Day 1

http://pomodorotechnique.com/ 

Day 1 began dark and gloomy as I stumbled out of bed to head off to the gym. Today's challenge--to annihilate multitasking.

In this day and age it is very easy to be consumed and beleaguered by the constant barrage of information coming from the many forms of media. The biggest culprit for this information overload in my mind is the mobile phone, which is constantly diverting people from the task at hand and causing them to look down at every vibrate or ‘bing’ emanating from that magical box. I am myself guilty of this offence, finding it very difficult to go for long without checking my emails, messages, or the latest post on facebook. Thus today’s challenge seemed perfectly designed to target my weaknesses and challenge it did.

On arrival at the gym I left my phone in the car to eliminate at least one distraction from my workout schedule. I also made a huge effort to focus on each rep of every exercise, doing my best to make each one count and to live in the moment. The gym workout made me realize that it’s not only media that is diverting attention, it is ourselves as well. It is very easy to allow one's thoughts to wander, losing focus on the present and putting oneself in the past or future.

After the gym I arrived home, sat down at my desk-- ready to work--and. . . picked up my phone. BUT I did not to go on Facebook; instead, I downloaded an application to help me stay focused throughout my schoolwork. The application I downloaded was a pomodoro timer based off the pomodoro technique. The pomodoro technique is a time management method that helps one bring the best focus to the task at hand by splitting up studying time into twenty five minute blocks with five minute breaks between each block. I found this study technique to be super helpful. It made the task seem less daunting by breaking it into manageable bites and it also allowed me to stay focused during the full time period because I knew that I would be able to take a break shortly. I highly recommend that you give the pomodoro technique a shot! The app I downloaded can be found here.


Until next time,
Z