You Need a Tomato...timer

06 Aug 2020

⭐⭐⭐ Let’s talk PRODUCTIVITY ⭐⭐⭐

Today, I want to talk about things that help me to be productive.

Grab some popcorn and let’s goooooooooo 🎉🎉🎉

First and foremost, let’s have some clarifications:

1. NO I don’t think you need to work all the time
2. NO I am not saying this is the only way to be productive
3. YES there are other ways to be productive
4. This is just advice do whatever floats your boat and finds your lost remote 🙃

Let’s begin, shall we?

What is productivity?

To me productivity is getting the most out of the time you are working on something. Whether it be coding, writing or some other task that requires your focus.

Whether you are working for 30 minutes or 5 hours, how can you get more out of that time?

Focus time + breaks.

You need a tomato…timer

There’s a technique that builds in heads-down time and breaks. It’s called the Pomodoro technique. Essentially, you work for 25 minutes uninterrupted (close your distraction sources) and then after the time, take a break for 5 minutes and do whatever you want.

You can repeat this over and over again. After 3 sessions, I’ll extend the 5 minute break to 10 minutes or if it runs into lunch time, I’ll take the hour or whatever time is appropriate. You’d be amazed at how much you’d get done when you are concentrating. But that’s hard!

This is why I love this technique. It gives me the structure to get my work done but also come hangout with people on Twitter. There are some other benefits for me that I wouldn’t have surfaced otherwise.

Benefits you say?

1. Things take me longer than I think. As a developer, 99% of the time I see a problem and think I can solve it in 20 minutes. It’s usually like 4 hours.
2. I didn’t realize just how MUCH I reached for my phone (and still do!)
3. My breaks are more meaningful and I actually use them to stretch, meditate (sometimes lol) or grab my guitar for a quick jam session outlet.

Okay, before you start saying that humans are not designed to be robots or some other objection - remember the core idea here. This is to help boost productivity and HAS NO MINIMUM recommendation on how long to do this. This might not be a fit for you at all.

If you need some structure or practical tips on productivity - give this a try.

If you need some structure in your email list subscriptions - give mine a try 🙃