Do more in less time, the best productivity technique

Efficient time management and successfully maintaining your focus during certain periods are 2 activities that are in crisis, and they need all our concentration to help them.

Nowadays we have more distractions around us, which leads to fragile and sensitive periods of complete focus, which in turn astonishingly affects our ability to execute tasks in an ideal turnaround time and generates stress and frustration among those who perform them 

And it seems that the whole world demands more and more from us, it expects us to multitask at all times in order to take advantage of the 24 hours of our day and thus execute all of the pending tasks on our To Do List, and they are not enough to get rid of that list which gets longer day by day. 

A few years ago, in the 80´s to be exact, an Italian named un Francesco Cirillo developed a time management technique called “the Pomodoro technique” which consists of designating periods of time of 50 minutes to work on ONE task without any distractions, complemented by 10 minutes of rest, this technique may sound very simple but when applied correctly, it’s a powerful tool that, as we ourselves do, you can apply to your work sessions and reach your goals in a more desirable way.
 

This technique requires you to use a timer in order to create work and break intervals that will allow you to concentrate on the activity you have to do.  There are several theories regarding the time intervals, however, the original was 25 min of efficient work followed by a 5 minute period of rest.  This 25/5 interval is known as “one Pomodoro”. But we’ve found other time intervals like the 50/10 which works in a very similar manner.  By the way, the term Pomodoro emerged because kitchen timers in the 80’s commonly were in the form of a tomato.

What does the technique consist of?

The technique consists of completely concentrating on one activity until it’s finished and it has the following steps: 

1. Choose the activity you will do.
2. Identify how much time it will take you and if necessary, break it up into several sessions.
3. Set the timer to the selected time.
4. Work on the task at hand focusing completely on it during the period of work.
5. When the timer is finished, take a break.
6. Go back to step 3 if you did not finish the activity in the previous period of work, otherwise go back to step one with the next task.

This technique is very powerful since it allows us to work without interruptions and completely focused during the period of concentration, and lets you relax and do other things like check your social networks or simply rest, what’s most important is that it improves the performance of the tasks you have to do. The break time must be used effectively to distract you from work, which means that you can take a walk, have a coffee or tea, use social networks, have a brief chat with a co-worker that’s also on his break, or do any activity that takes your mind off work completely. 

How is this technique used?

We frequently use this technique in our work sessions, both in a team setting as well as when we work individually, but we decided to use another variant on the technique in which we take a period of concentration of 50 minutes with a break of 10 minutes and we repeat this interval throughout the duration of the activities we perform. 

You may find that the 25/5 interval works better for you or you may need even longer periods depending on the activity you have to perform, what’s good about this technique is that you can adapt it to your type of work whether you need shorter or longer intervals, you can find a mix that adapts to your needs. Once you find the suitable mix for your type of work, we suggest you use this technique on a recurrent basis and you will see the surprising outcomes you can reach when you completely concentrate on a task during a certain period of time and when you allow yourself the chance to take a break during another period. 

Advantages

Executing your activities using this technique can be very gratifying since you can see results from the very first attempt.  Most people work better when they have to meet a specific goal, in this case you have a certain time limit and you work against the clock to meet the task you chose to do.  You may not finish it on time, but you can begin another interval and stay motivated to accomplish your activities.  

Some suggestions

An important part of the Pomodoro technique besides the periods of concentration are the breaks, and in the original technique it was recommended that every 4 Pomodoros (work cycles), a longer break is taken, allowing the person to recharge their batteries to be able to accomplish another 4 cycles in the best way possible.  An example of this would be: 

Pomodoro 1 – 25 minutes of work / 5 minutes of rest

Pomodoro 2 – 25 minutes of work / 5 minutes of rest

Pomodoro 3 – 25 minutes of work / 5 minutes of rest

Pomodoro 4 – 25 minutes pf work / 20 minutes of rest

This tool can be used in many industries, it’s used a lot in companies during their planning meetings where participants need to maintain their concentration.  It’s also become well known that it’s more effective in industries that require creative processes and also for activities that require considerable physical effort.

Even though this technique works very well in most cases, there are instances when it’s not very productive, like in automated industrial lines, among others.  There are also cases when a person can’t get used to the rhythm of working this way and they opt to go back to the normal way of working, but in most cases you can see a considerable increase in the productivity of the people that use it, and we definitely recommend it as one of the tools to achieve your objectives. 

When you try this technique we suggest you let your co-workers and the people around you know, to avoid being distracted during those time lapses so that you can execute this technique with a greater probability of success, some people enjoy playing background instrumental music at a low volume to avoid being sabotaged by your own mind when it’s time to implement this technique. 

It’s your turn to try the Pomodoro and to tell us the outcomes you had.  If you’re already familiar with it, tell us what you found to be the greatest benefits and what you suggest to those that are just starting to use this productivity technique.

© 2020, All Rights Reserved, Aldin Consulting Group, LLC.
Fernando Díaz Guerrero
[email protected]
www.aldingroup.com
www.emprendedordeexito.com