Productivity & Health Hack – Pomodoro Technique

me&my health up podcast episode #9 – Transcript

Anthony Hartcher 0:02
Welcome to another amazing episode of Health Up. I’m your host, Anthony Hartcher and today I’ll be talking to you about a productivity and health hack. It’s called the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo.

So really, back in the late 1980s, when he was studying at university, he had a timer in the shape of a tomato. And he used this in a particular way to enhance his study and his productivity. I’m going to share with you today, that technique.

So how it works is essentially, it’s working in 25 minute increments. So it’s focused on a particular work job task for 25 minutes without disruptions. So that means, you know, you turn your phone off, turn notifications off, you’re purely focused on that task and the task at hand for 25 minutes.

And it works simply by just having that timer tick over and you realise you’re working against the clock. So you’re sort of working to a deadline, in a sense, and you realise at that 25 minute mark, that’s when you can have a break, that’s when you can check notifications, that’s when you can check messages, that’s when you can check your social media.

But I’d like to add a health pack on top of his productivity hack. So if you know optometrists, so eye doctors, they recommend that every 20 minutes, we stare away from our screen, about 20 feet into the distance for 20 seconds. You can integrate this in the Pomodoro Technique so that’s helpful for eyestrain or preventing eyestrain. And in that it helps enable eyes to work efficiently and without getting too strained and without  potentially getting headaches from just looking at a screen for too long. So there’s a odd benefit in adopting this technique.

And in addition to that, physiotherapists, ergonomists ergonomic, I think it’s ergonomic. But anyway, you know what I mean, but it’s the people that help with posture at work, and making sure you have a good ergonomic setup. These professionals will always, you know, recommend that you get up and have frequent breaks from anything and not sitting for long periods of time. And you know, that long periods of time, in this case will only be 25 minutes. So in an hour period, you’re getting up at least twice and moving around.

So yes, you work intensely for 25 minutes focused on the task and only the task at hand uninterrupted. And then at the end of the 25 minutes, you get up, move around. And that’s when I recommend some other health tips. So at the end of the 25 minutes, in order to make the next 25 minutes just as equally productive and you know refocus on it, you could do a one to two minute meditation, that’s when you take off at the end of the 25 minutes is when you take your rest break to go to the toilet, or when you get a cup of tea. Or if you’re hungry, you can have a snack. So that five minute break in between the 25 Minute working increments, is a time to get up move, allow your eyes to adjust and not get strained, and looking at a screen for too long periods of time, allows your body to move around and we’ll born to move and we need to move more, as they say sitting as a new smoking.

So we can break that habit by adopting this Pomodoro technique, which is focus work for 25 minutes, get up five minute break, in that five minute break, that’s when we can have our rest off. It’s where we can get get our food, it allows us to a bit of mindfulness, we can adopt some mindfulness, we can go outside and enjoy some sunshine in that five minutes.

So really, I guess, overlay this Pomodoro technique with the health effects in the five minutes rest break, and you’ll have a very productive day, and I think the other reason you know, the 25 Minute increment works is that’s when our concentration tends to wavy anyway. So as much as you think it’s going to be too much disruption and I won’t be productive. I don’t think what you’ll find is after you concentrate for an intense period of time, you get distracted easily by things, for example, you find messages, notifications, and then you end up diverting your attention to something else and that diversion then really, I guess hampers your productivity because when you’re working, you want a task and just solely working on that task, all your undivided energy is on that path and getting that task completed.

So I really thoroughly recommend you look at the Pomodoro Technique for productivity and for health hack. So that’s for me. That’s it for me today. Have a wonderful day and look forward to the next productivity and health sack by Anthony Hartcher. coming to you on Health Up Take care everyone. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai