Resist those daily distractions
and zip through your workload
with the aid of a simple kitchen timer.
In this digital age, a world of distraction is at your fingertips, and it can be difficult to remain focused on a task or project. But don’t fret! With the Pomodoro Technique, a simple kitchen timer can make all the difference.
Certainly, your friends’ status updates and Google+ photos — always just a click away — can provide a tempting diversion. But social media is often the least of your dangers, really.
With phone calls, meetings (often inefficient), and anybody walking past your desk, there is an almost limitless menu of potential distractions to impede your momentum ….or even derail your efforts altogether.
Can The Pomodoro Technique Improve Your Life?
turn your productivity up a notch using the Pomodoro technique and a simple timer
I think at this point we pretty much all know (hopefully) that multi-tasking is a myth. What multi-tasking really means is that you’re doing several things at once less effectively. It’s almost always better to focus your efforts like a laser, for short bursts of concentrated effort.
Everybody has a productivity system, whether they know it or not. For most people, their system is to have no system, to run their day by the seat-of-their-pants. But how you block your time, schedule your time, prioritize your time, and look objectively at your time: is a success fundamental. In other words, how you work with time determines whether or not you have a foundation solid enough on which to build outrageous success.
“…winners don’t just learn the fundamentals, they master them.
You have to monitor your fundamentals constantly
because the only thing that changes will be your attention to them”
~ Michael Jordan
The Pomodoro Technique can help you strengthen your focus — with just a kitchen timer, a sheet of paper, and a pencil.
The first step of Pomodoro is pretty standard to all productivity systems: you write up a checklist of the tasks you want to get done, then prioritize which items you want to complete by placing them at the top of the list.
The second step of Pomodoro, however, is where things get really interesting: you set the kitchen timer to 25 minutes and spend that time concentrating on your task. You do nothing else but this task until the timer rings.
When the timer rings, check off your task on the list — and reward yourself with a 5-minute break.
For tasks that take more than one Pomodoro, just keep making a checkmark on the paper for every 25-minute interval (be sure to take those 5-minute breaks between each!) until the task is complete. This will help you track and process how long things take.
What’s Your Personal Productivity System?
It’s important to periodically ask yourself:
- “what would my life be like if I were even more organized than I am now?”
- “would I be happier?”
- “would I be richer?”
- “would I achieve my goals more often, and more quickly?”
When you answer those questions, you’ll probably realize that it’s a good idea to re-evaluate your system of personal productivity. Basically, every person would benefit by having a productivity system that they use to help themselves become continually better organized. Preferably, that system should be as simple and effective as possible.
It’s a funny thing, but the more organized and productive we are, the less stress we experience, the more joy comes into our lives, the more prosperous we become, and the more our relationships are deepened.
I recommend The Dane Technique: it’s simple, it’s cheap, it works.
The Dane Technique:
How to Get Seriously Organized using Checklists ~ e-Workbook, $4.95
“…The Dane Technique provides concise, easy to understand, specific instructions
for people who want to get organized using checklists.
Beginning with a simple, yet powerful, manifesto
the book quickly walks the reader through a series of exercises
leading the reader to their own checklists.
No specific forms or software are required
leaving the format up to each unique and, soon to be organized, happy person”~ Paul Puckett, Asset Portfolio Manager
This e-Workbook will help you to get better organized. In order to improve your self-care and increase your health protocols, you need a simple productivity system — a good system can help you to find extra time and energy and to create a new schedule and daily routine that works best for your life. Individually, The Dane Technique is $4.95, or you can enjoy the value and benefits of the entire Kit (including all 5 life-improving products) for $14.95.
“…making a list felt like a chore
but after reading Dane’s “How To Get Seriously Organized Using Checklists”
I am now understanding how important lists are. My life is becoming clutter free
and I get more accomplished throughout the day because the lists suggested by Dane
are helping me be more productive in my personal and business life.
Quotidian list is my favorite! Don’t know what that is? Get the book and find out!
Trust me, it will change your life!”
~ Doina Oncel, Solutions Specialist for Non-Profits
By utilizing principles of Success Psychology, the Longevity Lifestyle Kit ensures that your new, positive habits will “stick” (instead of having you start out with good intentions and then falling back into the same old habits). There are 5 key pieces to the Kit:
“Live with Intention. Create a happy, balanced life. We all want this, right? Dane’s tips and techniques in his checklist book are a great way to reduce stress and be more productive. I’m a list maker, and follow a daily plan. But, sometimes things get in the way of completing my daily list. I really like thinking of my daily list as organic and always improving. If you aren’t a list-maker — he provides simple principles that will make a positive difference”
~ Margie Arnett, University Professor
The Pomodoro technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s while he was a university student. He named the technique after the tomato shaped kitchen timer he had when he first developed the system (a fun explanation of Pomodoro is Steffan Noteberg’s Pomodoro Illustrated, which boils the technique down into its simplest parts with cheerful illustrations that are particularly helpful for web developers). The kitchen timer is a great lo-fi way to cut down on interruptions (although the technically minded might enjoy a free Focus Booster app for your desktop at focusboosterapp.com). Personally, I like using either a kitchen timer, or the timer that comes on my smartphone.
Actually, kitchen timers have many more uses beside just making sure the cookies don’t burn:
Every four Pomodoro sessions, you can take a longer break. Maybe get some fresh air, grab a green juice smoothie, or post a tweet celebrating your productivity.
co-written by Sean Cameron
I like to set a timer and see how much I can straighten a room before it dings. I can usually finish pretty quickly, even though at the beginning it looks overwhelming.
Hi Dane, thank you for such an excellent resource!
This post, in particular caught my attention because being a busy work-from-home mother and wife and trying to meet the demands of work, family and home is a major juggling act! Prioritizing is the only way to cope and I think using the Pomodoro method that you describe and a kitchen timer are going to go a long way to increasing my productivity and also lowering my stress levels.
I have subscribed to your newsletters (even though I’m still under 40!) and look forward to your updates.
thanks Jacqui! Yes, improving our personal productivity is only truly productive if it reduces our stress level — not increases it! I support your intention of finding ways of improving your self-care!
What a great idea to have a timer in executive and management meetings, to keep things on-point and focused.
Timer is a good Idea. Think I will start to use it at work.
Love the timer–I use it when I paint (of all things). It helps me break the project into manageable pieces and it reminds me that I am making progress. Not sure I agree with the multitasking comment. From what I have read women’s brains are wired to multitask–having children, I cannot image it being otherwise with them. Maybe not the best way to go about all aspects of life but has its place and importance.
yes, parenting young children is the primary reason multi-tasking exists, I believe. In a business environment, though, yikes: overrated.
I’ve read that there really is no thing as multi-tasking; what we are really doing is short bursts of focus which stops and another one starts so quickly, we think they are occurring at the same time. I don’t know the science on this, though. However, when one is a parent, one does whatever one has to, no matter what it’s called!
Often times I cannot see the bottom of my desk. I am in awe
The timer is very cool.
I like a traditional kitchen timer as the ticking reminds me to concentrate.
Oh, and get a load of this (it’s fantastic! hah!) >> http://e.ggtimer.com/pomodoro
Funnily enough, when you love your work, it can make it even harder to manage your time and energy, because it’s so easy to drop into that “flow” where time and space seem to almost disappear! Hah!
{ twitter = @danenow }