Time Management by the Hour Chapter 3 - Getting Stuff Done

There is a lot of time. The universe has already produced 13 billion years worth of the stuff, and every Monday morning another week's worth shows up. Yet somehow it manages to flow past without getting translated into any actual achievement. Lose your focus for just a while and a big chunk of it is gone forever.

On a bad day I am quite capable of frittering away this precious resource on the most trivial of activities imaginable. Social media, especially Twitter, are my number one time sapping distraction. But the internet in general offers the prospect of endless chasing of the mildly diverting fact. Take away my internet connection and I will simply do the same thing less efficiently with paperbacks. If I can get myself into the position of actually coming eye ball to eye ball with some actually productive activity I can still often find a way to avoid it. Replying to an e-mail can be neutralised by seeking out a new e-mail client. If all else fails tidying up mm my office can suddenly shoot up to top place in my priority list.

A day can sometimes slowly transition from time being spent on pointless stuff, build up to a crescendo of low value activity before a final descent into a long period of procrastination where I realise nothing much has been achieved. By this stage although I have not done anything I have become pretty clear on what it is I should have been doing. I can't relax until I have achieved something but I no longer have the time or energy to get much done. Rather than let the day pass with nothing to show for it I make a last effort but get very little done.  I eventually give up and go to bed late full of anxiety about deadlines that have taken a step nearer.

So basically the most important thing any time management tactic has to do is to break this cycle and actually make some progress. I have tried quite a lot of ways of doing this. The best one, and the one that I continue to use on a daily basis is the pomodoro method. Pomodoro is the Italian for tomato. It gets its name not from the vegetable that everyone knows is really a fruit but from a timer in the shape of a tomato. The principle is very simple. You start a timer running for 25 minutes. During that time you focus exclusively on the task on hand. When the 25 minutes as elapsed, you have a 5 minute break. And that's it.

It sounds like it shouldn't make that much difference. After all simply parcelling up time I into chunks doesn't create any more time. But I found that it really helped in enabling me to focus. Every session becomes an opportunity to practice your concentration skill.

Twenty five minutes is quite a long time. In most activities you can get something worth doing in 25 minutes. But it isn't so long that it is intimidating. You can usually find the willpower to attempt a 25 minute stretch, or a pomodoro as it is called. It is good to have some kind of timing device to work to. There are plenty of specific pomodoro apps available for when you work on the computer. For real physical work kitchen timers work well.

After a pomodoro session you are entitled to a five minute break. Again you use the timer to enforce it.  The great thing about this technique is it avoids you trying to multitask. You are giving your undivided attention to one thing. This is far and away the most efficient way to work. It is also a great procrastination buster. Tackling a huge pile of work can be daunting. Getting a pomodoro done is much less intimidating.

The use of pomodoros is a very effective way of managing time. I set a target of the number of pomodoros I want to get done at the beginning of the day, and allocate them to the things I want achieve. I tick them off as I go along. When they are done I can relax. It is very difficult to keep track of what you have actually done if you don't have a system. Your brain plays tricks on you. What feels like a good day can simply be getting a couple of low priority things of your list. But more often you get to the end of the day frustrated at your perceived lack of progress because you have simply forgotten all the stuff you have actually done.

In fact one of the big advantages of the Pomodoro method is simply that it gives you a sense of control over the time you are spending.

It is also a good way of shining a light on where all the time is going. This is a big issue for me as a consultant pricing jobs. When I give a quote to do something I have to make an estimate of the time it is going to take. I make that estimate in terms of the number of pomodoros I think it will need. When the work is done and the bill sent off I can compare the number of pomodoros I actually needed against the number I estimated before I started. Needless to say I don't get it right very often, and needless to say I almost always underestimate what is needed. But at least I can do a post mortem based on real data and improve my estimates in the future.

The pomodoro technique has many fans and it is well worth adding to your tool kit. It does have some critics though, and these usually take the form of complaining that it gets in the way of achieving what is often called flow - the feeling you can sometimes get when you are fully engaged with a job and working at with your full capacity. The bugbear here is the break every 25 minutes, which might stop you from getting into this highly desirable state.

Speaking personally I don't have any great problem with skipping the breaks if it feels right at the time. Far from being a barrier, I find keeping track of the number of pomodoros I have clocked up is in fact motivating. But I do concede that there are times and tasks where it might not be appropriate. There are things that you don't get into any kind of flow state no matter what though. I have never heard of anyone emerging from an all night session completing their tax return with reports of feeling an ecstatic level of engagement. But I think if you have been getting the tax affairs settled with a regular pomodoro session your brain will have fewer distractions when you really need it.

But the breaks in the pomodoro technique are the weak point in the system. They do give you an invitation to drop off the wagon every 25 minutes. They also do mount up, especially if you are pomodoring all day. I often schedule 16, so if I take all 15 breaks in full that is an hour and a quarter gone. That might be time well invested if it keeps your brain fresh and clear, or it might just be the unnecessarily wasted just to keep to a system. This will vary with exactly what you are doing so make a judgement.

The other use of the break is to keep organised, finish off what you were working on cleanly and keep your records of what you are doing up to date. The discipline I keep to is that I don't tick it off on my list until it is completely done. I don't always do this, but I also sometimes give myself an extra asterisk if I have managed to fully complete my pomodoro with complete focus on what I am doing. The system only works if you fully engage with it. You don't want to be just going through the motions.