The best addition to our lives recently has been the Pomodoro Technique. Not only a joy to type, but also a joy to practice.
I would recommend it to freelancers everywhere, whatever field you work in. A ‘pomodoro’ is a 25 minute period of time that you work in, and you work strictly with a timer on your desk. You then have a 5 minute break, and start again. After 4 pomodoros you have a full length break. Sounds simple, and sounds almost too simple to be noteworthy, but it works. Nick and I were traditionally pretty slack with our working hours, often working solidly for 3-7 hours and then dying at the end of it. Our work was unproductive, but there were no rules about when to stop. Now we work to rules, our work is at least 3 times more effective.
The best thing we’ve found is that if you’re working on a problem for 25 minutes and haven’t come to a solution (computer programming in his case, image editing in mine), the 5 minute break is an ideal time to make a cup of tea, feed the cat, talk about how we should get the car fixed… we then come back and a solution has just appeared out of thin air! I guess it’s kind of like going to sleep and dreaming. You sort out messed up bits of information and you wake up with it all sorted out.
Magic.
You can look it up properly on the website: http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/.
They also have a book which is really handy. Nick came across it on one of the programming blogs he reads.
The length of breaks etc are up to you, but we’ve chosen to stick to their rules because we’re lazy, and also they work for us. I think a good lunch break is 30 mins to 1 hour, depending on how much time you have in a day.
Thanks for sharing this, it sounds like a useful method of working. I think I will try it tomorrow morning, and see if I can make progress rather than the procrastination/guilt loop that often happens. Quick question, how long is a full length break? And where did you come across this?
Wow, pomo man!