Tags
Francesco Cirillo, Mignon McLaughlin, mini-habits, Pomodoro Technique, Small Steps, Stephen Guise
“The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.” – Mignon McLaughlin
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mignon_mclaughlin_161632
It’s another Monday!
What do you have planned this week? Anything overwhelming?
The key to moving forward on your projects is nothing more than taking small steps. It is very common to feel a little stress or a lot of stress when looking at a project. You can relieve much of this stress by sampling breaking these projects done into “stupid small” (Guise, 2013) steps.
Applying Mini Habits to Your Project Work
I’ve read the book Mini Habits by Stephen Guise and completed this book’s companion course on Udemy. It is so powerful. You can benefit from this power as well.
- Look at your project
- Brainstorm all the things you’ll have to do to get the project to your visualized end-state.
- Refine the list by putting these things in order
- If any steps seem to be too much, go back and break that task down even smaller
- Once you have your list of things to do, start knocking them out day by day.
- Finish your project!
It really is this simple.
The Importance of 25 minutes
The next time you are looking at accomplishing something, use the above list of action steps to get this thing written down, brainstormed, and organized for action. The best action steps will take you 25 minutes or less. Schedule this into your to-do list as “Project Name” and schedule work on this project every day for 25 minutes (or 1 Pomodoro). What is a Pomodoro?
The Pomodoro Technique
A Pomodoro is derived from the Pomodoro Technique. This technique involves periods of 25-minute, total-focus steps, separated by 5-minute breaks. I try to schedule reading a book for 25 minutes, writing projects for 25 minutes, and any project work I do to 25 minutes. I know that I’ll be done in 25 minutes. I know I can check that action off my list in 25 minutes. It is gratifying, zero-stress, and it gets you one day closer to finishing (Cirillo, 2018).
I cannot stress how important it is to focus on your tasks for finite periods of time. 25 minutes will be over with before you know it. Heck, the writing of this blog post took me less than 25 minutes. But, if you remember that any project you do can be broken down into 25-minute increments, then take 25 minutes of action against your step, you’ll get it done and be that much closer to the finish line.
I’ll provide you links to the Stephen Guise book and the Pomodoro Technique for you to use later if you are interested.
Here’s what I’m up to this week:
- Reading the book Armor and my Bible, The Shariyat Ki Sugmad (Translation: The Way of the Eternal)
- Continuing my workouts using Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Size
- Working on my non-fiction book
- Posting to this blog
- Learning CSS programming
- Learning Mindfulness
- Voting in the Mid-term Elections in the U.S.
- Watching Netflix
- Skyping with my buddy in the evening
- Meditating
I hope each of you has a great week! Remember, smaller is better when you are working through your projects. You’ll be effective, productive, and you’ll feel great knocking out a little more on your work each day.
Until next time…
Dave
References
Cirillo, F. (2018). The Pomodoro Technique. Retrieved from https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique
This is Francesco Cirillo’s business site. Check it out. It is really good and has had a dramatic impact on my productivity since I began using this technique over 10 years ago.
Guise, S. (2013). Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Habits-Smaller-Bigger-Results-ebook/dp/B00HGKNBDK/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1541453458&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=mini+habits&psc=1
One of the great books I read every year in December before kicking off the new year. It is worth a read!
