Summary
In this episode Sasha shares a powerful productivity hack that helps even the most easily distracted individuals stay focused for a period of time to get things done!
Funny enough, this technique comes from a tomato… the old fashioned kitchen timer, called, in Italian, a Pomodoro. The technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late eighties, Sasha loves that this concept can bring more intentionality, focus, and productivity in motherhood. Which, in turn, brings more peace into our daily lives.
Listen in and learn more about this technique, how you can use it to accomplish different tasks or projects, try it out, and then jump into the Intentional Momlife with Jesus Community and share your takeaways…. or concerns. https://www.facebook.com/groups/IntentionalAbundance
Transcription
0:02
Hey, hey, Mamas! Welcome back to another episode of the Intentional Momlife With Jesus Podcast and today I want to share with you a productivity hack that comes from the business side of things in my life and it is called the Pomodoro. So let’s do the jingle and then we are going to dive right into this thing.
0:34
Jingle
0:56
All right. So, if you’ve been around for some amount of time, you may know that my background is actually in business. My degree is in business management and administration. I spent many years having small businesses of my own, working on the administrative side of things in government, large and small, state government and federal government through the military, and working with nonprofit organizations, and small businesses. So I have quite an extensive knowledge between all the different sectors of business that I’ve worked in, and I’ve been in entrepreneurship since I was about five years old, thanks to my dad. I actually found a business card right here on my desk a few weeks ago from Star habitat, where we made kind of aviary creations, little birdhouses, and squirrel feeders, bat houses, and things like that, and it was just super fun. I remember doing that with him. And I think that might be what started this little entrepreneurial itch inside of me.
3:07
Anyways, I digress on that topic, but the Pomodoro is a technique that was created by Francesco Cirillo. If I’m saying his name correctly in the late 80s. And it was named after the Pomodoro which is tomato in Italian, aka the kitchen timer, Funny enough, right? So here is what a Pomodoro looks like. This is what the concept is, you pick your favorite procrastination task. So what is something that you do not love to do? That is the thing that we are going to work on while we’re doing these Pomodoros.
3:51
And then I want you to think of something that you love to do mindlessly, that you have a tendency to do in place of this task, right and And that is going to be your prize at the end of completing this task I think for many of us it’s going to be social media or like binging watching Netflix, right? Or maybe it’s a bath, maybe it’s reading a book, something that you don’t often get to do as a mom, but can be a little bit more of this like mindless task, okay?
4:33
So pick a task that you’re going to work on and pick a task that’s going to be the prize at the end. Set a timer for 20 or 25 minutes and work on that task exclusively, without interruptions, okay, exclusively without interruptions. You’re like, I’m a mom, how is that possible? Depending on the age of your children, there’s a way that we can make this work. This is why I love coming into one on one coaching relationships with women, with moms, because I think so often we’re so in the I don’t even know the same you guys I refer to this all the time, but it’s like is it in the forest too? close to the forest to see the trees are too close to the trees to see the forest.
5:24
I don’t even know, both sound logical to me to an extent. So I do believe that for so many of us, right like there are so many times I can even be talking to my husband or talking to my coach or talking to a friend. And they’re like, oh, have you thought about this? And I’m like, what? That’s a possibility? I remember when, when our first son was just like maybe five months old. We hadn’t slept at all like he had colic. He was up all night, every night like it was absolutely miserable. And a friend said, well have you thought about putting him in his own room? And I was like, what? That’s allowed. That’s not child neglect, I was like, definitely too close to the trees to see the forest if that’s the metaphor here.
6:13
So that is why I love coming into these closer intimate relationships with moms because I am a problem solver. I love throwing out ideas I love the trial and error like let’s find a way to YES. So, so exclusively without interruptions. There’s a way we can do this. Maybe it’s hiring a babysitter. Maybe it’s doing it on a day that your husband’s home from work. Maybe it’s staying up late. Maybe it’s waking up early, but it’s definitely making sure you don’t have your phone going off next to you, making sure all the distractions are put away. Maybe your spouse and your kids are the number-one things, having an open conversation with them, making sure that they’re understanding you are focusing on completing a task right now and you need full focus to Go to that do not interrupt me.
7:12
Okay, the next step is when the timer goes off put a tally note on a piece of paper or something right there at your desk and take a five-minute break. Use the restroom, take a short walk, make yourself a drink, clean something up, breathe, stretch, do yoga, calisthenics, whatever, go outside. Maybe declutter your workspace, pray or meditate, do some chores, water your house plants, listen to a song, grab a snack, whatever it is, like get away from the task that you’re working on for five minutes. When that five minutes is up, set the timer again and go back into that next Pomodoro, and they say usually after you’ve completed four Pomodoros, which would be a two-hour work session, take a longer break of 30 minutes instead of a five-minute break to give your mind more space to break from that but essentially you can continue working on these pomodoros for as long as it takes you to complete the task in this pattern, okay?
8:26
Or you can change it up and work on a different task at that pace, right? So you can work two pomodoros on one task and two Pomodoro on a different task. You can spend two hours working on one task, maybe you’re just using those two Pomodoro is to work on that task. To get it done, you know, maybe you only have an hour and you’re gonna get it knocked out in that amount of time. But kind of some of the rules are is it helps you break down these big complex projects. Okay, this big procrastination task that you’re maybe not loving working on. And if a task takes more than four pomodoros, which would be two hours, you can divide it into these smaller, actionable steps, sticking to the rule of doing the Pomodoro can help you break down these larger projects into a clear process.
