the 100by4 pomodoro challenge

Akrasia
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Hello, Beeminder forum. Long time, no-see!

I have been a user for a long while, and I participated in the forum back then, but I ended up disappearing for a while. Maybe this post might be the start of a new forum streak or something?

This time I wanted to tell you about an experiment that I do want to perform in the next 4 days. In 5 days I am going on a short trip, so I figured I would use this as a “deadline” for a new project.

These last few days I have been caught in a little apathy-tired-stuck loop in life and in some of my projects, so I guess I needed to rely on the dopamine that creating a challenge generates.

I decided to complete, in the next 4 days, 100 pomodoros of “work,” where a “work” pomodoro is any intentional activity directed toward my projects and values (including meditation, exercise and commuting (if there is an important activity), but excluding eating or sleeping).

This last part might sound a little overblown since 100/4 is 25 pomodoros a day, which might be around 12 hours of work, which, including work and life activities might be a regular day for some of you, but still, I wanted something to push myself.

So, the challenge itself is already very difficult for me, but it will have an extra challenge and, most importantly, intention.

  • The extra challenge: the moment a new 25-minute pomodoro starts I will immediately stop all phone interaction and focus on the work activity for the full interval, counting only pomodoros that fully meet this rule.

  • The intention: see, the moment I started doing my first two pomodoros, I guess I was high on adrenaline for the idea of starting and already could feel down on the break after. I think this made me aware of a tendency. I tend to either be lazy/tired but the moment I start working I get into hustle mode until I burn out and get lazy/tired again. This especially happens when I work on my own projects, but does not happen when working for someone else. Therefore, my intention is to engage in a relaxed and calm state during the pomodoros. I have no output goals for this whole challenge. Rather, a better outcome might be to relearn that I can actually produce way more when I am working from a calm state, knowing that, if I will work no matter what, I can actually relax and enjoy the process more.

Tracking? Well, this time, and forget me for once, I won’t be using Beeminder since it is an experimental challenge, but wanted to post because I thought maybe some of the ideas / conclusions might be interesting for the community.

I have bought a 100 post-its and will be writing what I am going to do for the pomodoro on a post-it and past in the wall after I finish the pomodoro.

That’s it.

I might collapse in the next 2 hours and dismiss this whole thing, who knows. Wanted to try. Apologizes for the rant. For now, a photo where the post-its will be stuck, with the first two ones already there.

See that thing attach to my pants? Yep, that’s a timer.

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Wish me luck!

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Good luck!

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Sounds like a fun challenge! Good luck!

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Thanks @skorytnicki and @byorgey!

On the negative said, I am on the #13 at almost the end of the first day. On the positive side, though, I have done a lot of work today!

Will keep updating!

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Having done similar things in the past (e.g. blog :: Brent -> [String] - Maniac week ), doing 12 hours worth of pomodoros in a day does sound pretty much impossible to me. I don’t say that to discourage you though, but only to say that this could still be fantastically valuable and successful even if you don’t reach 100.

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Thanks for the perspective. Yes, running the numbers mentally now, it sounds pretty insane… Will do my best!

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Hey everyone,

Quick update: I’ve decided to wrap up after the third day and 28 pomodoros. The challenge I started originally helped me a lot with task initiation (which I suspect might be a weak point for me, possibly ADHD-related), and after a few unproductive days, it actually got me moving again. So overall, I’m happy I did it.

A few takeaways:

  • Task initiation is key for me. Once I start, things flow much more easily. I want to explore this more. Open to any tricks.

  • Pomodoro works (sometimes). They have not been always been effective for me, but right now it really helps, especially when tracking what I accomplish in each session. That feedback loop is motivating.

  • Not all “non-work” is wasted time. I tend to be hard on myself, but on tougher days I’m still doing a lot even if it is just surviving. Recognizing that matters.

  • Short sprints might be worth repeating. Setting up the right conditions for focused bursts could be a good system going forward (“preparing” in a sense, for a Manical Week, like meal-prepping before or removing things from your calendar so you can focus extra hard).

I’m stopping the challenge mainly because it started to make me a bit anxious and I want my head clear before travelling. Still, it’s been genuinely useful for unstacking some proejcts. Thanks for reading :slight_smile:

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Thank you for sharing your experiment! I always find ambitious projects like this really inspiring, and even if this time it was a “fail”, it seems like you got a lot of useful data out of trying it anyway.

I also have found value in time-based goals: recently some members of my bookclub did a 100 hours challenge, where we had to spend 100 hours on a project of our choice in March (such as language study or reading). Three and a bit hours a day is enough of a stretch where you really have to prioritise it every day, but you are undoubtedly going to make great progress even just from attempting the challenge. The thing I liked about it was that it didnt dictate how that time was to be spent: just that you spend those focused hours on the thing.

Nice work on realising when the challenge wasn’t serving you, and good luck with your future experiments!

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