Googling “how to increase your productivity” was absolutely no help.
Everyone was writing about ways to save time. One talked about reducing the consumption of coffee to reduce bathroom breaks… This isn’t the Pursuit of Happyness.
Others swore by sticking to a google calendar: I’ve tried that in the past with no luck. Empty calendars were created, meetings + to do items were scheduled in, reoccurring line items were added in… It turned into a never-ending symphony of notifications, beeps, and vibrations. SSSSSHHHH!
I came across another interesting article. It was talking about how to increase productivity by following a process. A paragraph later it delved into a complicated integration of Asana, Slack, and using your email as a to-do list… I wanted something basic that I could stick to like clockwork.
Not getting anywhere, I was endlessly scrolling article after article until I came across this article about the Pomodore principle. It was simple. It was basic. And over time, I could incorporate it into other SOP’s. Beautiful.
Pomodore is about boxing your time (& mind), focusing on one thing at a time.
The set up is simple. Start the day with a to-do list of items that can be broken down into 25-minute segments. If you have big line items, find a way to break them down into smaller, bite-sized pieces that can be accomplished in 25 (or worst case 50) minute segments.
Get yourself a kitchen timer, a timer app, or if you’re feeling fancy… One of the gazillion Pomodore Apps. (There is an app out there that gamifies the Pomodoro principle, allowing you collect “points” used to redeem stuff.)
Set the timer for 25 minutes and get cracking!
If you finish early, spend the extra time tweaking your work or learning something new. You just reclaimed extra time, use it productively!
If you don’t finish when the timer rings, move on to the next task.
If something comes up, record it for later and get back to the task at hand.
After each Pomodoro, give yourself a 5-minute break to reorganize, collect, and prepare for the next task.
After 4 Pomodoro, give yourself a longer break. No mentally intensive tasks, you want to save the brain power for the next set of Pomodoro.
Doing the Pomodoro for over a week… Whoa, I’ve gotten a lot done!
It’s the strangest feeling.
Putting together the todo list acts as mental preparation for what needs to get accomplished today. It’s an exercise in weeding out time-intensive tasks that aren’t really a priority (as of this moment).
When you start that timer, you only have 25 minutes to execute. No time to dilly dally. No time to hop on Facebook. It becomes tunnel vision, eye on the prize… “I got to finish this in 25 minutes.”
At the end of the 25 minutes, it’s a feeling of accomplishment. If I didn’t finish a task, I started to question… Why? Was it because I got distracted, was over-ambitious, or does the task really take more than 25 minutes?
Knocking out 8 Pomodoro’s in a day, its a feeling of “I got shit done.”
At the end of the week, I realized just how much i accomplished. Plus… I was able to measure forward progress with numbers – unlike most calendar systems.