I've been using the Pomodoro technique for a while. I started during lockdown when I noticed that working from home meant I was distracted less during the day when working from the office. The consequence was that I would be too tired to think halfway through the afternoon.

It still works - on the occasion that I ignore the breaks or don't turn it on I regret it. Although I only work 25 minutes in every 30 minutes, I get more done. And it's really useful if I'm doing a task that's boring or I don't like as I can tell myself I only have to do it for 25 minutes.

However, that 25 minutes is sometimes too short. And although 5 minutes is short enough that I can pick back up where I left off, it's not long enough to do anything much apart from wait for the end of the break. Although I've sometimes used them to do boring tasks around the house, like cleaning, where it then becomes 'how much can I do in 5 minutes', thus making the task more interesting.

I tried a 52/17 and found the 52 minutes of working was better, but the 17 minutes was then too long and I scratching about for things to do during that break.

So I looked around for alternatives and discovered the Flowtime technique. The basic idea (or at least what I took from it) is that you work until you come to a natural pause and then you take a break. The length of your break depends on how long you've been working since the last break and how long you need to feel refreshed.

The Pomodoro technique has many apps and websites, but because Flowtime is more wishy-washy, it doesn't have any. Instead I use a tracker designed for tracking how long you work, so I can see how long it's been since my last break. And towards the end of the day I can see how many time I've actually done, so I can work out when to finish.

And it's working out well. It helps that I work from home, so it's relatively easy to find something to do during the break. Or nothing if that's what I need to do to recharge. I don't end up ignoring my Pomodoro breaks because I just need to finish something I'm in the middle of that will take two minutes. And it feels natural to have a pause after I've finished a task and before I start the next one.