Pomodoro Technique: Here Is A 5 Step Solution To Decluttering Your Home

Have you ever found yourself standing inside your cluttered home, gazing around in disbelief, only to quickly move onto anything else that can distract you from the daunting task ahead? Enter the Pomodoro Technique — a rewarding five-step solution that helps turn the art of procrastination into accomplishment. Created by software developer Francesco Cirillo in the late '80s, the Pomodoro Technique is named for Cirillo's tomato-shaped kitchen timer used during his testing. In short, the five-step method breaks up the day into uninterrupted 25-minute periods called "Pomodoros" (Italian for tomato), separated by short breaks. The basic premise is to turn overwhelming tasks like decluttering your home into smaller manageable ones with breaks to help you relax and sustain your focus to forge ahead. 

According to a 2014 study published by The Journals of Gerontology, adults in their 50s tend to hold onto their possessions longer. From your now 21-year-old's outfits that he wore as a rambunctious toddler to his elementary school projects, it truly can be challenging to part with things that hold so many important memories. However, surrounding yourself with clutter goes beyond losing that precious space in your home. It can also lead to unhappiness and have negative impacts on your health. The Pomodoro Technique helps manage your possessions and prevent clutter from accumulating in your home. It just takes a bit of planning, decision-making, and uninterrupted work, and it can be done whether you have a cute tomato-shaped timer or not.   

There's no short supply of strategies for decluttering your home, but the Pomodoro Technique works differently. It's a structured approach with specific stages of planning, tracking, and processing. To sufficiently declutter your space, step number one is to map out your day by writing down your decluttering goals and objectives. Estimate how many Pomodoros you'll need for each task, splitting the bigger projects into small 25-minute chunks, and then decide which task to tackle first.

Although Francesco Cirillo used a tomato timer for step number two, which became the iconic symbol of the technique, you can use any kind. Smart device timers aren't recommended since they can be distracting, but use them if you have no other option. Set a 25-minute timer and go! Stay focused, work diligently, and make quick decisions about which items to keep, donate, or toss. Once the timer goes off, the task has to end. 

Then it's time to move to step number three — a five-minute break. Use that time to jot down your accomplishments, call your mom, take your dog out, or do anything that makes you happy for those minutes. These breaks should make you feel refreshed and ready to tackle the next task. Next, repeat the previous steps. Then, step number five is to take a longer break that's about 15 to 30 minutes long after every four Pomodoros (and short breaks) you complete. Keep going until you've decluttered your space.

Today, the Pomodoro Technique has been used by over two million people, from busy stay-at-home parents to professional teams to overworked college students, by turning time into your friend and boosting productivity in any area of life. So, why are the intervals set at 25 minutes? After testing multiple time durations, Francesco Cirillo determined that 25 minutes seemed ideal. Criticized at times for being too rigid, the Pomodoro Technique can be customized. If 25 minutes doesn't work for you, adjust it to however much time can help you be the most efficient and successful when decluttering your home. It's perfectly fine to experiment with different durations.

Another criticism is that the technique doesn't allow for inevitable interruptions — internal ones like thoughts and feelings or external ones like kids or phone calls. If you're interrupted during a Pomodoro, write down the distraction. This helps you become aware of the things that disrupt your flow so you can try to stop doing them when decluttering your home in the future. The Pomodoro Technique also recommends not moving onto the next task until the current one is finished. While this is a good idea to keep in mind, it might not always be the most effective approach in your life. In that case, tweak your decluttering objectives without being too hard on yourself. After all, the method is meant to manage stress, not throw even more on top of you.