Countdown to Productivity

From Productivity Cafe

Timer Aids Productivity

If all your projects expand to fill the time allotted to it is that a good thing? Most people would like to get their projects wrapped up in the shortest amount of time provided they can still give it suitable attention and produce good work. Sometime, projects seem to could be done in a much shorter amount of time. Does any of this ring true for you?

Many of my clients are motivated by using a timer. Perhaps one of these reasons will motivate you:

Use a timer that counts up to see how long you spend on a task or project. For example, how much time do you devote to email first thing in the morning.

-Race the timer. After monitoring your time use, try to reduce where you can by setting the timer for 10% less time for the same type of task and race the timer to be finished. I have found this to be a good limit for how much time I spend refining a letter (as many times as feasible in the 10 minutes alloted to writing it).

-Motivate yourself to start a daunting task by assigning yourself a 15 minute minute window to get started. Do not be distracted in that 15 minutes. Because you can do almost anything for 15 minutes this is a good time segment. Many times timer users do one 15 minutes session and are 'on a roll' then do another and another. They use their own 'mind game' to beat procrastination.

-You can use the timer for rewards too. Perhaps after finishing a task you get a 15 minute walk in the fresh air.

-Use a timer at home... give kids 15 minutes to clean up or finish up before dinner. Let them be responsible for meeting the deadline set by the timer. Avoid having to repeat yourself by training them to time awareness. Give them the gift of time management skills by starting young.

Features to look for in a digital timer:
-It counts up and down
-It has large numbers
-It has a magnet on the back or a stand to sit on the desk
-It has just one timer (multiple timer timers require 3-4 times the number of steps to set and reset)
-It is <$15