Work smarter, not harder by using the Pomodoro technique to help you study.
Time chunking is different from task chunking, but both can be useful techniques when it comes to prepping for the SAT.
Read the other steps in our 9 Steps to Forming an SAT Prep Habit series.

Step 4: If you dread SAT prep, chunk your time!

We often procrastinate when we dread something. It’s harder to start if you know it’s going to be awful. And who hasn’t experienced that?

I definitely have - and someone once told me about the Pomodoro technique which, once I learned it, I have implemented in a million different contexts. It was invented by an Italian in the 1980s named Francesco Cirillo.

It’s based on the idea of “work smarter, not harder.”

As an opera singer with a limited number of hours you can sing in a day, this was a hugely important lesson. I once had a percussionist friend who swore he could perfect his tambourine roll ten times faster (one hour to every other percussionist’s ten hours) by “working smarter, not harder.” And that meant he had nine hours more than everyone else!

The gift of Pomodoro is twofold: You are both chunking a large task into smaller, more manageable ones and screening out distractions (remember we talked about setting yourself up for success by screening out distractions?) so you can succeed!

The only necessary materials you need? An egg timer. AND YOUR SAT MATERIALS!!!

Note: I’ve adapted this method a little for SAT prep by cutting out the last focus rep. You are more than welcome to put that back in if you like! Just don’t do it on the first day.

25:00 FOCUS: Set a timer (Italians have a little tomato timer instead of an egg timer, which is where the name comes from) for a 25-min block. During that time, do nothing but SAT prep. Don’t answer the phone, text messages, notifications, nothing. Promise yourself that you’ll do NOTHING but SAT prep during that time.
5:00 BREAK: Give yourself a 5-min break. Watch cat videos, text your boo, whatever you want to do to reward yourself. Don’t skip this time - this is part of the process too.
25:00 FOCUS: Now do another 25 min of sustained focus. It will be easier to focus because you’ve just let yourself relax.
5:00 BREAK: Another 5-min break - here is a fun video to make you laugh :)
25:00 FOCUS: Another 25 min of sustained focus. You’re almost at your big break!
BIG BREAK: After 3 25-min intense focus sessions, give yourself 15 min off. You’ve earned it.

The Pomodoro technique will ONLY work if you are faithful to not allowing yourself to be interrupted - and if you give yourself the rest you need in between. Rest is important - it’s what allows us to recharge for the time when we must focus.

Time chunking is different from task-chunking; time chunking is about breaking up the big piece of time into a lot of smaller pieces. Task chunking is about breaking a task up into things which have a logical progression and flow, and letting that logic help you go faster and more intelligently through the task. Task chunking is ALSO effective - it’s just different, and it’s important to me that I have been clear about what I’m referencing. There’s lots of research on both of them; here is a particularly interesting article about time chunking from the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Remember to keep track of how chunking felt when you check in with your accountability buddy. These techniques build on each other; when you work all of them together, that’s when you get the most effective SAT prep habit - and most effective means best score improvement!