I love and agree with this article, but I do want to defend the Pomodoro method. In brief, if you already don't enjoy what you are doing for work, applying a new time management strategy to that work will not increase your enjoyment. However, I have personally thrived using the Pomodoro method to help keep myself on track and hitting goals for the work I do enjoy. In this light, moreover, I don't think the analogy to a diet makes much sense.
Still, overall an insightful and much-needed statement on one problem with the times we live in. I especially loved this line:
> These students inevitably end up as consultants or bankers or managers at tech companies, industries that richly reward people who are willing to work very hard for no particular reason.
Like 15 years ago, before pomodoro was popular (or at least I didn't know about it) my sister asked if I knew a good time schedule for studying. She was in senior year of high school, I was in flight school. My answer of "about 15 seconds reading then a 10 second break" was not what she expected. It's what I was using and worked pretty well.
I enjoyed that work very much. I was basically memorizing the book. No way that schedule would work for something I disliked.
On the other hand, I have actually found one minute on, one minute off, 30 times with an automated repeating timer to work on tasks that seem downright unbearable. The minute off you just do nothing. Do not do this daily! This is like a once-a-year thing.
I mean, first off, do whatever you want. I'm not a cop.
I found I could make myself do things I had a lot of resistance to with this technique. It wouldn't necessarily be great, but it would get done. One could call this activity... eating frogs. I'll defer to the article on the issues with that in general.
The problem with this technique is that it's so strong (god it sounds like I'm selling the thing) that you don't even exactly notice the will power you're using up. But you're still using it! My experience with doing this kind of thing too many days in a row is that every individual day feels okay, but they build up until some type of subconscious rebellion goes off.
Maybe if you were more chill about it, didn't use it super frequently or only on things you absolutely despise it would actually be fine.
Very interesting. When I need to make myself work on something (which creates a new problem: deciding to force yourself to do something) I have 2 main techniques (I just realized you could probably do both methods together.)
Method 1. Incrementing time boxes (the first step is similar to yours actually). Set a timer for 1 minute and do it for one minute. Then 2 minutes, then 3, and so on. (At some point you'll be working on it and forget about the timer, and that's ok.) (Credit to Mark Forster[1] and/or Khatzumoto[2] for that idea.
Method 2. Start with a blank piece of paper (or text file). Write down the goal. In outline form, indent and write the first thing needed to do that. If needed, indent again and write down the first thing to do that, and so on, until you have something to start on. Note that I'm not talking about outlining and planning the project, just the first step (of the first step, ...). A great benefit is it helps you focus on deciding where to start, breaks it down to something small enough to start on, and it keeps track of where you are in the process, what you're trying to do. I guess it helps with working memory (which helps with executive function). Proceed to work on the project indenting and un-indenting as needed (i.e. adding sub-item 2 after sub-item 1 is complete)
I'll mention a related idea (it's essentially the same thing) because I had forgotten something I posted on reddit and someone just replied to me 7 years later saying it helped them "tremendously". To rephrase it, (I assumed) when you think about working on something, and then feel anxious, and then do something else (procrastinate) it provides relief and reinforces procrastination (same with how phobias work). So I mention doing a really small part of it instead like work for X minutes or X item(s), but when the thought of stopping comes to mind, then stop. That way you don't associate starting with forcing yourself. But then keep starting again with small pieces.
Your idea about doing nothing for 1 minute reminds me of a time when I had to break myself from switching to working on something else, and I would just set a timer (3 minutes though, and you could stop waiting if you wanted to work on the thing you actually wanted to work on before that) and literally lay down with nothing to do and then go back to what I was doing. Basically I was either doing the project, or doing nothing, but not switching to something else unproductive.
lol I've done so much of the same stuff. Especially method 2. I do it for turning decisions into tasks. I think of it as "going down the stack". If "Decide which city to move to" is staring at me, I can add "Come up with how to decide which city to move to." That might turn into something concrete like "Go for a walk and think about how to pick which city to move to." Somehow, enough layers of abstraction can circle all the way to "put on shoes".
The hazard is yak-shaving, over-investing in the pre-pre-pre-planning, or becoming interested in epistemology. The trick is to try to have each layer be a tenth of the investment of the layer it supports or less. Can't stack too high that way.
Still, overall an insightful and much-needed statement on one problem with the times we live in. I especially loved this line:
> These students inevitably end up as consultants or bankers or managers at tech companies, industries that richly reward people who are willing to work very hard for no particular reason.