How to use this template
The sheet exists to record what happened, not to plan what should happen. Filling circles after the fact gives you an honest count of how many focused sessions a real day contains, which is almost always lower than people guess.
- Write the date, then name one task per row as you start it. Use a specific phrasing, "draft section 3 of the report" rather than "report".
- Set a timer for 25 minutes and work on that one task until it rings. If you switch tasks partway, the session does not count.
- Fill in one circle when the timer ends, then take a 5 minute break away from the screen.
- After four filled circles in a row, take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes before starting the next one.
- Use the notes column for interruptions and for anything you thought of mid-session and had to park. One or two words is enough.
- At the end of the day, count the filled circles and write the total. Six sessions is 150 minutes of real focus, which is a good day for most people.
A worked example: a row reading "rewrite onboarding email" ends the morning with two circles filled and "interrupted twice by Slack" in the notes. The next row, "review pull requests", gets three circles and a clean notes column. The day totals five sessions, and the notes make the fix obvious: close Slack during the first block tomorrow.
The 25 minute interval is a convention rather than a research finding, and a strict timer is not always better than stopping when your attention actually breaks. The Time Guide covers the evidence, and the Pomodoro tool lets you set any interval you like.