The Work Timer

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t have at least a slight problem with procrastinating, and I have a big one. I tend to do the fun things first, leaving the not-so-fun tasks to do last, or sometimes to not get done at all. There’s no denying that procrastination is a problem, and there’s really no magic bullet to fix it! However, I’ve discovered a few things that can help me get things done now. One of my best tricks is to set something I call a “Work Timer”. Set a timer for 15, 20, or 30 minutes, then close the door, sit down, and work until the timer stops. This often takes lots of discipline, but it works!

There are lots of different things to use as a timer. If you’ve got a simple egg-timer, that works fine! There are lots of websites that offer simple countdown timers with alarms, if that’s appropriate for you. One of my favorite methods is to use a little-known feature of the iPod, called the sleep timer. Tell the iPod how long to play music, and it’ll play until time runs out. It will then turn off! This was designed to save battery life when users are going to sleep, but it works just as well for our purposes. To access this, go to Extras>>Alarms, then go to Sleep Timer. Select the desired time amount, and get to work!

Creative Commons License photo credit: fleißiges Faultier

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Comment by Germ
2008-04-23 22:56:36

Will try this method out. May help me with my homework

-Germ (A.K.A. Jeremythegeek)

 
Comment by Luciano Passuello
2008-04-24 08:30:02

I like to call this technique “time boxing”. It’s simply the most effective productivity technique I know.
I wrote about it in 15 Time Boxing Strategies to Get Things Done.

 
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