This week, time management experts featured a method they were calling “30/30” -- 30 minutes of work, 30 minutes of break. Understandably, this caused a significant amount of uproar among the readers, many of whom felt that the idea leads to either wasting half of your day, or inordinately long hours. Many advocated longer work periods, especially for programmers, or people that need to consider large amounts of technical information for their work. Most thought that much shorter break periods made it easier to get back to work after the break time expired.
Either way, finding what works for you may take some time, but a good starting point seems to be 45 minutes of work to a 15 minute break every hour. You’ll have to experiment, obviously to find what works for you. For me, I use the break opportunity to switch gears from the task I was working on to the one I have scheduled next. This allows me to at least touch all of the projects I have on the go at any given time.
Another of the most popular methods of time management is the Pomodoro technique -- similar to the above with a 25/5 ratio, but the emphasis is training yourself away from multitasking and distraction. The important part of the Pomodoro technique is that you’re working in intense bursts of productivity for 25 minutes at a time, and working on only the one task. I highly recommend watching the YouTube video for more detail.
What’s most important is finding what works for you. Whichever method you prefer, it has to be one that will let you work at your peak efficiency over the course of the entire day. If you take ten minutes breaks every 50 minutes, then so be it, so long as you can work near 100% focus for the entire 50 minutes. Read some articles, and look around -- as I said, Lifehacker is a great place for time management tips -- and find your own methods for dealing with multiple tasks, and getting work done.
Either way, finding what works for you may take some time, but a good starting point seems to be 45 minutes of work to a 15 minute break every hour. You’ll have to experiment, obviously to find what works for you. For me, I use the break opportunity to switch gears from the task I was working on to the one I have scheduled next. This allows me to at least touch all of the projects I have on the go at any given time.
Another of the most popular methods of time management is the Pomodoro technique -- similar to the above with a 25/5 ratio, but the emphasis is training yourself away from multitasking and distraction. The important part of the Pomodoro technique is that you’re working in intense bursts of productivity for 25 minutes at a time, and working on only the one task. I highly recommend watching the YouTube video for more detail.
What’s most important is finding what works for you. Whichever method you prefer, it has to be one that will let you work at your peak efficiency over the course of the entire day. If you take ten minutes breaks every 50 minutes, then so be it, so long as you can work near 100% focus for the entire 50 minutes. Read some articles, and look around -- as I said, Lifehacker is a great place for time management tips -- and find your own methods for dealing with multiple tasks, and getting work done.
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Mike Wrightly is mostly diesel fumes and duct tape; he grew up around heavy equipment, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Mike Wrightly is mostly diesel fumes and duct tape; he grew up around heavy equipment, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.
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