I promise the title of this post is only partially clickbait
About a month ago, a coworker convinced me to pick up an old habit: Playing Oldschool Runescape. For those who don’t know, Oldschool Runescape is a (heavily updated) point-and-click MMORPG, based on a version of the game’s code from 2007. For some people, myself included, the game has a very addictive gameplay loop and a wide variety of skills to progress in.
Runescape includes many different activities in the game, some requiring intense concentration and clicking, some others require Sisyphean patience
And then there’s CRAB…
The Gemstone Crab (CRAB) is a new piece of content in the game, released in August 2025. CRAB at a very high level allows players to progress while interacting with the game once every roughly 10 minutes. Which for my simple lizard brain was the best thing ever. I was able to essentially click once, go and concentrate on a work or personal task for 10 uninterrupted minutes, and still feel like I was multitasking and moving forwards on multiple goals at once.
I had just accidentally stumbled on a scuffed version of a more than 40 year old time management & productivity technique called Pomodoro.
More like Pomo-dork-o
The Pomodoro Technique originally described using a kitchen timer to break work into 25 minute chunks, seperated by a short break in between. There are a few other overarching rules, the original technique encourages completing 4 seperate ‘pomodori’ chunks before taking a long break (20-30 minutes) instead, as well as using any extra time remaining in a pomodori to perform review, document your learnings, or pursue additional topics related to the task.
In setting up CRAB on a second monitor, I effectively experienced the carcinisation of this technique, swapping 25 minute chunks for 10 minutes, and the kitchen timer for a far more crustacean-esque (and addictive) time limiter.
After a bit of time falling down the rabbit hole of researching Pomodoro and various different apps and modified pomodoro rulesets, I had to wonder - If I follow the actual method, using 25 minute chunks instead of some ancient browser clicker game to divide my focus time, would that be better or worse for me in particular?
Progress is as good as a holiday
Short answer: no
While the actual pomodoro method provided improved focus and structure to my day over my regular habits without it, I struggled to keep the motivation up. After a week of trying Pomodoro I was struggling to find the motivation to continue.
What I was missing was the second piece of the puzzle that I described in the opening paragraphs - A sense of progression, of moving forward on multiple things at the same time. ESPECIALLY important for me was the feeling that I was enjoying a hobby while also performing at work. Pomodoro wouldn’t work for me because the little voice in the back of my head kept telling me “it’s just a timer, it’s like 4 lines of code, why are you letting it dictate your focus?”
Is this all to say Pomodoro isn’t worth it? Absolutely not, I one hundred percent believe that my focus was better while practicing it than when I was just flying by the seat of my pants.
I’m also not advising anyone to rock up to their workplace on Monday and start playing video games on a second monitor, that would be a serious CLM (Career Limiting Move)
But for me personally - I reject humanity, and return to CRAB
Author Note: My First Blogpost! I’ve been kicking the idea of starting a blog around, and I finally found the motivation to go ahead and do it.
As someone’s who’s a fan of the concept of the Small Web, but was slightly too young to appreciate it fully, I consider it almost a duty to contribute in my own, small way.
I’m writing mostly for myself, it’s a bit of a creative outlet, but I appreciate absolutely anyone who decided to read this