We live in a world where being productive at work is becoming harder and harder.

The amount of distractions we now have to contend with means that getting through that growing ‘to-do list’ is nothing more than a pipe dream.

Social media is a big issue, as well as our reactive nature when it comes to emails. 

The increase in open-plan offices also means that our work colleagues are contributing to the growing list of potential distractions.

Some people are great at just cutting out the noise but, most of us, need a little help.

Try this system

The Pomodoro Technique was developed in the late 1980’s and centred around the old tomato kitchen timers.

The basic idea behind it is we work intensely for 25 minutes and then have a 5 minute break (grab a coffee etc).

Then you’re back to where you left off or your start a new task and reset your 25 minute timer.

After 100 minutes, take a 15-30 minute break.

How to make it work for you

Turn off your phone notifications or switch it to aeroplane mode (unless what you’re doing means you need your phone).

Turn off your emails or at least turn off the notification icon on your screen (side point – emails are killers when it comes to time management. Count the number of emails you receive on a weekly basis that actually need to be replied to immediately and you’ll be surprised at just how much time you can get back from batch replying to emails at certain points of the day).

Kindly tell your work colleagues you can’t take calls/chats for the next 25 minutes unless absolutely critical and define what critical means.

Instead of using your phone for email/social media use it for the stopwatch timer and leave it where you can see it. You’ll be surprised how much you get done when you’re trying to beat the clock.

If you have a big project then split it into 25 minute blocks and decide what you will get done in each block.

Does it work?

Here at Veritas we need to manage our time effectively.

We have vacancies to work on, we need to speak to new clients, we have to keep updated with the latest news in our market and we need to be speaking with candidates…to name but a few things!

We tried this technique and it was a welcome addition to how we work.

Clearly it works better for some things than others (i.e. we may have a call that runs over 25 minutes) but, on the whole, we were pleased with how much more we got done during that focused time.

If nothing else it taught us that we don’t need to be ‘on’ all the time. 

Social media can wait, that email can be replied to later without any consequence and people don’t actually mind if you tell them you’re busy and can’t chat right now.

Give it a try and let us know how you get on.