Manage Your Time Before It Manages You
Ever heard of the Pomodoro Technique? I’ve been using it for years and love it. Many of my clients dig it too, when they remember to use it…
I even found a site with APPS that help you with Pomodoro! Imagine that! I’m sure there are plenty more resources out there and I’d love to hear of them if you learn of any.
So what is the Pomodoro Technique? It’s a simple and elegant time management tool designed by a leading thought leader. Work on something for 25 minutes, stop and take a 5 minute break, and then work again for 25 minutes. Each 30 minute cycle is a “Pomodoro” and after four of them in a row, he says you should take a longer break.
I don’t ever do four in a row, but I recommend you try one or two some time.
I sit down and plan to work without distraction for 25 minutes, followed by a 5 minute break. I set a little timer so I can keep track of my 25 minutes, and to make it interesting, I force myself to switch to an entirely different project after the 25 minute lapse. The forced switch creates some gentle pressure on me to try and wrap up whatever I’m doing!
I feel a nice comfortable jolt of adrenaline when I look at that clock and see I have 10 minutes left…then 5 minutes…
Five minutes to conclude and edit. Yep you guessed it. My first ThriveGlobal post in 25 minutes. Not the greatest, but not terrible, right?
It’s not something I would recommend for your most complicated or sensitive projects, but if you know you’re a perfectionist, procrastinator, or avoider when it comes to tasks that could somehow get done reasonably quickly, challenge yourself and give it a try!
[Update} — I bled over my time by a few minutes, hunting for a decent free picture, and then I lost a few more minutes trying to wordsmith this update, to try to explain why I chose a bowling image. All in all I spent a third of the time pondering, being nitpicky, and indecisive, but all of this occurred after the official Pomodoro was done….and what does that tell you?
It tells me that more focus pays off in life, and it helps in bowling too =)
Cheers, and thanks for reading!
Originally published at medium.com