Boosting Productivity With a Timer

"Nothing focuses the mind like imminent death." That unattributed quote has been shared for years. In fact, I counted at least 30 variations of it in a single Google search that are floating around the Internet. It is, unfortunately, very true.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) says that there are two types of motivations that make humans do everything that we do. Moving-toward motivation and moving-away-from motivation. Anthony Robbins puts it another way. Humans do things to gain something positive or we do them to avoid something negative. It's simple but not simplistic. Unfortunately, more people are motivated by the avoidance of the unpleasant rather than working toward a reward. If you don't believe this, simply look at what happens the day before vacation. Instead of gradually getting into the flow of the day, we hit the ground running. No one can get us out of our mission to tie up all loose ends to make sure we're ready to go the next day. We begin to put those who interrupt us on notice that we have things to get done and we do not have the time to chit-chat. The deadline of the end of the business day approaches ominously and we do all we can to get everything done. It's not the pleasant aspects of the vacation that spurs us on, it is the dread of not getting things done so we can go. It is the most productive day of the year. In the quest to improve our productivity, we can use this to our advantage.

With the introduction of a $10 countdown timer that one can purchase in any housewares department, we can create our own artificial deadlines that create that sense of urgency for us. By setting the timer for 15 minutes to allow us to complete a task, it seems easy to focus and weed out the unimportant. When I use this technique, I get much more work done and I hear myself telling others, "Call me back in 30 minutes. I'm in the middle of something!" Productivity soars.

At first, it is difficult to estimate the amount of time needed. I found myself overestimating the time needed and I finished well within the required time. As an added bonus, I've been able to use the timer on repetitive tasks and can document my improvement as I accomplish the task faster each time I do it. It's even turned into a game I play to see if I can break my previous time record for accomplishing repetitive tasks, creating a new personal best. Now, since I know how much time certain tasks take, I can also forecast completion times for projects more accurately

Grab your timer and give it a go!

[composed and posted with ecto]

Comments

[Yuma]

Completely agree with your observations on this. I've started to use a freeware timer - 1 touch timer - on my palm, and it has worked wonders on focusing the mind on the task at hand.

[Chris Elliott]

I agree, a timer helps me feel like I have to get it done in a time frame that I have decided. For some reason I work far better under pressure then I do when there is plenty of time to complete an activity. I seem to need that mental intensity to get my tasks acomplished.

[Tammy]

Totally agree...when my partner and I were cleaning and de-junking our house this past December, we used a timer (the excellent PocketDoan for Palm OS) to time off 15-minute sprints of work followed by 5-minute breaks. Got nearly the whole house done in a week, with none of the crankiness that marathon cleaning would usually entail, and we stayed focused on the task at hand.

[Reg Adkins]

Your motivation assertions are spot on for many. But, working almost exclusively in human behaviors for the past several years, I've run into many temperaments for which the "carrot" works but the "stick" absolutely does not. I think it would be facinating to examine why those motivated by aversion and those motivated by reward move into their perspective professions.
Bye the way, cool new look on your site.
Reg

[M. Hagen]

My first thoughts on reading this was "Hey, it's FlyLady!" http://www.flylady.net - where she advocates "You can do anything for fifteen minutes."

[Bert]

Reg--
Yep. I agree. I happen to be one that can see the opportunity that hides in negative appearing tasks. I'm an early adopter. Yet, there are those, who see the positive, but simply don't move until negative consequences are introduced. They get a refund on their income taxes, yet, they don't file until April 15 (or 17th this year!).

M. Hagen--
I've been using timers in my personal productivity and encouraging their use in public school classrooms for years. Long before I ever heard of the fly lady (think of housecleaning with a timer and sneakers).

[Charles Martin]

This works great in many environments. However, I've found it very difficult in most of my work because, no matter what, if the boss shows up on the caller id of your cubicle phone, you better answer it.

I recently had a great burst of productivity and when I saw a specific name appear on the caller id, I just ignored it because I knew that I needed to keep this work going while I could. However, once I had a few minutes, I managed to respond to the phone message asking for more information and went on with my work.

This didn't succeed because it was five minutes after my response that I got a call from the employee's boss. Naturally, he was known to also call with unimportant requests (compared to my current work) and so I also let it go to voicemail. It was less than a minute after he did leave a voicemail that he was sending an email to call him right away. All of this went on before the employee had bothered to check if I had responded to her call to begin with.

Focused work is great on a timer, if you can get other people to understand that your work is important too. Too often, I find myself surrounded with people who demand my attention now, not later when *I* have time to deal with their unimportant issue. Granted, not all of them are unimportant, but too often we expect instant attention when we are not willing to give the same in return.

Thus, timers are great... if your environment permits for them to be used without interruption. Great post.

[Charles Martin]

Favorite Quote (from the procrastinator's perspective): "I LOVE deadlines... especially the sound they make as they go whooshing by."

[Bert]

Charles--

That's true: the timer is not a shield to protect one's time from a superior or from clients. In some professions, interruptions are an integral part of our responsiblity and are actually desired. Incoming calls or drop-ins from clients or superiors are simply part of the job.

Other interruptions, from subordinates and peers, can be deferred, however. Just the other day, I read that many times we are interrupted because we have taught, through the way we respond to interruptions, that interruptions are okay. The author advised a superior to meet with the staff to introduce a sustained quiet time, during which the superior would be unavailable. This time was reserved for those focused periods of personal work. Even this is predicated on an environment where this is possible.

[Juno888]

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thanks for the post