitely said that wrong and it breaks up studying into study break increments the most common way people use this method is to study for 25 minutes and then take a five minute break that is one pomodoro session then you repeat that four times except the fourth time you do it your fourth break is 20 to 30 minutes and people across

the world including myself have loved this method because it allows you to focus for a certain time and then take a break for a certain time so let's get into the ways to upgrade this method [Music] before the greatest study session of all time begins you need to know what you are actually going to be studying for me it's pretty straightforward you know i just study some flashcards and do some practice questions and that's what i'm doing right now but i do have a certain number of flashcards i need to get done every day and

i also have a certain number of questions i need to get done every day so i plan to do like 200 flashcards and then 40 practice questions that's my usual days right now however this can get more complicated depending on the task for example if you needed to write an essay you might need to break it down in different kinds of ways for example you might say okay first i'm going to outline what this essay is going to be about and then i'm going to complete a rough draft of the first two sections of my

essay and then i'm going to complete the rest of the essay and then i'm going to edit the essay it's important that i have these specific things laid out before i actually went into my pomodoro session a key thing that i'm going to reiterate through this entire video is we're trying to stay focused in our pomodoro sessions no matter what because when we start to not focus on our pomodoro sessions it defeats the entire purpose of this method so what if i finish my first task during my pomodoro method so 12 minutes in to my

first 25 minute pomodoro session i finished the video do i just cut it short and have a break no it's still the pomodoro session you're still focusing so i would just go straight on to the next thing and i know the next thing i'm going to do right because i planned out what i'm going to study so i just go straight into doing some flash cards until the end of this first pomodoro session another good way to think about planning is to have goals for the number of pomodoro sessions you want to do during that

day or whatever amount of time you want to study for that day so when i was studying for my big exams in the past i used the 25 5 pomodoro session method and so i aimed for about 12 to 16 sessions during the day which equates to about five to seven hours of actual focused studying a day across seven to ten hours of work time so for this first tip try and answer these questions what will i be studying today what is the order of things i will be studying today what is my goal number

of pomodoro sessions i want to complete today or what is the total time i want to study today tip number two is only use the pomodoro method of drawing work time figure out what hours you'll be studying for me when i wasn't doing clinical rotations and i was just in study mode i would usually study from 7 to 11 30 and then i would study from 12 30 to 4 30 and then if i was doing a heavy studying day i might study as well from 5 30 to 8 30. importantly i'm only applying the

pomodoro method during these work sessions everyone should get oriented and organized in the morning i like to eat breakfast as well everyone should get some larger break around midday and if you didn't eat breakfast or lunch you should probably eat dinner and you should also go to bed at a reasonable time i know these are crazy things everyone should prioritize mental and physical health over a little bit extra studying trust me your performance will thank you i feel like people sometimes go too crazy over the pomodoro method they say okay i'm gonna plan it out

so my fourth session when i have my 30 minute break i'll go for a quick run but i'll come back with enough time to shower so i can get changed and get back to my pomodoro no no no just use the pomodoro method during break time it's okay to take a one or two hour break to go to the gym or to have lunch these are normal human things don't kill yourself here but when you are in a pomodoro session you should stay focused trust me if you are using the pomodoro method correctly you will

have more than enough focus time during the day [Music] tip number three is personalize the timing of your pomodoro sessions the timing doesn't have to be 25 minutes and a five minute break i don't know why that's become the cult of timing any times it seems between the 20 and 60 minute mark for your focus sessions are fine you need to figure out what timing works best for you nothing someone in the internet tells you is going to be perfect for you you have to figure it out for yourself many people i know for example

prefer to do the 50-minute study time and then a 10-minute so experiment for one day try and do the 25-5 pomodoro sessions then the next day maybe try doing like 35 minutes with a seven minute break then the next day try maybe doing 50 minutes with a 10 minute break experiment you know you the only rule to stick to is that for around every 25 minutes of studying you should take a five minute break and after about a hundred minutes of cumulative studying you should take about a 20 to 30 minute break so if we

