Preparing to go on a holiday or vacation is exciting. Choosing where and when you are going is amazing. Picking out the activities and places you want to see while you are away just helps to increase your excitement. Even packing for the trip can be fun as you pick out outfits and dream about all that you will do. As a side note packing for me always includes choosing a book or two to read while I’m away.
What isn’t as fun is the stress of getting everything you need to get done finished before you leave. Home chores, a job, hobbies and other activities can make a length of time like a week feel like only hours. This is the problem I have come into as I prepare to go on holiday that I am so excited to go on. But with a day job, writing and home chores there is so much that has to get done before I hit the road.
So this week I thought I would try an experiment. I know, the week before you leave on a vacation is probably not the best time to try an experiment, but stick with me. I have been hearing a lot about writing/work sprints and the pomodoro method lately. It is supposed to keep you focused on your work for a short amount of time and get a lot of work done in that span of time.
The Experiment
Employ the Pomodoro Method to get my work done and meet my goals in the lead up to my vacation.
To start I needed to set my goals and task list for the week. It felt like so much! I broke it all down into categories: Work, Writing, Chores, Packing.
I had a lot of work to finish for my Day Job before I could leave. I felt ambitious with my word/time goal for writing. I completely guessed with how long chores take me, the same with packing.
But I was determined to get it all done before I hit to road. And I would use this technique that I normally don’t use at all.
What is the Pomodoro Technique.
Simply put, the Pomodoro Technique is a method of time management. It uses a timer to break up work into intervals separated by a short break. Normally these sessions are 25 minutes separated by a 5 minute break.
It is called pomodoro, which is Italian for tomato, because the creator, Francesco Cirillo, used a tomato-shaped kitchen timer as a university student when developing the process.
Normally I work in 1-hour blocks, so I wasn’t sure how well this process would work for me.
The Results
I Got Everything Done!
Ok, I’m projecting a little bit. I am writing this the morning before I leave, and there are still a few things left on my list. However, I am confident that I will get them all done before I leave.
It was difficult to switch into a different time management technique. I often found myself checking the timers at about 15 minutes and thinking, “Oh, I only have 10 minutes left. I can’t get much done in 10 minutes.” And then I would sit there “thinking” about what I can get done. But after the first few sessions I got over this block and powered through. Especially when it came to work and chores.
When I needed to get packing done, I found I ended up ignoring my timer and would go for the full hour before I took a break. In my defense, going through clothes and matching them to the forecast is a process!
But the writing was a struggle! This is something that I didn’t expect.
I found that 25 minutes was both too long and too short. Let me explain.
Normally I write for an hour, broken up in 2 sprints in the first hour, and just 1 in the proceeding hours. My first sprint is 10-15 minutes long, and it is normally just a warm-up. It is meant to get me back into my story and world. Then I write for 45 minutes. I find I do check the timer around the 20-minute mark, but then I know I can keep on going and power through the remaining 25 minutes. And this time I don’t check the time again.
Now, I did join in a couple of live writing/working sprints. And when I was writing and working with others I didn’t find I struggled with the time like I did on my own. So maybe that is the key for me with writing Pomodoro sprints.
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