Interesting presentation from Staffan Noteberg on Pomodoro, a technique of Italian origins to help focus when working. It was very good, as I got exactly what I was expecting: an overview of the technique, with examples and even some experimenting during the session.
Quick overview: the idea is that a kitchen clock greatly helps focusing for a period of time, 25 mins nominally. Then, there are a few techniques to fend external (and internal!) interruptions. A couple simple tools such as a todo list and a tracking sheet are useful too.
I won’t go into the details, but the technique seems worth looking into. Very close to the concept of GTD – Getting Things Done.
I loved the hand-drawn slides! A fresh change from the usual.
Also, check out all my pictures from Agile 2008.
Update (10/08/08): I am happy to report that this session has been selected by the other participants for the re-runs on the last day. Maybe this post helped? ;-)
Your posting definitively helped advertising my session. And thanks for the positive feedback about the slides.
Comment by Staffan Nöteberg — August 10, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
[...] is back with The Pomodoro Technique: can you focus – really focus – for 25 minutes? this is the presentation I saw in 2008 that I liked so much (the pictures on the header on Staffan’s website are those I took then) An excellent (and [...]
Pingback by [Agile 2009] Self-management: Pomodoro « Eric Lefevre-Ardant on Java & Agile — May 21, 2009 @ 4:07 pm