Latest / The Daily Writer / Use the Pomodoro Technique for Faster Writing

Transcript

Use the Pomodoro Technique for Faster Writing · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for riding success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you're having trouble getting focused and using your time well, which let's be honest, all of us wrestle with that probably at times.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: If that's the case, I highly recommend using something called the Pomodoro Technique.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what is the Pomodoro technique?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is a simple focus strategy used by people all over the world.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I use it all the time because it helps me get a lot done in a short amount of time.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1980s, a university student named Francesco Cirillo was having trouble staying focused, so he decided he would try focusing for just 10 minutes.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as part of his experiment, he used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato, which is where the name for this focus strategy came from.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So when Francesco did that, a simple yet effective new productivity technique was born.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And today this pomodoro technique is commonly practiced in 25 minute segments.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: So here's how it works.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: You pick an activity to focus on, you set a timer for 25 minutes, you focus on that task until the timer goes off, take a break for five minutes, and then you can repeat that process several times as much as you want.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do a few of these rounds, make sure and take a 30-minute break at some point just to give your brain a nice longer break than five minutes.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the genius of the Pomodoro technique is that it only requires short, 25-minute bursts of activity.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you also know that you're going to be getting a break frequently.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and like instead of sitting down and thinking, man, I've got to focus for like three hours, which nobody ever really does, instead of doing that, you know you're going to get a little bit of a break at the end of every 25-minute sprint, which is pretty cool.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I recently bought a set of hourglass timers from Amazon.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this is how I do it.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I have, instead of using my phone for this, which you can do, I decided to go old school and I wanted some timers to use for this.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually got on Amazon and I bought a set of these hourglass timers with colored sand in them.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're really inexpensive.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'll link to these, I'll link to a set of these in the show notes.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And one of these in the set is a 25-minute timer.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I keep this on my desk at all times and I use it constantly.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I really, really like doing this.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I would rather have a little hourglass sand timer.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: To me, that's a little bit more fun than just having something on your phone.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything's on your phone these days, and I just like to have something physical.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, it's kind of fun to see the sand trickle through that.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, I don't know, it just reminds me of being a kid.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's because when I was a kid, I used to watch Days of our Lives, that soap opera.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there were a couple summers when I was a kid where I used to where I kind of get into that.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Don't hold that against me or judge me.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it was the Days of Our Lives soap opera that had the, you know, like sand's through the hourglass.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: So are the days of our lives.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in a kind of a silly way, having this hourglass timer on my desk just reminds me a little bit of being a kid.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, if you want a set of these, I'll link to those on Amazon uh in the show notes.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the truth about this is that almost anybody can focus for 25 minutes.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to give this technique a shot.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And even if you only write for 25 minutes a day, you'll get a lot more done than if you only write whenever you feel motivated.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's challenge.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: How much could you get done if you practice this technique once a day for a whole month?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I bet that you could get a whole bunch of stuff done just by doing a 25-minute pomodoro session every day for a whole month.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, speaking of things that make you feel happy and creative, one of the cool things about writing a book, I mean there are a lot of cool things about writing a book, but one of the awesome things is that you get to have a cool cover design that really communicates the purpose and the message and the genre and the idea and the emotion of your book, at least hopefully your book cover accomplishes all those things.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the book cover designer and interior formatter that I use for the vast majority of mine and my client projects is Christy Griffith from Thumbprint Creative.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Christy is amazing to work with.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: If I looked through my email inbox over the last, I'm gonna say three to five years, I couldn't even begin to count how many people I have referred to Christy.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's in the many, many dozens.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't surprise me at all if it were that many.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm constantly sending people her way.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because Christy is not only a great designer, she's very easy to work with, and her prices are really reasonable.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are looking for a great cover designer, an interior formatter, and a proofreader for your book, she does all those things, then make sure and get in touch with Christy at go thumbprint.com.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: That is go thumbprint.com.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: There will also be a link in the show notes.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.