We’ve all seen the memes on social media about how we all have the same number of seconds, minutes and hours daily. We know that. Stop preaching. But how do you become more productive? How to focus. How to ignore the distraction of the seductive phone screen?
How do we make our hours at work work for us and our employers? The secret to that is the secret to a successful career. Whatever job we have, we must add value to be successful, valued and promoted. That means producing value in whatever output is relevant to your industry.
Distraction is the Devil. Our phones want us to consume. But we could try to discipline ourselves to use them for communicating or creating instead.
The great thing about being productive, creating output and adding value on a daily, weekly or monthly basis is that this consistent work is recognised by employers and makes annual reviews a breeze.
This is the first of a series of posts examining various ways to become more productive at work and, with that, to become more successful in our careers.
Pomodoro technique
The Pomodoro technique follows a kitchen timer. Unique, I know. But think about it: a kitchen timer of 25-minute intervals. Imagine your day broken up into 25-minute slots – sprints of work followed by short breaks.
Essentially, the technique works like this:
- Decide on the task to be done. There are other exercises to do about deciding what tasks should be done and in which order!
- Set the Pomodoro timer. Or a timer. The key here is 25 minutes.
- Work on the task. Do nothing else. Phones off and face down or out of sight.
- End work when the timer rings and take a 5-minute break. (If I am “in the zone”, I keep going).
- Go back to Step 2 and repeat. Complete four pomodoros.
- After four pomodoros are done, take a half-hour break instead of a short break. Then repeat.
The technique has intensity and focus benefits. We all work better with deadlines, and this is a series of self-imposed deadlines. The primary purpose of the technique is to keep focus and workflow flowing by eliminating distractions by having short work periods.
Pomodoro Technique Advantages and Pros
It is soooo easy to implement – the technique requires no expensive software or team-building exercises; it’s a simple kitchen tool. You could even use your phone timer – that’s free, and it’s always with you. This website gives it to you for free on your work screen https://pomofocus.io
It makes larger projects more manageable and faster to achieve – by breaking up a large project into smaller “work projects” with fixed time intervals.
Pomodoro Technique Disadvantages and Cons
Working styles differ from person to person; some may claim this technique is distracting and not work-conducive. When rigidly applied, the method also requires a specific time structure. I suspect that while explaining this, they could have completed a 25-minute sprint.
The Pomodoro technique reviewed
I like the brutality of the 25-minute focus, but I see it as a minimum focus period rather than an end-of-gaol-focus sentence or release moment. This means that I may carry on working if I am getting things done.
For more productivity hacks:
I love the self-imposed deadline discipline. When this is combined with a strictly used diary, I think it is a useful tool. If you do it once a day, you will get 100 minutes of focus a day. That’s not the 480 minutes of work that an 8-hour day demands, but it is intensive and probably produces more than 1000 unfocused minutes. Try it and see.
Productivity Hack #1 to Getting Stuff Done – Compartmentalise Your Day – This mental hack is to divide your day into quarters. In your head. Just like a ship. Then, if something goes south, it’s not the whole day lost or damaged – it’s just that quarter. The other quarters can be good quarters.
Productivity Hack #3 The Time-Blocking System – The Time-Blocking System is a system of productivity that divides your day into time blocks dedicated to specific themes of work or tasks to accomplish. Many people use the system to divide their day into several blocks, each allocating a work task.
Productivity Hack #4 The Myth of Multitasking – Multitasking is a myth. We like to brag that we are good at it. But we’re not. Humans do not have the mental capability to focus on more than one thing.