were to talk about those three different strategies i said before it would go something like this 25 minutes of studying 5 minute break 25 minutes of studying 5 minute break 25 minutes of setting 5 minute break 25 minutes of studying then you take a 20 to 30 minute break that's that's interval time or session strategy number one then if you use the 35 7 breakdown you might do 35 minutes of studying 7-minute break 35 minutes of stunning 7-minute break 35 minutes of studying 20 to 30 minute break then if you use the 50 10 breakdown

you might do 50 minutes of stunning 10 minute break and then 50 minutes of studying and then a 20 to 30 minute break notice how these all kind of equate to the same study and break time and that's purposeful the next tip is if you feel like you're in a flow state don't stop studying flow is where the task is kind of in this perfect state where it's difficult but it's not too difficult and you're enjoying yourself so you're just killing it you're crushing it if you've experienced a flow state before you know exactly what

it is when i'm in a flow state i lose track of time i forget to eat i forget to reposition my body in any way i'm just focused completely on the task in front of me occasionally i enter this flow state when i'm aggressively cleaning my apartment or filming these youtube videos or studying flow states are golden states i try to stay in them no matter what and i try to find them in my life as much as i can and when you're in a flow state evidence shows that your performance is actually better this

is why if during a pomodoro session and i feel like i'm in a flow state i'll keep going so if i know i'm coming near the end of that 25-minute timer what i'll do is as soon as the 25-minute timer is up i'll restart another 25-minute timer right away this way i'm still studying only in my pomodoro study times but i'm keeping my flow state importantly now that i've skipped that first break i'll add that break onto my next break so after i studied 15 minutes straight i'll take a 10 minute break before going into

my next 25 minute session if you're in the flow state stay in it and you can adjust the pomodoro method around this flow state i think a lot of times we see these rules and things on the internet and we think we have to have to stick to them but if you understand the reason there are these rules you can break them the next tip is kind of a silly tip but use a physical timer why do people write in notebooks computers have eliminated pretty much all need for us to write in notebooks anymore yet

people still have handwrite in notebooks people still buy regular paperback books why is this well i don't really know i don't think many people really know but there's some indescribable benefit from these physical things and guess what i got that same indescribable benefit from a physical pomodoro timer and again i really have no evidence for this other than my anecdotal experience with this physical timer it's just great having this one in front of me makes it me feel like the session is more real i don't know when i have like a timer on my computer

or on my phone or something like that i it's just not as cool it's not really cool but it's not as kind of imposing as having this real red timer in front of me that says listen you have 10 minutes to go don't break it because this real thing is there big brother is watching importantly also this removes another potential for distraction if you have the timer on your computer or your phone you might more likely look at that and then get distracted or pulled into something else even if the only thing you do is

make studying nicer it's a small price to pay for making studying nicer especially when you're studying maybe five to ten hours a day the next tip is remove all possible distractions eliminate the possibility of being distracted during your pomodoro sessions please remove all unnecessary items from your desk all books that you're not using all notes that you're not going to be using your phone especially all snacks everything get it out of there my phone is always on silent in another room next if you are working on your computer remove distractions from your computer but how

do you do this now i get crazy here and i actually have a computer that's dedicated to just studying i only do studying on that computer i haven't logged into apple id so i don't have my messages i don't have my gmail i don't have any of those things on that computer that computer's only for studying flash cards doing practice questions reading academic journals or reading up on patients histories one great app you can use is the app called self control and this will actually eliminate your ability to access certain internet websites the next tip

and this is my most important tip of the entire video on how to get the most benefit from the pomodoro method is to use classical conditioning you are not allowed to not focus during your pomodoro session you're not allowed to not focus in fact all the kind of other things i'm talking about this video are all related to this thing of not losing focus during our pomodoro sessions my separate computer i have just for studying is just for studying it classically conditions me to only study on that computer when i'm using that computer that's studying

