As I write this article the clock is ticking. My time is running out and I love it!
Years ago I discovered a tool that has made me more effective and I found that tool in my Grandmothers kitchen, her beloved egg timer. I have repositioned it from great breakfasts to increased productivity! It motivates me to do the things I do not want to do. For example, if I have 3 hours to write a great blog post it takes me the entire 3 hours! If I have 30 minutes to write a great blog post it takes me the entire 30 minutes. The scary thing is that the 30 minute post is often better than the 3 hour one! Why? Because when I have extra time I will waste it. When I don’t have the time I stay on track. Maybe you have experienced this phenomena back in college when term papers where due. If you are like most students, you did them the weekend or the night before they were to be turned in! Our minds love deadlines. The sooner that deadline is the more it focuses our attention. Focused attention is the key to productivity and an egg timer can be worth its weight in gold. The Key to increasing your productivity with the egg timer is to set ridiculously short deadlines and then pound like crazy. Play a game with yourself have all your attention focused on the task at hand until the buzzer goes off. For example: You hate washing the dishes, folding the laundry, unloading the dishwasher, sending thank you cards, logging calls in your cms, blogging, writing or even stuffing envelopes. Once you pick your unwanted task, grab the egg timer. Set it for a ridiculous time say 5 minutes to wash all the dishes. Then attack! Be like a samurai, do nothing else except dishwashing. Allow nothing to distract you or take you off your track until the egg timer frees you from washing bondage. You will notice something in that 5 minutes. You will notice that you completed more than you normally do.
Here comes the fun… either reset your timer to finish the task or go tackle something else for 5 minutes. Focused attention produces focused results. Embrace the egg timer, it will set you free! BTW I still have 5 minutes on mine….. http://www.online-stopwatch.com/bomb-countdown/full-screen/ Anybody can do practically anything for 5 to 30 minutes so do the things you do not want to do with the help of Grandma’s egg timer and then set the timer and attack!
