Jade Boyd: [00:00:00] I also like that Pomodoro makes, breaks a habit and not a reward. So you’re not forcing yourself to be like, okay, I’m gonna get through all of this, and once I completely finish it, then I’ll take a break. Because as we know, work expands to the time that we allow it. And so if you’re working in that format as a habit, a lot of times you’re just not taking a break because the task is never like completely done. There’s always something more that you can do to tweak, especially if you’re a perfectionist. That’s a really bad strategy for you. I know it is for me. And so organizing your day in Pomodoro forces you to plan when you’re gonna take those breaks and forces you to take a long enough break to actually recoup so that you’re not feeling burnout by the end of the day.

Welcome to the Business Edit Podcast, a podcast about redefining productivity for the modern woman in business and finding ways to work smarter, not harder in business and life. I’m your host, Jade Boyd, an MBA business minimalist and productivity coach. I help overwhelmed [00:01:00] business owners simplify and feel their service-based businesses by doing less but better.

I help my clients create business. Minimalist strategies and systems that allow them to pursue ambitious goals while working at a human pace. On this podcast, we’ll explore simple ways to grow your business with a life first approach. If you’re ready to scale your business, bring order to chaos, ditch the busy work, and spend more time living your life than managing your life, you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to the Business Edit Podcast.

This episode kicks off a series of a simplify your to-do list series that’s gonna help you experiment with different productivity strategies for writing your to-do list each day, and how you organize, how you get work done so that you can simplify the way that you’re doing things, but also try different things because different methods work in different seasons of life.

And I know personally what used to work for my to-do list is not currently working. And it’s been really helpful for me to experiment with different things and have more [00:02:00] tools in my toolbox that I can pull out on different days based on what’s going on and what’s gonna be most effective. So I was originally gonna do this as one episode with five different things, but then as I started brainstorming, things that I’ve tried, the list just got longer and longer. So we’re just gonna do one episode for each strategy to give you kind of like a micro tip and something to reference if you want to pull a different tool out of your toolbox based on the season that you’re in.

So I thought we would start with a Pomodoro method, because I think it’s a really common one. Previously on the podcast, I was asking the question like, what’s your favorite productivity tool or hack? And a lot of business owners say a timer is their favorite thing. But I think that a lot of us think about Pomodoro the wrong way or think that it has to be a, a very like simple format.

But the reality is that it’s a very flexible tool and something that can be done in a few different ways. And also there’s a few tips that I wanna give you for making it the most effective strategy possible for you if this is something [00:03:00] that you’re reaching for often. And I know, like I said previously, I had a to-do list format that kind of went like this, I would have my to-do list for the day, and I would know what my schedule is for the day, and I would time block, you know, what tasks need to happen in the morning. Usually the more high energy, high focus tasks I would do during the time of day where I had the most focus.

I would break for lunch, I would do more like admin work right after lunch when I was in that afternoon slump. And then towards the end of the day when I naturally got that like creativity boost, I would do more brainstorming or planning or creative projects, whatever that would look like. Or you know, low lower energy things that I could do while I was kind of brain dead at the end of the day.

But now my schedule looks completely different because I’m running my business while having my baby at home with me full time, and right now she is almost nine months old, so she just switched to a two nap schedule and it’s getting a little bit more predictable. But over the last few months, naps have been completely unpredictable both [00:04:00] when they’re gonna happen and for how long they’re gonna happen. And I mean, recently weather they’re gonna happen as she was transitioning to two naps. And so time blocking around the schedule of when am I gonna have the best energy and focus and you know, just planning things in my calendar. Was not a helpful strategy anymore.

So like I said, I started experimenting with different things and I feel like the Pomodoro, if you’re operating in a similar schedule to this or you don’t like the idea of time blocking, Pomodoro can kind of be time blocking without time blocking.

So let’s just dive into it. Up until this point, if you’re like, what the heck is Pomodoro? I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Pomodoro is basically a productivity technique that does 25 minutes of focus work and then a five minute break. That is typically what people think of when they do Pomodoro short sprints of focus work with intentional breaks so that you’re getting that like energy boost and that break from the mental load before you get tired so that you can prolong the amount of time that you’re working and getting things done without becoming [00:05:00] burnout and like really fatigued by the end of the day.