computer i know i'm only studying from it if you don't know what classical conditioning means it means you associate one stimulus with another stimulus well one is a stimulus it could be anything it could be the sound it could be a flash of a light it's really anything that your body picks up so if for example every time i said your name i hit you with a stick eventually you would begin to associate me saying your name with being hit with a stick don't worry i'm not going to hit you with a stick so every

time i say your name you would think oh my god i'm going to get hit with a stick and eventually me just saying your name would cause you to flinch or freak out because you're used to being hit with a stick this is how my special study computer works this is how the pomodoro method works my study computer works because when i i'm using this computer i only am studying so i'm signaled almost unconsciously when i open this computer it's study time when you're in your pomodoro sessions you're signaled unconsciously if you do it enough

that this is study time again this is the most vital tip of this entire video if it is study time if you are in a pomodoro session you must stay focused oh and this applies to your breaks too when it's break time go take a break don't study during your break time because that would mess things up again if you're gonna study through your break time make it another pomodoro session that way you're extending your flow and not messing with classical conditioning [Music] okay three more tips here and the third to last tip is music

use it correctly for you music is a tough topic around studying there's no strong answers there's no strong decision whether music helps or harms you in fact it seems to show more often that music harms studying in some studies it's detrimental in some studies it's beneficial it's kind of flippy floppy it seems that quiet music with no lyrics might be beneficial for focusing on easy tasks but it seems also that all music is detrimental when focusing on a harder task the most recent scholarly article i saw from this is in 2021 and it reviewed the

current evidence and also did a couple experiments of its own and it sounds similar to what i just said instrumental and calm music has the least detrimental effect on cognitive performance but all music has a detriment to cognitive performance background music can improve focus and attention when performing easier tasks and the more difficult the task the less intrusive the music people tend to listen to while studying for example if the material is very challenging most people don't put on music so here's the strategy i use for when i'm using music and studying and again there's

no real significant evidence for this i just tried to kind of use a little bit of the evidence and a little bit of personal experience and friends that are smart and do really well and kind of format my strategy so at the beginning when i first started studying or whenever i'm doing a really challenging task i don't listen to music when i feel myself start to lose a little bit of focus and not really focus and pay attention as well to my studying i add very non-intrusive music so this is music that's called often like

ambient music or like low intensity classical music then when the lower intensity music isn't cutting it anymore i upped the intensity of the music to kind of keep me more motivated and more focused i've actually hand tailored a couple playlists which i'll list in the link down below which are like level one level two level three level four level five uh level one is ambient music level two is classical music level three is epic like movie tracks and stuff like that level four is low-fi beats and level five is like just intense like techno electronic

kind of music the second last tip is to get the most out of your pomodoro methods is to take better breaks i'll link a video somewhere around here about what the best breaks are and why they are the best breaks during your study sessions but briefly taking better breaks will help you learn better and they will also help you maintain physical and mental well-being so here are my favorite breaks from most favorite to least favorite number one is go outside number two is exercise number three is change position number four is grab a healthy snack

number five is meditate number six is clean up number seven is play with a pet number eight is play an instrument number nine is talk to a friend or relative number ten is stare out the window number eleven is have a short nap and number twelve is watch a youtube video and if you watch my other video i'll tell you why i kind of ranked these breaks the way i did [Music] finally our final tip is to gamify your studying gamify the pomodoro method evidence shows sufficiently that gamifying things increase performance my favorite app is

the forest timer on my iphone and what i do is i hit the start button throw my phone into another room and this does two things the forest timer first of all is incentivizing me to go through my entire study session because if i go through the entire study session i get a nice little tree and also it's preventing me from being distracted by my phone because if i go anywhere else on my phone the forest app is designed as such that if you just go away from the app on your phone the tree dies

i don't want my tree to die i also use the focus plus timer app on my computer for a while but again my favorite timer is the physical timer and then i combine it with the forest timer on my phone so i can get the benefit of seeing my little forest grow all in all the pomodoro method is an extremely powerful studying tool but just like any tool it can be used correctly or incorrectly if you use the pomodoro method correctly your studying and test performance will improve i promise but if you made it today

on this video thank you so much for watching and i will see you on the next one