The Ultimate Productivity Challenge
Have you ever felt that your world was falling apart because you had so much to do but so much less time? Did this feeling almost put you on the verge of crying because you couldn’t tick off any single task during the entire day? If the answer is another state of helplessness and perplexity, then know that folks you’re not alone in how you feel! Lately my life has been a roller coaster ride. Managing to study for exams, completing tasks for my fellowship, looking after daily menial task to actually trying to take time out for myself as well, it has been quite a chaos lately!
I’ve always wanted to be productive but have a serious commitment with the internet too, where I watch random videos, eradicating any semblance of productivity I could ever have!
I knew what went wrong but honestly I had no plan of action at all! I talked about breakthrough ideas, making most of my abilities but these ideas stayed on the couch where I sat and absorbed myself in hours of guilty pleasuring! It’s hard seeing yourself sulking into the fort of anxiety but not doing much about it. So does it stay like that forever or you get some way out?
At my Amal fellowship, we had a course on ‘Productivity and Time Management’. It highlighted how a technique to increase productivity and get most tasks done in a day could be a life changer. While this idea wasn’t new to me, I realized I never took action earlier. This time around, I decided to give it a try. It was very simple. All I had to do was to follow the Pomodoro method of choosing a task, setting four twenty-five-minute time intervals with five-minute break and once I got the fourth interval done, I could have a fifteen minutes long break. If any distractions came along, I had to write them down and continue working.
POMODORO explained: 25 mins - Break (5 mins) - 25 mins - Break (5 mins) - 25 mins - Break (5 mins) - 25 mins - Long break
So to begin with; I chose a very daunting task of completing my exam coursework and writing two partially written articles- the two tasks I had been delaying since the past four days. I prepared my workplace with minimized distractions, putting my phone aside, keeping a journal by my side and started off.
The 1st interval went well. I had zero distractions. After my mini snacks break, I proceeded off to the next interval. This one was harder than the 1st as I kept looking at time again and again to check if 25 minutes were over. I kept anticipating if the timer had become faulty and I should take a break myself. I had a sudden urge to take another Buzz feed quiz or quickly scroll through Twitter to check on a thread I had been following. With all this in mind, I still tried to focus. As soon as I got my 2nd break, I prolonged it to ten minutes after which I resumed work. This time around, I worked better than the previous interval. I finished the article draft in about 35 minutes, not taking the 3rd break when it was due. I started my finale interval with an amazing sense of accomplishment already. Something I had been delaying for days was almost done in a very focused and limited time-frame.
I realized Pomodoro not only gave me a reason to manage time, it also allows you to understand what disciple for a task meant. You could think of all the distractions later on, but for the present time, you had to pause them for a while. My 2nd interval got harder because I couldn’t stretch my concentration span for any longer. While I understand what games your procrastinator brain plays with you; you just need a little artificial, self-paced deadline to get done with something and once done, you can scroll through all those sites without any guilt.
From what I experience, I’ll definitely come back to Pomodoro again. It may be 4 tasks a day but accomplishing something rather than nothing is always better!
Just like one can’t build a muscle after a day of exercise, productivity doesn’t come to you in a day or two as well. You’ve got to learn it gradually.
Rather than wanting to to do more, let’s focus on the need to do less but doing it right!
