This blog post is in response to Natalie’s 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 5.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to Day 5 of the 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge.
So today’s instructions from Natalie are to talk about setting up for success. And she mentions three things that are her recommendations for setting yourself up for success.
So number one is to find an undisturbed place to work, number two is to be very clear on what you’re going to do, and number three is to use the Pomodoro technique.
So I’m going to talk about these in the reverse order starting with the Pomodoro technique. So if you don’t know the Pomodoro technique, it basically means that you use a timer, you work for 25 minutes, and then you take a five-minute break. And then another 25 minutes and a five-minute break. And you can adjust the times depending on your preferences, but the important thing is to take that break.
And I love this system! I struggled with it to start with because what would happen was the timer would go off and I would think, “Oh I’ll just finish what I’m doing…” And then I would find myself two hours later I still hadn’t taken the break!
But I managed to start getting some success with it by doing group Pomodoro sessions. And by doing that — having that accountability of we all need to finish after the 25 minutes — that really helped.
And I do this quite a bit at Ginza Hub, the coworking space where I do quite a bit of my work.
So the second one is being clear on what you want to do. And I’m having a lot more success with this one recently because in the past I would have heaps and heaps of to-dos and kind of overwhelm myself. But now I use Trello, which is a great tool where you can visually you can see the tasks that you have to do.
You can move them around. So I have one list in Trello that is my “Hurray for Today!” — my things I want to get done. And I limit that to three things. And then I have the “Upcoming Projects.” And then I have the “Someday/Maybe Projects,” so that I’m not overwhelmed with this massive great list of to-dos.
And I’m getting a lot better at that, as I mentioned before I still have a tendency to take on too much, so sometimes the Trello gets a little bit overloaded, but I have to discipline myself to move things into the other list.
And the third one is about finding an undisturbed place to do your work and to focus and this one I do well at when I go to Ginza Hub, and I can focus on my work there, I can also talk with other entrepreneurs. If you’re in Tokyo, looking for work space, I recommend it. Also, Rob, the owner, makes fantastic coffee.
So that’s good, but the problem is when I’m at home. I do have a tendency to do a cheeky little bit of extra work — maybe sitting on the sofa or something. I would just have a little look and just do a little bit more. So I want to get out of the habit of doing that. That’s my main thing I want to work on.
So what about you?
And even if you are not working — or an entrepreneur working in your own business at your company — what’s the situation there? Would it help to have a conversation with your colleagues, with your manager, and talk about the benefits of maybe being able to focus on your work a little bit more? Have a bit less distractions?
And if you do have that conversation, make sure that you talk about it from their perspective. What’s the benefit to them of you being able to have a little bit of focus time to really get your best work done?
Hope this has been helpful for you, and come back and see what’s happening in Day 6. Bye!
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Other posts in the 10 Day Blog Challenge series: