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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/2891
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I wrote a small productivity application, [Tomate](https://gitorious.org/tomate#more). Since I'm not a native English speaker, I'm afraid the description of the project may not be clear enough for potential users. Can you help me improve it?

> Like many of us, I suffer from attention and procrastination problems, especially when in front of a computer. How can one focus on the mundane task at hand when the appeal of the Internet is just two clicks away?
> 
> I started a quest for tools and ideas to help me concentrate (I know, I know...). I found a very good book, unfortunately written in French: "Comment ne pas tout remettre au lendemain", by Bruno Koelz.
> 
> It turns out the diagnosis is as follows: the hardest part of not procrastinating is getting to work, by which I mean staying concentrated long enough to really get into the problem. Once this stage is passed, you usually enter a state of flow and continuing to work is a lot easier and more rewarding.
> 
> For this reason, I wrote a very small applet that allows me to pass a contract with myself: by clicking the icon, I commit to fully concentrate on a given problem for no less than 10 minutes. The icon becomes red for ten minutes, after which it turns green. I am then free to either continue working or do something else.
> 
> The duration is voluntarily small because no matter how boring the task is, ten minutes is always doable. Knowing I have an escape, it is easier to commit.
> 
> Since tweaking productivity application parameters is a great way to waste time, the applet has absolutely no configuration options, dialogs, logs, etc. I tried to make it as simple as possible and to avoid including any feature that is not absolutely necessary to accomplish the goal.
> 
> Why "Tomate"? Tomate is the French word for tomato, or "Pomodoro" in Italian, which is the name of a similar and popular technique. The Pomodoro technique consists in working in sets of 25 minutes, with mandatory breaks between the chunks. I feel my method is more efficient, because it is a waste to take breaks when you're concentrated and don't need them.
> 
> About the code: the applet is written in Python 2 and PyGTK. It is only tested on linux, but it should work on other platforms as well. Feedback welcome!

Original score: 2