This is a guest post by Lis Sowerbutts who blogs about her adventures in earning an online income at her Passive Income Online blog.
You have heard the phrase “time is money” – I’d certainly heard it all my life – but it wasn’t until I started my own home business that I realized just how difficult it was to stay focused now that I didn’t have a boss asking me what I was up to – or even a separate place of work!
Initially I started my business part-time – and oddly – while I was fitting my business in around my social life and a job it wasn’t too bad. But once I went full-time my productivity plummeted – too many choices, too many hours – suddenly the only thing that was urgent was checking my favorite forums or email!
I suddenly realized that I had to get my self organized and needed to apply some principals of time management. I am generally not the most organized person in the world – but I suddenly had lists and list of “to dos”. Unfortunately I then forgot about the lists and kept on wasting time of Facebook and Twitter!
This year though I really have made a serious effort and to learn how to improve my Time Management. I scouted around and came across an Italian technique called the “Pomodoro Technique”. Pomodoro means tomato in Italian, and is the name of a common kitchen timer there. The idea is basically time boxing – you work solidly for 25 minutes on a single task and then give yourself a five minute break. After 2 hours you take a longer break. While you work the ticking of the “pomodoro” (or in my case the software equivalent) will either drive you crazy – or, somewhat to my surprise, actually help you focus. The system is deliberately low-tech and all you need is a pen, paper and some form of timer. The interesting thing is that while I thought I was working around 10 hours a day – the reality was a whole lot different … The trick is – while you are working and suddenly a very urgent item springs to mind (organize the kitchen cupboards, check the email) – you don’t act on it – you write the item down and keep working on what you are doing. At the end of the 25 minutes – you either give the “urgent” interuption its own pomodoro, do it (if its really quick) – or often find that you don’t “need” to do it any longer!
Its not rocket science, it doesn’t cost a cent, and the Pomodoro method is certainly helping me organize my time better – maybe it will help you to?
