This article is for everyone who likes productivity. And even if you hate things like time-management keep reading - who knows may be you will figure-out how to get your time organized and start liking it - like I was.
May be you’ve already know Pomodoro Technique:
Pomodoro Technique Is a simple and effective way to improve your work & study habits
The idea behind this technique is to split the achieving your work or study goals into a 25 minutes time-slices - pomodoros (🍅) plus a 5 min break after each pomodoro which totals in 30 mins for one pomodoro and a brake.
For each 4th’s pomodoro a brake is 15 mins instead of 5 mins. So 4 pomodoros results in 30 + 30 + 30 + 40 = 130 mins = 2h 10 mins.
These simple rules makes typical pomodoros a very convenient units of measurement for different activities. This is an another idea behind pomodoros - to be able to measure different activities.
You can measure your different activities and then know better how much the certain activity takes, e.g.:
- Typical 8 hours work day — 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅 (15 x 🍅)
- Home cleanup (1 hour) — 🍅 🍅
You will like the idea of measuring stuff in pomodoros. Turns out other people pretty much like that. And it’s always good to have something measured.
Typical 8 hour work day is 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 = 15 pomodoros @PomodoroTech #productivity
— Vladimir Livin (@vlivin) March 11, 2015
As part of the technique you’ve to figure-out the length of your own activities.
Now everything is clear with the technique. Let’s move on closer to the topic of this article — productivity vs. time-wasting.
What if we measure different time-wasting activities in pomodoros which you could spent productively?
Time-Wasting Activities Measured in Pomodoros
1-hour time wasters
- 1 hour TV watch 🍅 🍅
- 1 hour commuting 🍅 🍅
- 1 hour of shopping 🍅 🍅
- 1 hour of useless conversation 🍅 🍅
- 1 hour traveling for offline good pickup 🍅 🍅
- 1 hour of useless debates / disputes 🍅 🍅
- 1 hour of legal stuff & accounting 🍅 🍅
30-min time wasters
- 30 min lazy laying in the bed 🍅
- 30 min hanging in facebook / twitter 🍅
Now if you’re reading this post in the middle or the end of the day or at the evening - that’s very nice - you can find out how much pomodoros you’ve already wasted today. What number is it?
Time-wasters of a typical person
if you take a typical day of typical person who wants to be organized, but is still on its way in progress - here’s the time-wasters that we can find:
- 30 mins lazy laying the bed,
- 1 hour of TV show watching
- 30 mins of hanging in Facebook
- 30 mins of some other wasting activity of any type like useless debates or shopping
Here we’ve just found of 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 - 5 pomodoros. It’s a 30% of all your daily working time. I think 30% is amazing addition to your time. What about applying this rule to a more big scale - like a year you can save 5 pomodoros x 261 working days = 1305 pomodoros it’s about 4 working months of time. Quite amazing isn’t it?
How to invest your pomodoros
Now you’ve found how many pomodoros you’ve spent on a time-wasting activities. Now it’s time to replace them with a productive pomodoros which could be:
- Writing in your blog or a book.
- Working on a particular project or a task
- Reading a book or studying proactively.
Now build your own list of the Productive Activities Measured in Pomodoros that you can do.
Welcome the magic and exciting world of productivity — you’ve mastered the productivity vs. time-wasting with pomodoros.
Let’s recap the things you’ve learned
- Measure your activities with pomodoros.
- Figure-out the time-wasters.
- Turn time wasters into a productive pomodoros. Enjoy your free time it’s the best thing you have.
References:
P. S.: This article was written in 5 pomodoros 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅 🍅. + 3 🍅 🍅 🍅 for poster design.