The Pomodoro Technique – a productivity hack for your To-Do list

The Pomodoro Technique – a productivity hack for your To-Do list

By Camilla Long

It’s a New Year. A time when everyone around me is setting goals and hitting their productivity hard. I have big goals too, and I’m motivated to get going. But the problem is that there is just so much to do! Big goals mean lots of tiny steps. But how does the Pomodoro Technique help when it comes to achieving goals and being productive?

Well last week the realisation dawned that I was putting in the hours but still going nowhere. The goals were sitting untouched on the page. I was in full blown procrastination mode – and didn’t even realise it.

I realised all of a sudden that?doing lots of work?and?achieving the outcomes you want?are not the same thing. I had so much to do that I was ignoring it all and choosing to tackle tiny insignificant tasks instead. I was giving myself the illusion of productivity. Because putting a line through a task is so satisfying! So I decided to try something new to help me to focus.

I called on the Pomodoro Technique.

Let me explain how it works. The Pomodoro Technique is a productivity hack that is deceptively simple. It works by breaking your time up into short productivity sprints. You allocate a defined time, the same amount of time very time, to the task in hand. And this is what forces you to get disciplined and makes you aware of where your time goes during the work day. All you need is a timer – on your phone, or on your browser.?Follow the step-by-step technique here.

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