One day while chasing virtual rabbits in the ether of the interweb, I stumbled upon an article describing the Pomodoro technique. Could this very simple approach to time management get me off the multitasking fantasy highway to nowhere? I’m a junky for improving efficiency and always a willing participant to experiment with new things to get more done in less time.
Quick Start to Doing the Pomodoro
A quick Google search on the Pomodoro technique will reveal a virtual mountain of articles describing the process, information about its founder, education courses and timers. In a basic form, it’s about working in 25-minute chunks of time followed by a five-minute break. Apply this rule to three periods of work, then, after the fourth period, take a 20- to 30-minute break. The result of these four periods is 100 minutes of focused work.
Start with just four periods of work and track toward doing eight Pomodoro periods in a day. Review your to-do lists for activities that you know will take 30 minutes or longer. Now, set your timer and get to work. It’s hard to imagine what 200 minutes or three hours and 20 minutes of seriously focused and distraction-free work feels like and what the resulting work looks like, but for most readers, it’ll be anything but what you expect.
Do you want to elevate your game and find that zone of focus more often while doing the Pomodoro technique? Turn off the distractions. Close down email and social media, pause instant messaging, put away your phone and find a quiet place to work. It’s pretty darn satisfying ripping through a bunch of work. To avoid the gravitational force that is your phone and the temptation to check it regularly, consider using the timer on your laptop instead of your phone.
Positive Outcomes with Focus
Incorporating the Pomodoro technique helps in many important ways. For me, it allows me to see my tasks in smaller, more manageable chunks. The ability to focus while I race against the clock is stimulating. I actually want to return from my brief, but extremely important, break to launch into another sprint.
Most of us have experienced those moments when we’re in the zone. A circus of activity can be dancing around us, yet we’re zeroed in on our work, ignoring the distractions and crunching through our task until it’s complete.
Imagine getting into that mode multiple times a day! That’s my experience with the Pomodoro technique — you can have it, too.
The Challenge of Long-Term Sales
Selling stuff that might take three to nine months (or longer) to close doesn’t provide a lot of daily wins. Some of the daily sales functions like prospecting, research, learning company politics, follow-up work and, my favorite, pointless conference calls don’t deliver a real sense of accomplishment at the end of each day. It can be hard to keep going.
In contrast, manual work performed at home is like a special tonic my soul needs to see and feel. While mowing the yard or cutting wood, it’s easy to assess the time investment I need to get the expected outcome. That is not the case in a complex large sale where each intersection in a road spawns five new roads, most of which are dead ends.
Applying the Pomodoro technique to my daily sales work hasn’t made me enjoy unwelcome sales tasks more, but it has significantly shortened the amount of time I need to complete them. The most meaningful outcome has been the genuine sense of progression I feel at the end of the day after I’ve powered through my work with supreme focus and energy. It provides a sense of accomplishment at the end of my selling day that was missing for so many years.
Activities During Five-Minute Breaks
What do you do during the five-minute breaks? Your brain needs some time off. That doesn’t include endless scrolling through Facebook or Instagram. I suggest that after refilling your beverage and answering nature’s call, you stretch.. Yes, stretch. All that sitting or even standing at your desk tightens muscles. Your muscles crave a good stretch, so give it to them.
Try Just One Stretch
There’s one stretch I’m particularly passionate about because of the results I’ve experienced. You’ll find me doing it in many crazy locations (more on the crazy locations later). The position is familiar to our bodies if our bodies memory goes back to earlier childhood days. Young kids can sit in this position for extended periods of time but so can adults in other parts of the world. Sometimes this position is called an Asian squat. Take a few minutes to learn why and how this simple move can help you by watching this brief Ted Talk.
After watching this talk several years ago, I flipped off my shoes and attempted to squat like a young child. The result was an absolute failure. Although I stretched regularly before exercising, this simple squat made my muscles feel like rigid plastic rather than pliable rubber bands. It seemed impossible to squat and sit like this, but my beautiful and flexible wife had no problem doing so.
Life-Changing Results
Maybe not wanting to be one-upped by my wife was my impetus to incorporate this stretch into my five-minute breaks during the day. Doing so has helped me completely rehabilitate pain in my left hip and knee. It didn’t take long before I, too, could comfortably sit in a deep squatting position. While doing the squat, the stretch is most evident in my knees and lower back. But most importantly, the squat extends my overly tight hip flexors. This is what has relieved the chronic pain in my hip and knee.
Clearly this digression into exercise doesn’t have anything to do with selling, but it does impact our ability to do all types of work. As the speaker in the Ted Talk chronicled, Western society is plagued with back pain and other associated ailments. If your pain is distracting you regularly, then you can’t focus on work or much else.
Take a 30-Day Challenge to Better Health
Take a 30-day challenge and give this squat a chance to help you. Here’s a link to a brief post and video describing how to comfortably progress into the full child squat position.
About those crazy locations where you’ll find me doing this squat. My second home is on American Airlines, and you’ll find me squatting in the gate area before boarding a flight. Meetings are another favorite spot to perform this pose. I’m the annoying guy standing through most meetings (and doing a couple of squats, as well).
The Pomodoro technique can help with your focus and raise the bar on your productivity. If pain in your back, knee or hip is limiting your ability to focus, the Pomodoro or any other technique can’t resolve this issue. The child squat can be the start to help you help yourself to remedy certain orthopedic aches. Life is too short to live in pain. Try something different to impact your future today.
