In my sabbatical time, the organization of my days can feel overwhelming. My savior has been ‘The Pomodoro Technique‘, a time management strategy where you set a timer for twenty minutes and concentrate on a given task. As a result, I’ve learned there are a LOT of things you can accomplish in twenty minutes. Here’s a short list of things I’ve checked off using the Pomodoro Technique lately:
Things You Can Accomplish in Twenty Minutes
- SEO optimization on 1-2 blog posts (Apparently, Google ranking is a big deal. Who knew?)
- What I like to call the ‘house-keeping hat trick’: Clean bathroom/fold laundry/unload dishwasher
- A large amount of research about shin splints and stress fractures (my current obsessions as I’m training for the New York Marathon).
- A walk to a Polideportivo (Spanish YMCA), followed by two, back-to-back twenty minute sessions of aqua jogging. (see above note about shin splints)
- A podcast interview. (Yes, seriously! Check out my interview on the awesome James Miller Lifeology here)
The possibilities are endless! (Sidenote: I also find it helps to set a twenty minute time when I’m reading. Otherwise, I will read a whole book instead of…ahem…working. Ditto for Instagram.)
There are two things that I love about the twenty minute Pomodoro technique:
First, as a person with a large variety of relatively strange hobbies, I can convince myself to do almost anything for twenty minutes. Running? Sure. Writing? Yes. Drafting blog posts or articles for Popsugar/National Geographic/The New Yorker? I’ll give it a try!
I always tell myself that if I’m really miserable after twenty minutes, I’ll stop. It deals with that pesky, activation energy problem. Usually after twenty minutes, I’m happy to keep working on whatever it is that I’m doing (this blog post for example. I mean literally, the one that I’m writing right now. I am on minute 27.)
Second, it gives me an appreciation for how long things actually take. Lots of the time, things I plan to cross off in twenty minutes take an hour or more. While it’s frustrating to have an goal take longer than I think it will, I do at least feel like I’m using my time effectively when I have to come up for air three times each hour and consider if I am approaching my task in the most stream-lined way possible.
I don’t want to waste my sabbatical time. I think a lot about how to focus my attention so I accomplish my bucket list goals.
The goals are big (and to be fair, probably mildly unreasonable): writing books, climbing mountains, developing online course resources for passive income.
But they happen twenty minutes at a time.
Photo of the Caminita Del Rey in Malaga (planned and hiked twenty at a time) to celebrate.
*Thanks to Aron Visuals for the banner photo!
OMG, you just gave me one of the best ideas ever. I used to use the Pomodoro technique to study only, but it never occurred to me that I could use it to complete other tasks! O.O thanks!
I’m using it right now to optimize my content 🙂
Great post!
– aimlief
Thanks for reading!!
It works SO WELL! I highly recommend it : )
It’s really amazing what can be accomplished in twenty minutes. I agree that sometimes it can be frustrating when something takes longer than we intended it to, but once the task is complete, we feel better for doing it.
Thanks for reading! I totally agree. And I think it’s so useful to actually know how long something takes, like I appreciate the process more because I have some quantitive information : )
Well I learned something today! Need to apply this method to see if it helps me with my chaotic life!
Thanks for reading! I hope it helps-let me know if it works : )