As many of you know, I think that the process of exploring little tips and tricks for productivity is probably more interesting than the end result of that increased productivity–the journey over the destination, as it were.
The latest thing I’ve come up with is the reversal of one of Kara’s favorite motivational techniques. She likes to say “just work on something for 15 minutes,” the idea being that you can trick your brain into thinking that the work process will only last a short while, which ends up being the necessary rev-up time to get moving full-speed, and before you know it, you don’t feel like stopping.
The only problem with that technique is that it encourages getting to the end of the “working” period. You’re looking forward to that 15 minutes being over.
Similar is the idea of saying that you’ll work on something for an hour, or until a certain time. Again, because the end point is the goal, you fixate on just killing enough time to reach the point where you don’t have to work anymore…”well, it’s almost quitting time, and I’ve done enough for today.” Anyone who has worked in a typical office job–or attended school of any kind–is probably well-acquainted with this phenomenon.
I was thinking of myself, the procrastinator, who doesn’t strictly enjoy deadline pressure, but at least responds to it. And I was thinking of my alarm clock, and how wonderful the feeling of pushing the “snooze” button is. So I thought I’d put the two together and set a the countdown timer on my phone for an hour, at which point, if I wanted, I could hit the screen and “snooze” the countdown for another hour. Instead of “just work on it for 15 minutes,” I resolved to say “you’ve only got an hour, so get going.”
The results were interesting. I didn’t set a specific goal: just that I had to get “as much done as possible” by the time the hour was up. I found myself checking email hurriedly, glancing at the clock, trying to see how much I could get done by my self-imposed deadline. That forced me into the “flow” mindset; I wasn’t killing time to get to the end of working, but instead, I had to keep moving as I was running out of time with every moment. And when the countdown alarm rang, I actually enjoyed hitting the “reset” button to give myself another hour of work. I kept it up for about 4 or 5 hours straight, and by that time, it was much harder to stop working than it was to continue.
I think there are four key takeaways here: first is that the image of a clock ticking down towards a deadline is actually quite effective at producing the same sense of urgency as a real deadline. Second, an hour seems just the right length to give the impression of having plenty of time while still passing quickly enough to generate some tension. Third, even if you waste quite a bit of your hour, you’re likely to actually ramp up and work for 20-30 minutes towards the end of it, which is enough to establish some momentum–the feeling of “Uh oh, now I’ve only got 30 minutes!” is quite motivating. Finally, you short-circuit the negative emotions involved with continuing to work with the positive feeling of hitting “snooze” or otherwise giving yourself hour after bonus hour.
It’s a simple technique, and your phone probably has a countdown timer, or there’s an egg timer in your kitchen. I’m going to try it again the next time I need a little artificial deadline pressure.
Makes me think of Iron Chef.