And I think a lot of people use it in terms of like, if there’s something that you really have to get done, maybe you’ll do one quick Pomodoro or one quick 25 minute, you know, focused, let’s just get things done as quickly as possible, instead of planning your day with Pomodoro and planning all of your work in these tiny little sprints.

But again, I think that it is helpful if you just need to pull that quick 25 minute energy burst of like, Hey, I have a bunch of admin tasks I need to batch, or I just need to sit down and work on my content plan for 25 minutes and just focus on one thing, ’cause I’ve been avoiding it. It is really helpful for that.

But again, I think it can be so much more than that if you’re using it throughout your day to kind of plan rest and work in more of like a rhythm and cyclical thing instead of just working when you feel like it.

And overall, Pomodoro is meant to be a strategy for reducing burnout and mental fatigue by working in those shorter bursts instead of sitting down and trying to force yourself to work for [00:06:00] four hours at a time. And then also taking real energy boosting breaks. So not just like getting distracted and scrolling social media or you know, taking a break, that’s not really a break, but being really intentional with balancing work and rest throughout your day so that you’re able to be more productive and also just more energized and have a better experience as you’re going about your life. Because work is inherent, no matter you know what your life looks like, everybody works.

And so Pomodoro is really about planning work intentionally so that you are ending the day not feeling burnt out and mentally fatigued.

And also not spending eight hours at your desk every day being unproductive and ending the day realizing like, I don’t even know what I did today or where the time went. I was technically at my desk, but nothing really got done. So one other way that you can use Pomodoro’s, like I said, you can use just the 25 minute if, when you really need it.

It do 25 minutes on, take a five minute break, but you can also stack Pomodoros, which I [00:07:00] didn’t realize until recently, that technically you can stack these and take longer breaks. So you could do, you could double it and do 50 minutes on for a task that takes, you know, longer than 25 minutes, which might be more focus work or a deeper project where it takes you a while to get into the task before you can actually make progress on the task.

So you could do 50 minutes on and 10 minutes off, which is a nice little hour chunk to your day. So if you’re planning time blocks, for example, and you know you have at least an hour. Making sure that you’re planning 50 minute sprints and a 10 minute break every single hour. You can triple it and do 75 minutes on and 15 minutes off.

But the max that is recommended is four Pomodoros in a row, which would be a hundred minutes on, and then a 20 minute break. So a hundred minutes is roughly an hour and 40 minutes. So that would be planning your day in two hour chunks. So if you’re working four hours in the morning, four hours in the afternoon, maybe you have one or two longer pomodoros in the morning if that’s when you focus better, where you do have a [00:08:00] solid hour and 40 minutes to get in and like batch marketing content or write a blog post, or you know those tasks that might take you a little bit longer than other things on your to-do list with two 20 minute breaks if you’re doing two a hundred minute Pomodoros. And then in the afternoon, maybe you do shorter pomodoros. For me, like I said, my schedule is starting to get a little bit more predictable where the time my daughter naps is not necessarily super consistent. It’s like within 30 minutes, which is as consistent as I think I can expect it to be.

But she does nap for 40 minutes to two hours, which again, is not predictable, but I know I can plan at least a 40 minute Pomodoro when she’s napping twice a day. So I typically reserve work that I’m on a screen, my computer or my phone, like I have to do that type of work while she’s sleeping because I just don’t.

One, it’s really hard to be on a screen or on a baby because they just [00:09:00] want it to be where you’re at. And two, it just makes me feel, bad, like I just don’t like being on a screen and not giving her my attention or like involving her in my work when she’s awake. So I try and do work that she can be around for like basically housework or things that are more physical labor where she can be playing or watching or participating.

And then screen time or screen work is reserved for when she is sleeping. And also stuff like. This recording podcast episodes has to be done when she’s asleep and not making noise. So I plan to do typically 50 minutes and then if it gets cut a little bit short, that’s just the reality. But usually she does 50 minute naps at this point, so I’m able to batch two Pomodoros and, and then take, you know, 10 minutes off.

Really, it’s just playing with her. That is my mental break and taking care of her is just a different type of work.

So the reason why I think this is a really important distinction is that a lot of our work as creative [00:10:00] entrepreneurs takes longer than 25 minutes, and you want to like be able to be in that flow state. Like that’s the magic of creative work, that you can feel like you’re working for hours and realize like, oh, I thought I was working for 20 minutes, but it’s been four hours, and wow, I really got into that task.