9:24
And then another rule kind of for Pomodoro is to make these smaller tasks go together. So any task that is like your procrastination task that might take less than a Pomodoro, may take less than 20-25 minutes, to combine it with other small ones. Some examples of this might be writing checks to pay your bills. If any of you do that, I still write checks periodically. Like maybe you need to go about setting an appointment. Maybe it’s a collection of appointments, maybe you need to schedule your son’s annual eye exam and your dog’s vet checkup and you need to schedule a referral for something that you got from your doctor. And things like that. Schedule, all of those things, all of those scheduling appointments, schedule the scheduling in one Pomodoro, and sit down and get it done.
10:26
And then the third rule for the Pomodoro rows I’m going to share with you guys today is once a Pomodoro is set. Like once you set the timer it must ring. Okay. You can’t grab your phone and stop doing it, you can’t get up and walk away. If a distraction comes, you can’t just be like, Okay, I mean, obviously, life or death situation, you’d walk away. But once it’s set, the idea is to not break that, essentially promise that you’ve done that you’ve made for yourself. Don’t check emails, don’t respond to text messages don’t, you know, check that notification that popped up on your phone. Any ideas, tasks, or requirements that come up during the Pomodoro should be taken care of later. Okay?
11:22
So, the Pomodoro works for a number of reasons. And for one, it eliminates procrastination and helps you get started on whatever this task is that you’ve been procrastinating or you love to procrastinate on. Number two, it helps eliminate distractions, which are total productivity killers. Number three, it helps you become more aware of where your time is going. You’d be surprised at how much you can accomplish in 20 to 25 minutes when you stop and focus on it.
11:54
I essentially did this in one Pomodoro a few weeks ago we were having some friends Come over for dinner. And it just so happened that like, by the way the day went, my husband got home from work a few minutes late, my son and I ended up being out and about a little bit longer than we had anticipated, and then traffic and other things like, got us home late. And we had about 30 minutes before people were showing up for dinner. And there was like, you know, small little messes of toys and clutter and whatever else throughout the house, the grill was still taken apart from a camping trip we had taken like weeks ago. So my husband went outside to set up the grill. And in the 20-25 minutes, it took him to set up the grill, I was able to tornado through the entire house and clean it up, including sweeping the floors, and start prepping all the other sides and things for the dinner.
12:50
And so I just want to encourage you, there is so much that can be done in 20 to 25 minutes when you alot the time to focus on that task. Okay. So that was number three helps you become more aware of where your time is going. And then number four is consistency over perfection. Right? The Pomodoro creates the space for you to take that consistent action.
13:17
And I just want to share with you this one really, really big thing that I’ve mentioned here on the podcast, and it’s one of those don’t shoot the messenger type things. But Pomodoros are really, really fantastic for Bible study or quiet time with God. And all of these kinds of rules and the whole concept of a Pomodoro can be done if you are setting your alarm for two 25 minutes to an hour before your children typically wake up before your family wakes up and going to sit and get quiet with the Lord. Setting that Pomodoro timer for 20 to 25 minutes, opening God’s word, and committing to not do anything else. Don’t even look at your phone, don’t have your watch on, your family is sleeping. So it’s eliminating a lot of those distractions already for you.
14:19
And it’s not like a checklist thing, right? I don’t care what you do in that time, you could read the Word of God directly, you could do a devotion that leads you to His Word, you can pray, you can do a structure of Bible study, you can do a combination of all of them, you can journal and ask Him to come into that space and help you answer some questions that you’ve been having in your life, whatever that looks like. But even having that timer going and respecting that space in that time and giving God all of your focus in that space can be such a rewarding thing in your life.
14:58
But not just in that sense. The Pomodoro can be brought in in so many other ways. And we’ve talked about a few examples here in this podcast episode. But if you’re like, Okay, where do I use this? How do I use this? Maybe as I was talking, there were multiple ideas that came to you already on how you’re going to take this concept and implement it into your life. Please, sister, join us in the Intentional Momlife With Jesus Community over on Facebook and respond to the prompt about this episode. Because I want to know, have you ever heard of the Pomodoro before? Where are you utilizing it in your life if you are already? What thoughts came up for you for places that you could implement this time management and time-saving technique this productivity and intentionality hack in a sense? Where could you put this in your day or maybe just a couple of times a week maybe once a week in what task would you focus on while that timer is going? Can’t wait to see you over there and hear all of your takeaways God bless you Sister.
More about your Podcast Host
Sasha Star Robertson is an Intentional Living & Biblical Mindset Coach for busy Christian moms, wife of 13 years to her best friend, boy mom (blessed by adoption), travel addict, and Jesus freak. She is the founder of The Intentional Abundance Co., curator of the Life & Goals Planner, & host of the Intentional Momlife with Jesus Podcast.
Would you benefit from having a coach helping you live Productively Peaceful days digging into Faithful Foundations, Purposeful Priorities, Mindset Mastery, & Simple Selfcare? This question is rhetorical, everyone would! Schedule a consult with Sasha to learn more about the IAM Coaching Program and to see if you’d be a good it. https://calendly.com/intentionalabundanceco/iamconsult
Desiring Community?
You’re invited to join us in the Productively Peaceful Moms Club over on facebook! It’s a safe space where we can show up vulnerably and encourage each other, where ere share the mission of being the best mommas we can be through the grace and strength of Jesus Christ, where we encourage consistency and are able to hold each other accountable. We share scripture and talk about podcast episodes and pray for each other and set goals and so much more! You’re more than welcome here, you’re wanted here! https://www.facebook.com/groups/IntentionalAbundance
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