Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 112th day.

Today's topic is: The Power of Focus - The Pomodoro Technique

I hope all of you are getting up early in the morning, just like your fellow students in easy efficiency. But getting up early is the first habit of time management. Today, we will continue to talk about the power of focus ---through the use of the pomodoro technique.

The pomodoro technique is popular all over the world. Because it is so powerful and so effective. For over 10 years I have studied time management and experimented with dozens of techniques, and I can tell you that the pomodoro is not only one of the most effective time management techniques l' ve ever used, but it will revolutionize the way you approach your work. 

Why is it so great? Simply because it works. It works because it converts the most important principles of time management theory into a simple and practical methodology that you can use in your everyday life.

Ancient Chinese philosophers have recorded that essence of time is in the present moment. You cannot access the past. You cannot access the future. Only when we live in the present moment, can we experience the wonders in our life.

I believe that "living in the present moment" means to devote our full attention to the things we want to do. Only when we devote our full attention, can we do things well.

Previously, we shared the idea of GTD — the Getting Things Done method. And the first part of that method is to assemble and record all of your tasks into one place.

Why is this so important? Well, we do it because our brain and our focus is easily distracted by past events and future unfinished tasks. Our brains are easily distracted, and distractions will cost you precious valuable time that you can never regain. We need a way to focus our energies and prevent those distractions from interfering.

This is exactly what the Pomodoro technique does. It forces us to devote 25 minutes of our time on exactly one activity.

And what should we do if during that 25 minutes time we have a new thought that threatens to interfere with the focus and energy on our assigned task?

Don't ignore it. Don't ignore that thoughts, because it will only grow in your brain and erode your focus.

Instead, take that thought, pull out your pen and paper or your app and write it down in your list immediately. Then immediately put that list away, and again refocus your energy to your task. Your brain will now be free to focus on your task.

When using the Pomodoro technique, you should work for 25 minutes and then rest for 5 minutes before beginning the cycle again. The length of time is important. 

    25-minutes is long enough that you will develop flow and rhythm, but short enough that you will not deplete yourself of the energy needed to focus on your task.

    5-minutes is enough time to recover your energy, but so long that you begin to feel distracted again

by other activities. It is optimally designed to promote efficiency.

The inventor of the Pomodoro technique classified time into 3 categories:

    The first category is working time, where you are focused and disciplined on the task at hand.

    The second category is resting time, requiring us to completely relax, free yourself of every thought, maintain a state of total relaxation.

    The third category is strategic planning. It is the time we use to look over all of the tasks in our list, and organize them, and choose the ones we should focus on today.

If you've been listening to our lessons from the beginning, you'Il remember some of the masters of time management, such as Peter Drucker, the father ofmanagement, Stephen Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and David Allen, the author of the Getting Things Done mothod, or the GTD method. They have all stated the same thing: complete important items first.

Therefore, it is not enough to use the Pomodoro technique to focus your energy on your task. You must also choose to work on the most important tasks. In other words, you should use the pomodoro technique to "eat frogs". Use your focused energy and time to complete the most important tasks. That's what frogs are: those important tasks that will unlikely to do, but we must do.

But we can't stay in this strictly focused state for too long. We can't be like this for too much time. We cannot spend too much time "eating too many pomodoros", so to speak.

Beginners should complete no more than 5 or maybe 6 tasks everyday,  6 round pomodoros . If you are experienced, I would say that you can complete 10 tasks per day.

When you're not utilizing the pomodor technique, you are free to do anything you want: rest, watch TV or a movie, go run a few miles......anything you like.

But do not use the Pomodoro technique when you are resting. The technique is only to be used during period of concentrated attention. You need to rest afterwards.

It is unnecessary for you to set a pomodoro or timer when you're watching TV. Because when you're watching TV, you don't need to remind yourself to begin another task. What you need is to relax and enjoy the time. Don't worry about focusing on just one thing. If you want to eat melon seeds with one hand and read a book with the other at the same time, go ahead.

But when you are working on a task, such as writing areport, designing a PowerPoint presentation, or attending a meeting......you'd better use the idea of the pomodoro technique: focus your energy on one thing at a time.

Focused attention applies all of your energy to a small, focused, targeted area.Therefore, it is very important that to have a plan, an overall strategy to accomplish all of your tasks. To do this, plan to spend 1% of your time on planning and reflection.

Can you guess the best time to plan and reflect? That' s right— early in the morning when your mind is freshest. 

The Pomodoro technique is designed to handle short-term tasks, especially tasks that can be completed in one day. That's why you need the stratigic planning to assemble and organize all of your other tasks on your list. 

Let's combine everything we've learned so far in our lessons.

    Work from the bottom up to clear out the immediately urgent matters — what Brian Tracy calls the frogs.

    Use the Pomodoro technique to eat those frogs and free your mind of this energy draining concern.

    Delegate unimportant matters to others or delay them until you have time to complete them.

    In this way, your important and urgent matters will be eliminated quickly.

Here at Easy Efficiency we have studied from greatest minds of time management history.

    From Peter Drucker, the father of management, we complete important matters first;

    From Stephen Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, we learned that important and non-urgent matters should be done first.

    Then, from David Allen, the founder of GTD, we learned that all matters in our brain should be collected, classified and prioritized using the 4D method: Do, Delegate, Delay, Delete.

    And, from class of today, you've learned to "kill" important matters with the Pomodoro technique!

Next time, I will summarize the key time management philosophy of Easy Efficiency. That's all for the class.

Thank you being with me together today. Have a wonderful day!