Time often feels fluid, leaking and evaporating unless we actively contain it. In our current environment, time can feel non-linear, looping like “Groundhog Day” where every day is a carbon copy of the last, or contracting with the feeling that “That only happened yesterday?” Conversely, it can expand, making a recent Monday feel like a month ago, or become entirely fogged in, leaving us wondering what day it is. This instability is compounded by the collective pressure to remain productive, whether through home improvements, professional projects, or creative pursuits, leaving many of us hungry for concrete accomplishment.
This persistent challenge led to a simple hack designed to wrest control of the day. While navigating an alternative dystopian timeline—reminiscent of the plot in “Back to the Future Part II”—I found that creating a “time cup” allowed me to capture handfuls of time before they vanished. This approach draws inspiration from the 1980s, when an entrepreneurial college student named Francesco Cirillo developed the Pomodoro Technique. Named after the Italian word for tomato—the shape of a popular kitchen timer in his native country—the method was designed to boost productivity through structured intervals.
The core of Cirillo’s technique involves setting a timer for 25-minute intervals of concentrated work, followed by a five-minute break, with a longer break after completing a string of four “tomato” bursts. While this method is highly effective, my personal adaptation is more streamlined. I identify a handful of long-term goals and devote short, 15-minute bursts of uninterrupted time to them. I set a timer on my phone or watch and commit to a single task until the time expires. If an emergency arises, I pause the timer, address the issue, and immediately return to the task.
I opted for 15 minutes because I found the standard 25-minute Pomodoro interval difficult to maintain consistently. My daily schedule is fluid, and 15 minutes provides the necessary flexibility without sacrificing focus. This duration is also easier to manage in an era dominated by constant digital interruptions like Slack, email, and text messages, which were not as prevalent when kitchen timers were the primary productivity tool. I integrate these sessions into my routine during my first cup of coffee, at lunch, or before bed, allowing me to make steady progress on long-term projects.
The results of these 15-minute daily chunks have been significant. I have managed to digitize 35 years’ worth of personal journals, transcribe a collection of quotes I have kept since college into Google Docs, read for pleasure outside of my bedtime routine, reconnect with friends and family, and even write a newsletter regarding sleep hygiene. These bursts do not prevent me from completing other responsibilities; instead, they provide a sense of winning the zero-sum game of time management.
The science behind both the Pomodoro 25 and my “Allan 15” remains identical. Humans are easily distracted, and our brains are inherently inefficient at focusing on multiple tasks simultaneously. Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has demonstrated that multitasking wastes “brain bandwidth” as we switch between tasks, leading to a scenario where we may juggle several things at once but perform none of them particularly well. We are currently operating on a collective deficiency of attention, and these techniques are essential for reclaiming it.
Ultimately, this approach is about intentionality. As Henry David Thoreau wrote approximately 175 years ago—a quote I recently transcribed from paper to a Google doc during a 15-minute spurt—“I cannot make my days longer, so I strive to make them better.” By breaking work into manageable, focused segments, we can navigate the complexities of our current timelines and ensure that our time is spent on the projects that truly matter, rather than letting it slip through our fingers. The report also notes that after I learned about the Pomodoro, I tried 25 minutes but found that extra 10 minutes was hard to maintain. The report also notes that one time every day, how it works for me is that I have a list of activities that I give only 15 minutes to. The report also notes that examples of what I’ve done or been doing in 15-minute daily chunks. The report also notes that it leaks, spills and evaporates unless we’re able to contain it. The report also notes that or self-induced, pressure to be productive, to make the most of the extra time we have, then there is the collective. The report also notes that i also learned that someone else had already come up with a similar idea. The report also notes that for the most part, shifting back and forth and up and down, time is still. The report also notes that as evidenced by the fact that Cirillo has a book and consulting business devoted to his method, so you can get as deep into the pulp as you want, i’m oversimplifying.
