Busy, busy, busy. We’re all so busy.
Let me tell you something, though. Over the last 4 days, I’ve gotten more done and felt less busy than I have in a long time. The key word here is *felt* less busy. I have no quantifiable way to show that I *was* less busy, but I came home relaxed at the end of the day. My to-do lists were empty. My work at work was done in half the time I originally estimated. I was going home because I was *done*, not because it was 5 o’clock.
Why the sudden change, you ask?
Well, over the last 2 years, I’ve used some of the concepts from GTD to get stuff out of my head and into a system. Most of what that did was make tasks in my life less likely to slip through the cracks. Because I got to where I trusted this system, I was able to actually relax about whether or not I forgot something. That’s been a huge change for me.
My problem, in general, is getting motivated to do something. This is especially true when I have just finished a project. I look at the big, blank text editor in front of me or the big blank whiteboard and think “I have no idea how I’ll do this… I guess I’ll just wait for a while.” A while has turned into weeks in the past. I was getting things working in my head, but a lot of the time was goofing around or generally procrastinating.
Enter The Pomodoro Technique. I took last weekend and read through the free PDF they have on their site. I took the basic ideas and customized them to what I’d already been doing with GTD. The result has been amazing to me.
To give you a summary, the Pomodoro Technique sets aside chunks of time (or pomodoros) where you focus on one task or a group of tasks. Your entire goal is to focus on the task without being interrupted–internally or externally. They give you tools to deal with the interruptions so that you can quickly move past them–record them for later, politely ask a colleague if you can get back with them in a few minutes, let the call go to voice mail, turn off your e-mail, etc. The key is to simply work on one thing until you’re done or the timer rings. When the timer rings, you immediately take a break for 5 minutes or so. Longer breaks after 4 or so “pomodoros” even longer breaks in the middle of the day.
I got in on Monday morning and spent one “pomodoro” getting organized for the day. I went through all the “inboxes” I have — and there are a lot — physical mail, e-mail, bug trackers, feature trackers, twitter, facebook, voicemail, and Things — and scheduled, estimated, and prioritized the tasks for the day. Once I’d estimated them, I was able to note that I had more than I could handle, so I schedule them for the next day in Things. After that, I sat down for my first “operational pomodoro” and started working. To my surprise, I finished the first task in 25 minutes. I got up, checked Facebook on my phone and got a drink, then I went back for another round. By the end of the day, my entire list was checked off. When 4:00 rolled around I spent one more pomodoro tidying up, answering e-mails, and making sure I’d cleared out everything, then I reviewed what I’d done and noted what I could improve.
When I got home, I was ready for my kids. Work was out of my mind. I had nothing to worry about and it was incredible.
I’ve been doing it for 4 days straight and every day I’ve ticked off everything on my list and gotten to go home early–with a clean conscience.
If you have trouble getting motivated, I highly recommend trying it. It’s a great technique that can apply to just about any situation where you need to get something done. Adapt it to yourself, but stick with the rules at first to see what is most effective–don’t go changing it up willy-nilly before you try it as advertised out of the box.
I’m going to stick with this through September and then write another post about how it went. Here’s hoping for a highly productive, and relaxing, September.





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