Pomodoro vs Animedoro Which is better?

By : Maxine Djody

Time management is one of the most valuable skills that a student can have (but they don't). It is needed when generally getting any work done. However such a skill is often difficult to do due to a psychological reason, planning fallacy.

Planning fallacy is a phenomenon where people underestimate how long it will take to finish a task, even if they have done the task before. For example, when I practice AS past papers for several hours, this does not mean that I will be good at estimating how long it will take me to do the real AS exam paper. This results in there not being enough time to complete the work or students tend to overestimate how much time they actually spent working on the task.

I’ve heard many complaints on how long or hard people worked on a paper and only scored them an average or even a failing grade. I know from experience that it’s not the time, or our understanding of time, that is related to how we are graded on our work but it’s being able to meet the instructor’s or a person’s expectations of “mastery” , application of the material or knowledge we gain. Two ways to help any student to overcome this is the Pomodoro and Animedoro technique as both techniques help students improve in time management.

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management system that encourages people to work with the time they have rather than against it. Using this method, a student breaks their day into 25-minute chunks separated by five-minute breaks. These intervals are referred to as pomodoros. After about four pomodoros, the student can take a longer break of about 15 to 20 minutes.

The original pomodoro technique has six steps:

1. Decide on the task to be done.

2. Set the pomodoro timer (typically for 25 minutes).

3. Work on the task.

4. End work when the timer rings and take a short break (typically 5 or 10 minutes).

5. If you have fewer than three pomodoros, go back to Step 2 and repeat until you go through all three pomodoros.

6. After three pomodoros are done, take the fourth pomodoro and then take a long break (traditionally 20 to 30 minutes). Once the long break is finished, return to step 2.

If the chosen task is completed in a pomodoro, any remaining time should be devoted to activities like reviewing the list of upcoming tasks for the next planned pomodoro time blocks, and start reflecting on them or reviewing the task just completed.

The idea behind the technique is that the timer would give a sense of urgency. Rather than feeling like there is an endless time in the day to get things done and then ultimately splurge those important hours on distractions, as knowing that you only have 25 minutes to make as much progress on a task as possible. The goal of the technique is to also reduce the effect of internal and external interruptions on focus and flow. A pomodoro is indivisible so when someone is interrupted during a pomodoro. It is either that the other activity (aka distraction) must be recorded and postponed (this strategy is called the inform – negotiate – schedule – call back or the INSC strategy for short) or the pomodoro must be abandoned.

Advantages	Disadvantages
It helps you measure the time it takes to complete a task, for example it usually takes me 6 pomodoros (which is 3 hours) to do a deep revision maths practice paper.	If one pomodoro is interrupted you must restart which could decrease study or work time.
It is easier to focus as you would not need to be distracted about what show to watch or get distracted by what happens in the next episode.	The 5-minute break limit does not really allow you to relax as I personally couldn't do anything but do small tasks like looking at pinterest or at what task I have next.
The extended break after 4 pomodoros is a good reward and would help motivate you to do the work quicker as it allows you to do other activities	It does not really motivate a student to study as there is no highly anticipated reward. This could be the biggest drawback as when trying out the technique I found myself getting sluggish and sleepy as each pomodoro I completed.

What is the Animedoro Technique?

Animedoro is a modified Pomodoro wherein students do 40-60 minutes of work and reward themselves with exactly one anime episode or tv show. The intro and outro skipped of the episode must be skipped to save time. This process can be repeated as many times as wanted. The steps, ideas and goals are similar however have a different structure compared to the original pomodoro.

​Advantages	Disadvantages
You are given a more satisfying reward after each study session.	​The constant urge to keep watching episodes of anime rather than returning to studying for 40-60 minutes could lead a student to feel less productive with their work and more engaged with their anime binging, which is not good. As a result, this technique may take some practice runs to be able to stop moving to the next episode after finishing the last episode.
The time spent watching that one episode also allows the brain to have more time to settle down and relax before starting another long task.	It may be too time consuming as an example is when you have to pull an all-nighter to cram for an exam. Doing Animedoro could lead to problems, as taking 20-minute breaks may decrease the amount of time for you to study the night before a very important exam (like the AS prelims.)
The maximum-hour time allows students more time to get back into a studying mindset as most people, when beginning to study, may take a few minutes to get into a focused attitude. With Pomodoro, that could be an issue since taking 5 minutes to recollect focus cuts the time for studying. Instead of 25 minutes of studying, it is only 20 minutes or even less to go through actual work. Compared to Animedoro, even if it takes 10 minutes to regain focus, there are still 50 minutes left for a student to study with 100% focus.
It’s a more casual and laid-back break where you’re not too stressed or worried about rushing the work. As this technique allows for students to follow the natural flow of assignments without getting cut off by the timer.

To conclude, comparing both time management techniques, I believe that the animedoro technique is better. Implementing both techniques in different weeks I found that I was able to efficiently and productivity do my work with more motivation unlike when I did the pomodoro technique. However there were some cases where I took longer breaks due to being impatient and had to drop the technique to opt for the pomodoro technique for all nighters. It is also have to be noted that I am admittedly fan of tv shows and anime (don’t bully me please) so this technique maynot be very effective if the idea of watching incredibly attractive 2D people on the screen is not at least appealing to you (if you truly don’t find that a least bit interesting, are you ok?). Overall both techniques are very effective for different scenarios and may be more effective for different students, everyone has different study habits and so on.

All Information is gathered from the following websites if you are interested in getting a more in depth explanation.

Create Relevant Content

Writing a blog is a great way to position yourself as an authority in your field and captivate your readers’ attention. Do you want to improve your site’s SEO ranking? Consider topics that focus on relevant keywords and relate back to your website or business. You can also add hashtags (#vacation #dream #summer) throughout your posts to reach more people, and help visitors search for relevant content.

Blogging gives your site a voice, so let your business’ personality shine through. Choose a great image to feature in your post or add a video for extra engagement. Are you ready to get started? Simply create a new post now.