Words: 557
Time to read: ~ 3 minutes
T-SQL Tuesday has come back around! Another month without me getting a separate blog post out. I’ll get a non-T-SQL Tuesday blog post out eventually! This month, Jess Pomfret ( twitter | blog ) asks us about our life hacks.
The Humble Tomato
There is not enough time in the day. Until somebody figures out how to squish a few more hours into a day, that’s something that we’re going to have to accept.
In an effort to have some sort of time management, I try the Pomodoro technique.
It can be summarised by the points in this Wikipedia article
• Decide on the task to be done.
Wikipedia
• Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes).
• Work on the task.
• End work when the timer rings and put a checkmark on a piece of paper.
• If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 minutes), then go to step 2.
• After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1
Two Problems
I have 2 problems with the above bullet points
- It’s a very manual process, and
- The first one says I have to decide on the task to be done first.
In the immortal words of Homer Simpson:
Can’t someone else do it!
Homer Simpson
PowerShell
So, in an effort to resolve my problems, I created a PowerShell script.
You can find it here on my GitHub.
This script implements the Pomodoro technique for me, with blocks broken down into ~20/25 minutes of work and 5 minute breaks for reading blogs.
Knowing that there is so much topics to learn and stay on top of, every 3 work blocks are scheduled to learning.
After every 5 blocks, I get a longer break to grab a coffee, go for a walk, or interact with the Data/Automation family.
I even get a Toast notification when it’s time for me to change actions!
Here’s how it’s worked out for me today.
FYI – I missed starting this script when I came in thanks to back to back meetings from 08:00!
This solves the problems that I had with the Pomodoro technique for me.
- It’s no longer manual, it’s giving me an alert each time for the time blocks
- I no longer have to decide on what to do next.
The most I have to decide on is the -Random switch. Which effectively means do I want to try and get through all the items in my learning list or just pick a random one each time.
Seeing as my learning list is currently…
[String[]]$Item = 'JavaScript','Research','PSKoans','Blog','Python','PowerShell','C#','dbachecks','DBAFundamentals','Entity Framework','Containers','R'
…with undoubtedly more coming, I should really make it -Random by default!
In case you’re wondering what the “Mark” column is for, I’m trying to improve the current documentation of the system. So every Work action with an entry in the Mark column means get documenting!
Caveats
This is not a law.
If I’m working on something and I enter focus mode, I’ll ignore the suggested blocks and keep working. Same can be said for deadlines; I’ll take the 5-minute breaks and then get back to the task.
Also, I can’t think of anyone who’s at their desk all day (I’ve been double-booked for meetings today alone!). But it’s a nice way of coming back, glancing at the PowerShell console, and knowing I’ll be making the most of my time.