If someone tells you they do not procrastinate at all, the person is lying. While some make it a habit, some blame their poor time management for it. But everyone has been guilty of deferring action.

Procrastination proves to be a hurdle no matterin  what phase of life we are. Struggling to submit that essay on the last day of the deadline as students or completing the project in time as professionals, we have rubbed shoulders with procrastination enough to know how it haunts our productivity.

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Procrastinators always look for distractions and checking emails or scrolling through social media offer the most comfortable escapes. Managing time and stress thus becomes a huge task.

Why we procrastinate is a whole new topic, and we let the experts on Psychology answer that for you. But what we can help you with today is a technique which can make you more productive and help manage procrastination to some extent.

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The technique requires you to break your work day/study time into sections or pomodoros of 25 minutes each where you focus on the work and nothing else. A 3-5 minute break follows each Pomodoro. After completing four successive sessions, you take a more extended break of 20-30 minutes.

The catch here is that focusing entirely on one task is more comfortable for 25 minutes than sitting at it for hours with expectations of the same concentration level.

What is the Story Behind Pomodoro?

Francesco Cirillo invented the Pomodoro Technique in the 1980s. Cirillo, a university student, then wanted to get more done with his study time.He realized he needed a framework allowing him to be efficient and helps increase his productivity.He experimented with a tomato-shaped kitchen timer. He set the timer to 10 minutes first and worked at the task. Then increased the session to 25 minutes and concluded that it was the optimized amount of time the method would work.Pomodoro is Italian for tomato, hence, the name of the technique comes from the chief instrument in the process, Cirillo's tomato-shaped kitchen timer.

The kitchen timer after which the technique named. Courtesy: Wikipedia.

His website enumerates the following 6 steps:

• Choose the task that you want to done.
• Set the Pomodoro for 25 minutes.
• Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings.
• If you did that successfully, put a check mark on a paper.
• Take a short break.
• Take a more extended break after 4 successful pomodoros.

Pomodoro Timer Apps:

There is an app for that! Yes!To work efficiently on your office project, you don’t have to go about looking for a kitchen timer.App developers have created Pomodoro apps to fulfill this need of yours.

These apps allow you to manage your time better and handle procrastination like a pro.While your self-discipline may go lax, these apps will prevent you from wasting your time and getting the thing done.

Here are the best apps that will be of help to you:

• PomoDoneApp:This app is available for phones both Android and iOS as well as for the web. You may download it for Windows or Linux too.The app keeps track of all time spent on focusing on planning and working separately. It allows you to integrate your tasks from any software platforms like Trello, Asana, etc.
• Pomotodo:This app is like a complete workflow management tool. You can store ideas, schedule tasks and finish work through it. It also shows you statistics of your work regarding your most productive days, time of the day.Pomotodo is available for all operating systems.
• Tomato Timer:This a web-based tool. Very simple to use and does just one thing- run your Pomodoro process. It is customizable and has a mobile-friendly interface as well. It alerts you with audio notifications that you can modify. It will soon launch user activity history too.
• Pomodoro Timer Pro/Lite:It has a distraction-free minimalist design that allows you to manage your pomodoros. It has no ads even in the Lite version but the Pro version and allows greater functions like time boxing.

Letting go of your guilty pleasures is never an easy thing, especially in our hyper-connected digital world. But getting sh*t done is what will matter in the end.Make this technique your weapon as you battle your day studying or working and let technology (apps suggested) assist you in your struggle and not hamper your progress.

Have a productive day ahead!