John: Hey, John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com. I got a question here about the Pomodoro Technique.
If you’re not familiar with the Pomodoro Technique it’s a technique that I use to
stay super productive. You can probably find some videos about it that I’ve talked about
and I’ll put a link to my weekly schedule of how I’m productive but basically it’s
this technique where you work for 25 minutes and then you take a 5 minute break. You’re
not just working, you’re working really, really focused. I get a lot of questions about
this especially in regards to work and Travis sent me an email here and he says, “Hey
John, I’m reading your book Soft Skills” I talk about the Pomodoro Technique in here
and how I am productive and he says, “And happened upon a dilemma regarding the Pomodoro
Technique. Being a full time employee I want to provide good value to my employer and spend
as much time as possible/reasonable being productive at work. I’m considering using
Pomodoro to increase my productivity which I sometimes feel is lacking but I also have
programming work and also writing that I would like to do at home in the evenings. What is
the good balance between using Pomodoro to be productive at a day job and still having
energy and focus left at the end of the day to work on personal projects? If you say get
up earlier and do your stuff before work, I have tried that but the way my schedule
works out right now I start work at 6:30 in the morning and getting up earlier has not
worked out. Thanks, Travis.” So Travis, I’m not going to give up on getting
up earlier first. I’m going to say this first. You’re being lazy Travis, stop it.
If you can get up at 6:30 you can get up at 5:30. I keep getting this from people. I do
not understand—I’m going to explain this simple concept to everyone who keeps on telling
me I can’t wake up earlier. Okay, so this is the argument, this is the argument I always
get, “I can’t wake up earlier because I’ll be too tired because I’m already
waking up early as it is.” Well, okay, we’re not doing any magic here, we’re just shifting
time. You go to bed one hour earlier. You’re still sleeping the same amount of time. I’m
not suggesting that you sleep one less hour. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying
that you time shift. You go to bet one hour earlier you wake up one hour earlier. The
reason why I’m telling you that is—so everyone can do this. You can always get an
hour earlier in your day. The reason why I say this is because look
that first hour of your day, I’ve talked about this a lot, but paying yourself first
is critically important. That’s when you’re the most focused. That’s when you have the
most energy. Use that hour to work on your stuff first before you go and work for your
boss and work for someone else and make someone else money. Work for yourself first. My dad
used to say, “Pay yourself first, pay yourself first with your time and do that” and no
more excuses. I’m tired of everyone giving me excuses. I’m not asking you to sleep
one hour less. I’m just saying go to bed one hour earlier so you can wake up one hour
earlier. If you want to sleep one hour less, fine go ahead, that is fine as well, but all
you have to do is time shift, okay? Now that that’s out of the way and I would
still recommend that, by the way we’re talking about how to divide up your time. I’ve found
in general that most people can really only do about 10 to 12 Pomodori in a day, by the
way that’s the plural of Pomodoro. I didn’t invent that.
What you probably want to do is say like at work maybe you could do 6 Pomodori and then
you can do another 2 to 4 at home. I think that’s probably a good balance. You don’t
want to try and like—if you try to do all 10 to 12 Pomodori at work I think that you’re
going to be working a little too hard, no one is going to want to eat lunch with you
so don’t be that guy and don’t burn yourself out so much doing that. Doing 6 Pomodori at
work is a pretty dang reasonable amount. Most people can’t do that. If you hit that that
will be good and then you do 2 to 4 for yourself at home. But, again, I’m going to go back
to what I said in the beginning which is wake up an hour earlier and then do 2 Pomodori
in the morning, just do that and then do your 6 at work and then do 2 in the evening. That’s
probably going to be your best, that’s going to be a slam dunk for you. That’s your best
thing. Go with that. Again, no more excuses. It’s a good balance
I think. Like I said, you’re not going to be able to be 100% all the time. You’re
not going to be focused all the time. But if you’re having trouble getting this balance
right set actual quota. Say, “I’m going to do X amount at work and then I’m going
to do X amount when I get home” and you keep on doing that everyday. You adjust it
as you need to adjust but you need to have a goal in mind otherwise … most people that
can’t get their side projects done, they can’t actually work on things or make progress
after work its because they’re like, “Well, after work I’m going to do this.” They
aspire to do all these things but by the time they get home from work they’re tired, they
don’t feel like working out. They end up watching 24 in front of the TV and eating
Taco Bell. That’s why get to the gym early in the morning.
Have your diet planned out. Have your Pomodoro planned out and do it first thing in the morning
and you’re going to have a lot more success. All right Tyler, thanks—or Travis, sorry,
all right Travis, thanks for the email. If you have a question for me just email me at
john@simpleporogrammer.com and if you like these videos or if you’re listening via
the podcast definitely subscribe and you get 3 more every week, take care.