The simple kitchen timer can be a godsend for personal and professional productivity!
As a lean practitioner, I often get asked…
“How can I get more done?”
My answer sometimes surprises folks who expect me to give a long explanation of how they should incorporate lean tools and techniques into every aspect of their lives complete with their own personal version of the Toyota Production System House. I am not saying that you shouldn’t have your own system(s), but rather, I like to keep things as simple and accessible as possible. After all, life is complicated enough without making things hard on ourselves. And let’s face it - we all have things that we would rather not do, that have to get done, so we can get to the stuff we are excited about doing. I am sure there are people who love doing dishes, filling out expense reports, filing insurance claims, cleaning toilets, or doing any of a number of monotonous routine tasks that simply must get done… but I am not one of them. As a creative person, my mind can come up with a million ways to move around the mundane. What I need is a good Jedi mind trick to gamify those tasks I don’t enjoy.
Want to Master the Mundane? Jedi mind tricks to the rescue!
Enter My Yoda… the Pomodoro Timer Technique
The Pomodoro Technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo. You can read more about the history of the technique here if you are interested. The original technique was meant to use just three tools: a pencil or pen, paper, and a kitchen timer. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!
How the Pomodoro Technique Works
Identify the activities that need to be done (optional: guesstimate how much time they will take). Decide which you are going to focus on now.
Set a timer for a set period of time to work on the task, in which you will give the task your undivided, full attention (the original method uses 25 minutes, I like 15 minute “chunks”).
When the timer goes off, place a check mark by the item. If you have under four checkmarks, take a short 3-5 minute break. Set your timer, and do something else - check your phone, take a bathroom break, stretch, get some tea, you get the idea!
At the end of the short break, go back to step 2. When you have accumulated four checkmarks, reward yourself with a long break. Set your timer for 15-30 minutes and physically and mentally “break” from the task at hand.
At the end of your long break, re-start your count on checkmarks, and go back to step 2. Repeat until you have achieved a target number of intervals or completed the task.
I generally start my day tackling my “Pomodoro Task Lists” in the early morning while my energy is high and distractions haven’t consumed my day. I make sure to apply some of my intervals to mundane stuff, some to daily improvements, and some to my large strategic initiatives. This way I achieve the balance I need to continue to move things forward.
Why I Consider this Technique Critical to Strategy, Continuous Improvement, and Life
It is pretty common for us human beings to state, “I don’t have time to _____” (fill in the blank with whatever it is that we don’t want to do but really should do). We hear this many times a day or week. As someone who coaches and leads others in making changes - including some pretty tough stuff like strategy, culture shifts, respect for people, and true kaizen - I can tell you what we really mean when we say this is something closer to, “I am avoiding doing this,” or, “I don’t want to prioritize it”.
There are a lot of reasons why we avoid things - but the simplest and most straightforward reason is, “I don’t want to.” Uncertainty, fear, dislike of the task, feeling overwhelmed all come into play. But the answer to address almost all of these is a simple and straightforward phrase we southerners say jokingly to whining children (and adults!), “Suck it up, Buttercup!”
Don’t get me wrong - I have empathy with feelings of fear, uncertainty, dread, and being overwhelmed. But I also know that our minds have a way of playing tricks on us and making us feel like molehills are really mountains. So why not turn the tables on our minds, and instead make molehills out of the mountains? The fact is, like most people, I can get through a lot of unpleasant stuff if I know it’s only going to last 15 minutes.
What I also know… is that there are many tasks that when we simply focus and power through, we find out we can do them and we did in fact have time to do them! This includes mundane stuff, daily improvements and even big strategic goals!
So make your list. Grab a pencil and paper. Set that timer, and go! Every time that timer goes, “Ding!” you will feel great about your progress!
©2020 Dawn Armfield, ValueFlo Consulting LLC
