writing productivity

I love productivity hacks. I love thinking of ways where I can do more in the day. I’ve known about the Pomodoro method for a long time, but I always rolled my eyes at it. I thought it was silly to impose a break in the middle of working. I like being productive, and the idea that there’s a timer that’ll tell me when to stop working is the opposite of productivity.

I now know that to be productive and maintain stamina, you’d want to take breaks. By taking breaks, you can end up working longer and more effectively. But when does taking a break become an interruption? That’s what I wanted to know myself.

If you don’t know, the Pomodoro method is a productivity technique where you work for 25 min intervals with five-minute breaks in between, with a longer break of around 15 min, after four intervals.

In this video, I’ll share my thoughts on using the Pomodoro method for the past month. What did I learn, what did I like, and what did I dislike?

Pro:

The Pomodoro Method is a great way to audit whether you actually have a focus problem. If you cannot work for 25 mins without stopping for some reason, not even for one interval, then my friend, you have a focus problem. If you want to test your focus, then using the Pomodoro method is a great way to do it. If you can’t maintain attention for one 25 min block, you need to ask yourself why.

Con:

The Pomodoro method doesn’t stop you from being distracted. It’s just a timer and it’ll ring at the end whether you were working or not. At many points, I would start doing something else in the middle of my focused time and forget that I was still on the clock. I could receive a message or a phone call that pulls me from my work, and suddenly the timer goes off. What do I do then? Make up the time in the break or keep working? Or count everything I was doing as work when it wasn’t? It’s hard to keep yourself accountable, and it’s hard to measure the success of an interval.

Pro:

It’s nice to know there is a break coming up and it gives me something to work towards. For example, if I have a small task—like writing an email—I would want to finish it in the 25 min chuck, so it pushes me to work efficiently within that time limit. Parkinson’s law states that a task would expand to the time you give it. And aiming to get something done in 25 mins and hitting that mark makes the break feel so rewarding.

Con:

However, when you aren’t able to complete your task in the 25 min, and let’s say, you need ten more minutes until you can complete it, you feel guilty for stopping and taking your break. I get conflicted when that happens, because in a way, I want to finish the work, and in another way, I want to honor the Pomodoro method and the “benefits” it offers.

Pro:

The Pomodoro Method shows that you’ve created momentum. On a good day, when I can add up the intervals of focus time, I feel that I have accomplished a lot. I average around 7 intervals of focused work, which at 25 min each, adds up to about 3 hours. Which is pretty productive. While those days are anomalies, it does feel good when I can get a streak going.

Con:

It’s pretty easy to forget to set the timer. Yep, something I sit down after returning from my break and I’d forget to start the timer. I might have worked for 10 minutes before I remember to switch it back on, and when that happens, I bail on the whole Pomodoro thing for the day and just go rogue.

Pro:

The Promodoro method gives me a sense that I have worked. Reading and taking notes on an article never feels complete. As a writer, it can take days to write and edit a piece, and in 25 min little progress is actually made. But by focusing for 25 min, I know I have done some work and by chipping away 25 minutes at a time, my efforts will add up. This is especially useful when editing, where I can end up fixated on a sentence or a word for way too long.

Con:

I’m not always sure what to do with my breaks, especially when it’s only five minutes. Five minutes is only enough time to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water. Sometimes, I just sit at my computer or wander back and forth. Which can feel unproductive, and I get a little antsy. Alternatively, the 15 min break can feel very long, but also not long enough to eat a meal or grab some coffee outside the office. When you’re committed to the Pomodoro Method, you’ll experience some unnecessary rigidity in the workday.

Overall, I like the Pomodoro method and it’s something I use to kick-start a work session. Sometimes I think of work like a marathon where I just have to surge through and get to the finish line without stopping. But it’s exhausting to do that every day. Instead, with the Pomodoro method, I can think of work as run training, where you do intervals, you run hard for a few minutes and then you walk a bit to get your heart rate back down. As you do this over and over, you build stamina, so when it is time to hunker down, you’ll be fit to do so.

If you’re wondering whether you have trouble focusing, try the Pomodoro method for a few weeks and you should start noticing these weird ticks that you have or what triggers pull you away from your work. Once you acknowledge them, you can then decide whether they are impacting your productivity and start eliminating them if they are. Give it a try and let me know how it goes in the comment below.

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1. Research

As a writer, there is always something to research whether it’s detail for your story, publications to submit your work to, or events or courses that you might be interested in attending. What I like to do when I really don’t feel like writing is to find a writing contest and spend some time reading the guideline — and maybe a few of the past winners and the works of the judges. In fact, I procrastinate using this technique so often that I have a whole blog post dedicated to writing contests, check it out, the link is in the description below.

So give this a shot, next time you don’t feel like writing, look up places to submit your work. It might feel as though you are putting the cart before the horse, but I don’t, I feel this is a good way to understand the market, especially if your writing goal is to get published.

2. Organize

If you’re like me you may have multiple drafts, multiple stories, and multiple submissions all up in the air. If you do, then this is a good opportunity to organize your folders and make sure you can easily locate the most recent draft of your story when you need it. The better you have access to your work, the more likely you’ll be able to find it and work on it.

I have a spreadsheet with all my work in progress on it. I have their status (is it still in the works, is the first draft completed and I’m letting it marinate before returning for a second edit, or have I submitted it to a publication and am awaiting the result). I also include other details about the piece including word count and whether it is fiction or nonfiction. If you are using Google Drive, you can just add a link to the draft or the folder it’s in for easy accessibility. Staying organized had made my whole writing process so much more efficient, so I really recommend giving this method a shot if you feel like taking a break from actually writing.

3. Consume

You should never feel guilty for taking a break from creating to consume, but that is only if you do it right. When I say consume, I don’t mean eating — I mean reading a book, watching a movie, or listening to music — in other words, enjoying something someone else made. And when I say you should consume it in a right way, what I mean is that you should do it actively. Approach it critically to find aspects of the work you like and dislike. Really absorb it so that you are able to reflect on it properly afterwards and record it so you can use some of what you do like in your own work in the future.

Many successful writers will tell you that in order to be any good, you are going to have to read. Yes, you should definitely read, but there is certainly value in watching movies, television shows, and listening to music or audio books as well. This is if you do it actively.

4. Revisit Old Work

Now if you really feel like punishing yourself for procrastinating, I recommend that you find a piece of work from your past and reread it. Approach it like you’ve never seen it before and enjoy it. It might feel like you’re taking a trip to cringe city, but there is always a lot you can get from this torturous exercise.

First, you’ll get to see how your writing has evolved over time. The thoughts you had when you were younger might not be the same as the ones you have now. I like this because I get to see my progress. Second, if this piece is something that I gave up on, maybe now I have the ability to fix it and make it better. If I feel so inspired, I can take this procrastination opportunity to edit it, which would be incredibly productive. But don’t approach it with that intention, approach it as your ideal reader, not your critic.

5. Be Creative

If the words simply aren’t coming to you today, but you still want to be creative, you can! Draw a picture, paint a painting, play an instrument, grab your camera and take some photos, film a video — there are many things you can do to still be creative and through those other artistic endeavours you do to see the world in a different way.

After all, the way you show something in writing may be very different from a drawing. What I’ve been doing a lot of is trying to illustrate an idea I have. I’m not a great illustrator, but it takes my mind off of words for a bit. If you really want to get your creative juices flowing, that’s a really good way.

There you go! Those are 5 productive procrastination ideas for when you don’t feel like writing. Are there any you are currently doing? Let me know in the comments!

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