Same for me Sarahlouise! I reach 12 and decide I have earned a trip to the gym/shop/friends house, then it all goes downhill :$

I'm interested to know, how does everyone spend their 5 minute breaks? Mine are either hurrying to the kitchen for a cup of tea/coffee, doing some stretches or changing my playlist.

Good job on the toms today everyone!

Hi Stoll,
I spend my breaks exactly like you , either exercising(I will usually cheekily extend the break to 15/25 min if I want to do this), but if it's 5 - the list includes... get more fruit, vist this forum , make another warm drink, stare out the window...there are endless uses for 5 minutes- I do look foward to them....(mince)

How's everyone getting on today. I am having a relatively steady day. 5 tomatoes done, off for lunch and a walk then back for hopefully at least 5 more.

Interesting to hear how other people spend their 5 minute breaks. I usually get a drink, have a wander around, fuss the dog or sometimes facebook and check email etc.

Do people generally aim for 10 a day? Is that a reasonable amount do you think?

:)

I will be doing at least 10 tomatoes today! Have done 4 so far, and will start again after lunch!

I've had a day off tomatoes today. Sometimes I find that tasks are not suited to tomatoing (to make it a verb...). It's still been a productive day however and I reckon I will tomato tomorrow!

Hi all. I managed 10 today and am finished for the day! I used to try to do 14/15 because that represents a full day at work (7 - 7.5 hours) but at the moment I am finding the PhD stressful so am taking it slow and steady so I don't have a stress overload. What's everyone's averages/goals? I agree that not all tasks are best suited to tomatoes. I find it best for writing. Hope you've all had a sucessful day. Happy monday
;-)

I managed 11 today. I usually aim for a minimum of 10 when I am using tomatoes but I agree some days it's just not suitable. When I am in the office I hardly ever use it becuase it is impossible to go 25 minutes without a distraction of some kind. I know I should be aiming for 14 or 15 but can't seem to fit them in on a 9-5, I know it is possible but I wander off on something and then loose lots of time. Oh well. I guess 5 hours solid work is pretty good going. I never do that in the office and I'm sure most people don't manage it even if they sit at their desk for 10 hours a day! :)

Today I will reach 12 tomatoes. Happy monday all!

I am also aiming for 12 tomatoes today! Good luck! :)

13 big juicy tomatoes: DONE! (up) Not too shabby for a slow to start Monday. Sarahlouise, how did you get on?

Bit of a slow day for me. Just finished number 10, going to do 2 more then call it a day!

Well done on your 13!:-)

That sounds great for a Monday ;-)

Got to 13 yesterday in the end so was very pleased with that!

Good luck today everyone! :)

I'm back guys! Have been away from the world of tomatoes for a few days but I'm needing them to get me back on track today. Unfortunately I've got something on this afternoon which will take up much of the rest of the day, and I'm feeling a bit rotten to boot, but I'm setting myself a target of 8 tomatoes until then. So, you've heard it here first. 8 toms it is. Must achieve... Must achieve...

I'm going in folks! Wish me luck. (robin)

I've just come out of a writing-up period where I was doing easily more than 10 tomatoes a day. I'm back to normal work and have found myself in lit-survey territory again (searching for data in tons of papers in Mendeley...time consuming) and have seen my tomato levels drop.

Today I had a bit of a panic and decided to abandon the office and come home, so my tomato level has dropped even more and I'm only on 9 so far.

I've seen a lot of people aiming for 10 tomatoes a day and wonder how your days of work are structured? Obviously not everyone is full-time or sits at a desk for, say, hours a day (they may be in the lab and so 'tomato time' may convert so well), so how does the tomato count represent how much time you spent 'at' your PhD (either on-campus or working from home)?

I guess I'm just trying to get a handle on my time-tomato conversion rate compared with others - Again, obviously everyone's PhD is different and so you can't apply the same timescales to work, but I'd just like to reassure myself that the time I put in is equating to "hard work", even if my output/results may not show much!