The Pomodoro Technique

Again, thanks to Henrik Kniberg's blog I've got a brief introduction to Pomodoro Technique, which is essentially a way to improve one's productivity. The PDF describing it is quite a simple one and is fun to read (for those lazy enough there exists a 5-minute guide too).

The sole idea of this technique is to split the work into fixed short time frames separated by breaks, plan it and protect it against interruptions. A set of simple yet efficient rules promises to make it work.

I was completely carried away by this paragraph, because it seems to be the thing I'm lacking most of all in my everyday work:

We can stimulate this ability to feel time in a different way by means of a series of exercises which serve to enhance consciousness of passing time among Pomodoro users. This different awareness of the passage of time seems to lead Pomodoro users to a higher level of concentration in performing the activity at hand.

BTW, the concept is thoroughly developed and there exist various tools dedicated to help using it, so it should be a fun thing to advance this technique, but I'm going to use it's simplest, hardware form. Yes, gonna try this on Monday! :)

Habits and motivation

Recently I've read a short post by Chad Fowler about development of good habits in 20 days. In short, he says that it's easy to make yourself do something just for 20 days and at the same time that's usually enough for this activity to become a habit. I like his idea (it's so simple!) and already started gathering some good habits, mostly in the household area. Let's see and wait until March :)

Also I've looked through a Paul Gram's blog, which I frankly speaking dislike because of it's well, straightforwardness. He's an over-positive, super-optimistic, completely American businessman saying some quite obvious things trying to find some deep sense inside. Anyway, I found an interesting idea there too. Let me quote it:

If you start a new year off with massive success in the first month, it’s amazing how fast it can snowball and help propel you to your best year EVER.

I think that's a fresh idea and it's not too late to start something like that in mid-February :)