The Pomodoro Technique with The Holistic Leaders.
How taking a break can optimise your life and business. Meet The Pomodoro Technique.
Ever feel like “Time is the Enemy”?
Either, it races by and there is never enough of it to achieve all you want to in a day or else, when completing less favourable tasks, it slows down and an hour can feel like two. No doubt you have experienced both at one time or another so let me introduce you to my favourite time management tool that I introduce to all my clients. It helps Leaders with an immeasurable amount of tasks and responsibilities as well as Founders who have complete autonomy over how they spend their day but have a big need to stay focused, do-all-the-things to remain productive and profitable so they can then enjoy their precious personal time.
In this post I will explain what The Pomodoro Technique is and how it can be used to optimise your life and business to finally make time your ally.
Firstly though... which one of these do you identify with?
The Procrastinators:- We find ourselves avoiding, delaying or ignoring certain, less enjoyable tasks. The Pomodoro technique makes these feel a lot more manageable.
The Perfectionists:- We dedicate way too much time to tasks that aren’t as important as the time we are allocating to them. We feel constantly busy but these tasks aren't actually moving our businesses forward.
The Multitaskers:- We are doing 3 things at once. Always. “As it saves time.” Turns out it doesn’t though. Get focused. Get it done. One thing at a time.
The Distracted Ones:- When we find ourselves starting tasks throughout the day with constant internal and external distractions derailing any plans (hello emails, phone calls, scratching dogs, daydreaming...). We have lots of tasks without set deadlines that can be “pushed out until tomorrow.”
The Deep Divers:- When we get too deep into tasks and actually work past the point of our optimal productivity. This can often happen when we love the task but we still need to remain optimised in our day so breaks are a MUST.
The 60 Minute-ers: - When we organise our day by the hour. Seems totally practical but “The Task will expand to fill the time”(Parkinson's Law). Check in with yourself and ask,: do you actually need 60 minutes for this meeting/ task/ call? See if you can align your day with this method, I am not one to rush things at all but I have found this to be incredibly effective especially if your day is taken over by meetings. (Your team will thank you too!).
I can identify with every one of these and I promise you this: -this simple technique has huge potential to change your life and your business if applied.
So:-What is the Pomodoro Technique?
• The Pomodoro Technique is a time management tool whereby you create 25 minutes blocks of FOCUSED work, followed by a 5 minute break.
• During your focused time you shut down all other tasks;- no phones, emails, social media.
• This method allows you to break down large tasks into more manageable chunks and batch lots of smaller tasks to complete more efficiently within the 25 minute time frame.
• It is celebrated globally as one of the most simple, yet effective time blocking tools there is and personally;- It is a game changer when it comes to productivity.
Why is The Pomodoro Technique important?
• Although it sounds fairly obvious, everyone from Junior employee to CEO is subject to distraction in the modern age, Forbes, Huffington post and LinkedIn have innumerable articles on the topic and time management apps are on the rise.
• Why do I love it so much? We are not machines and this isn’t about constantly working HARD. It's about working smart and it's about honouring both focus and freedom;- get your work done, rest your mind and move your body. This is what we are all about at The Holistic Leaders.
• The consequences of poor time management have been studied and they include heightened stress to meet deadlines, poor work relationships due to friction,
• If we have time to procrastinate, we will. To combat this, we have to manufacture strict deadlines to increase productivity. Create a plan, stick to it, knowing that out the other side is freedom to enjoy your life in other ways.
OPTIMISING YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE
• Develops more discipline.
• Avoid burnout by introducing breaks throughout the day.
• Increased productivity: total uninterrupted focus for 25 minutes (phone away, excess tabs closed. Focusing purely on 1 task for 25 minutes).
• Decreased feeling of busyness as the nervous system settles into dealing with 1 task at a time.
• No more multitasking which is shown to increase cortisol levels in the body.
• Conquer procrastination, perfectionism and minimize work distractions
• Learn how to work even when you don’t want to.
• More time to enjoy your life because you have gotten your work done efficiently.
BENEFITS FOR WORKPLACE WELLBEING THROUGH THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE
• As Leaders we are responsible for our own Holistic Wellbeing and that of our team. This isn’t just a “nice to have”. It is now a Must Have.
• To introduce this method into workplace culture as a norm will encourage everyone to take micro-breaks throughout the day.
• We are designed to move as humans but the reality is we sit at our desks all day. By taking these little breaks to move our bodies you can shake, stretch or breath out any aches or tensions.
• We can aid mental fatigue through meditation or we can simply lift our energy by doing something joyful for 5 minutes. (Both long and short term gain from this).
• Helps to fight workplace overwhelm by breaking work tasks into more manageable increments. In doing this we decrease work stress/ anxiety.
• Just 5 minutes can refresh your mind and re-energise your body.
GUIDELINES TO USING THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE
STEP 1 Choose a Task and identify how much overall time to dedicate to it.
STEP 2 Set a timer for 25 minutes to work in concentrated bursts.
STEP 3 Work on a single task until your timer is up.
STEP 4 Take a 5 minute break. (Move, breathe, Stretch,)
STEP 5 Repeat Cycle. Every 4 Pomodoros, take a 30 min break.
I would suggest giving it a try. You can do a couple a day to start and take it from there. I love creating structure in the day so that we can then flow. Every person will be different so see what fits for you, your business and your life.
In my next post I discuss how we can use these 5 minute breaks throughout the day to introduce little ‘Wellness Shots' like Breathwork, desk yoga and biodynamic movement.
Shell x
The TASK Times
