Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
I recently saw a little chart on the Facebook account BooksForAspirants talking about six ways to get things done (below). I don’t know who put it together … but it did say to feel free to use it, so I’m going to. With all the talk about being more effective and efficient, I thought it’s a good time to remember some strategies for being more productive.
While I thought that the image with different productivity methods is great, I also thought that there could be a challenge in figuring out when to use each. So, I wanted to elaborate on them. Think of this as a productivity series. The first method I want to discuss is the Promodoro Technique.
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The idea behind the technique is to use a timer (typically 25 minutes) to break work into intervals. Fun factoid: each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for tomato, after the tomato shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a student. The technique has six steps:
- Decide on the task that needs to be done.
- Set the timer for 25 minutes.
- Work on the task.
- When the timer goes off, take a break (5ish minutes).
- Repeat steps 2-4 until you complete 4 rounds.
- After the 4th round, take a longer break (20ish minutes). Then return to step 2.
I can see the Pomodoro Technique being very useful when you need to focus on specific task. Especially an intense one. For example, if I’m reviewing a set of data, I might work on cleaning the data for 25 minutes and then take a break to clear my head. In fact, I could take it one step further and say during round one, I’ll look for duplicates. In round two, I’ll check for missing values. Round three will focus on valid data and finally in round four, I’ll check for outliers.
Another benefit to using the Pomodoro Technique is the ease of the process. With everything on our computers, phones, and watches, we don’t need to carry around a tomato timer (unless we want to, of course). So, we might be able to do the Pomodoro Technique from anywhere.
The challenge with the Pomodoro Technique is it could be difficult to do when you have a day with meetings, phone calls, and/or a bunch of little things that need to get done. It might be necessary to block off some time on the calendar to be able to do this well. And that’s okay. Honestly, I don’t know that we think about blocking time on our calendars to use a productivity technique. Sometimes, we might think just blocking the time itself is the productivity technique.
Another challenge with this technique could be the structure of it all. Some people could find this level of structure too much. And this technique might not be ideal for certain creative tasks. Which is the whole reason we’re having this conversation today. We need to find and use the right tool for the task.
If you’ve never tried the Pomodoro Technique, give it a try sometime. See if you like it. Don’t forget to do a quick debrief at the end. 1) What went well? Even if you don’t like the technique, you might find there were a couple of things that did go well. 2) What would you do differently next time? Maybe it’s change your breaks from 5 to 10 minutes. It’s your productivity. Feel free to tweak it to meet your needs.
Because the end result will be exactly what you’re looking for … and that’s better productivity.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby somewhere off the coast of Miami, FL
The post Productivity Series [Part 1]: Stay Focused Using the Pomodoro Technique appeared first on hr bartender.
