How the Pomodoro Skyrocketed My Productivity & Saved My Business

I looked at the clock. Another 6 hours, another day passed, no words on the page.

With your income tied to your output, having a string of non-productive days hurts your bank account, and maybe even your sanity.

We live in a world that’s filled with an infinite amount of glorious distractions. If you work online, then you know the pain all too well.

You tell yourself, “I’ll just check Facebook for a second". Seems harmless enough. An hour later you emerge from the black hole. Your motivation gone and self-esteem destroyed. It’s not just Facebook, we have email, text messaging, phone calls, Netflix, text messaging, Skype, Reddit, and on and on.

Or, maybe you feel like you’re working, but when you look up at the end of the day your to-do list is just as big? What’s going on?

Welcome to the age of distraction. If you don’t pick up your sword and slay this dragon it’ll eat you alive.

Here’s how I used a simple online timer to skyrocket my productivity and save my business in the process.

How My Business Almost Failed

I’ve been writing for the web for four years now. Ghostblogging is my bread and butter. But, after doing this for a while, something happened.

My business stopped growing. I kept missing deadlines, and I spent days in front of a computer without a single blog post to show for it.

I thought I had to quit writing forever and had some serious dark days.

Little did I know it wasn’t my motivation that was lacking, it was my ability to focus. My days flittered away by endless distractions. When I closed my computer in frustration at the end of the day, I felt drained and tired, but my work kept piling up.

If you run your own business, then learning how to be productive is one of the more important tools in your arsenal.

Willing ourselves to focus is a losing battle. There has to be a better way.

Why We Struggle to Focus

As much as we’d hate to admit it, we’re not born to stare at our computer screens for hours and hours on end. We get tired. Our bodies yell at us. Generally, we just need a break.

On top of that, we haven't yet adapted to this technological world we spend our lives immersed in. Mixing our general lack of body care and constant state of overwhelm, we're faced with the perfect storm of procrastination.

Chances are, whenever you sit down to work you immediately feel the pull to check something else. This is completely normal. Our rambling minds have a tendency to lean towards prostration and distraction.

David Rock, author of Your Brain at Work, believes the inability to focus comes from overwhelm triggered by the amount of information we have to digest every single day. Along with how our new technologies have become so good at distracting us.

It seems the world is working against our ability to focus and get things done.

But, it doesn’t have to be this way forever. I’m not saying I’ve found the perfect solution, but the method we’re about to dive into below makes focusing much easier and enjoyable.

How a Simple Timer Saved My Business

“Time = Life, Therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life.” — Alan Lakein

Having a single unproductive day isn’t going to kill your business, but what about when this happens again and again? You look up and a week or two have gone by and you haven’t produced anything of value. Yikes!

Then, as the pressure to do more builds up, you’re existing in a constant state of overwhelm — which is difficult to work its way out of.

Needless to say when I was just about at my wits end I stumbled across this blog post (thanks Glen!). I had heard the Pomodoro Method mentioned online before, but it sounded too much like a pasta sauce for me to try it out.

I only wish I heeded the wisdom of the Pomodoro much sooner.

Why the Pomodoro Method Works and How to Do It

Francesco Cirillo invented the Pomodoro Method in the 1980s as a cutting-edge time management method.

It’s based upon the idea that people can only focus on tasks for a certain amount of time. As much as we like the idea of being in the “zone” for an 8-hour workday, it just isn’t possible. Unless you’re DaVinci, which in that case, keep on working.

So, instead of trying to sit at your desk for the 9 to 5 grind, or whatever hours your schedule allows for, you break your day up into manageable chunks.

Research suggests that taking frequent breaks can increase our levels of mental agility.

The goal of this method is to help reduce distractions and keep you in a state of flow. After all, it’s much easier to ward off distractions when all you’re doing is working for 25 minutes.

The traditional Pomodoro Method has you work in 25-minute focus sessions. After the 25 minutes are complete you'll take a five minute break. It's quite simple.

After you’ve completed four of these 30-minute sessions you take a longer break of 20 to 30 minutes. I usually take a nap, or dive into a book during these longer breaks.

Then, you repeat the process until you’ve abolished your to-do list.

The 25-minute time block is just a suggestion. You can work in shorter or longer stints, or experiment until you find your sweet spot.

1. Pick an App or Timer of Your Choice

If you’re set on testing out this method, then all you need is a timer.

You can use the timer on your cell phone, your watch, an online timer like Tomato Timer, an app like Pomodairo, or even an old school egg timer.

The method you use doesn’t matter as much as its ease of use. When starting a new habit you want to reduce friction as much as possible.

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by Kevin Wood via SitePoint