Whether that’s designing or editing or writing, whatever your creative work is. I think it’s helpful to be able to allow yourself longer chunks of time, but then also realizing that you need a longer break after those longer chunks of work in order to rest and recoup your mental space, your focus and your creativity. I also like that Pomodoro makes, breaks a habit and not a reward. So you’re not forcing yourself to be like, okay, I’m gonna get through all of this, and once I completely finish it, then I’ll take a break. Because as we know, work expands to the time that we allow it. And so if you’re working in that format as a habit, a lot of times you’re just not taking a break because the task is never like completely done. [00:11:00] There’s always something more that you can do to tweak, especially if you’re a perfectionist. That’s a really bad strategy for you. I know it is for me. And so organizing your day in Pomodoro forces you to plan when you’re gonna take those breaks and forces you to take a long enough break to actually recoup so that you’re not feeling burnout by the end of the day.

Okay, so we talked about the work part of Pomodoro and planning for the work tasks and the work time, but I also wanna talk about the break part, which I think gets forgotten because Pomodoro, at least when I hear about it, so much focus is placed on the timer and like setting a timer for 25 minutes and doing as much as possible within that timeframe.

Right? Not so much emphasis is put on the break and how to plan an effective break and how to plan a long enough break. And so if you are doing Pomodoro, I really want you to think intentionally about what taking a break is going to look like for you and create like a brainstorm of the activities that are actually restful and actually help you recoup your focus.

And I’m gonna give you some [00:12:00] ideas and talk about different types of breaks and different lengths of breaks so that by the end of this episode, you kind of have a brainstorm and a list going. If you wanna try out Pomodoro.

But make sure that you are planning your breaks and you’re planning the length of the break based on how long you were working. So if you just worked for a hundred minutes, you do have to take a 20 minute break if you’re following Pomodoro the right way. So. Do something intentional for 20 minutes. And if you don’t plan it, I think we all know what our defaults are, what we would default to.

A lot of times it’s work or scrolling or checking email that is not actually a break. It doesn’t actually energize you and it doesn’t actually help you get back into work at, it’s just draining you more. Right? So there’s two types of breaks that I wanna talk about. The first is active breaks and the second is passive breaks.

So just like it sounds active breaks are activities that get you moving, like taking a walk or exercising or going outside, moving your body in [00:13:00] some way.

There is a lot of research around both of these types of breaks and their effects on your focus and creativity and active breaks are really good for rejuvenating your mind, especially if you’re like mentally tired. I think we’ve all experienced this where we’re like tired and then we go outside.

Especially if it’s a really nice day and there’s sun and you just get reenergized by moving your body, your body sends more oxygen and blood to your brain, your mood boosting. Neurotransmitters get firing and then you get creative. I know a lot of my best ideas have happened when I am like out on a walk or just like moving and being a little bit more mindless in my body and not in my head.

Active breaks are also great if you sit at your desk a lot for your work. So if you’ve been sitting for two hours and you have kind of like a sedentary work style, then active breaks might be really helpful for you just to like increase alertness. I don’t know if you’ve ever been at a [00:14:00] conference and they’ve done that annoying thing where they’ve made you.

Stand up and like stretch or do jumping jacks and everyone is a little bit awkward and like, I don’t really want to be doing this in business casual clothes. But then afterwards you’re like, wow, I’m actually a lot more focused and like ready for this presentation, right? Like there is a lot of science behind it and it does work.

So you might brainstorm some active types of things that you could do, whether that’s like a 10 minute yoga video or a walk outside, or a walk around your house or some stretching. Whatever that might be to get your body moving so that you can get that real recovery time.

Okay, so those are active breaks. The second type is passive breaks, which again, is exactly what it sounds, something that is more passive, probably more sedentary. So things like mindfulness activities or relaxation activities. Taking a nap like socializing, calling a friend, talking to another human being if you work from [00:15:00] home. passive breaks are all about resting your mind and completely disengaging from work related thinking. So oftentimes on active breaks, you can still be thinking about work even as you’re moving your body, right? But passive breaks take your mind off of work completely and allow you to disengage.

So like I said, meditating is a really good one. Or if you do deep breathing exercises, listening to music, chatting with a friend where you’re fully focused on that conversation and you’re not talking about work. Those are the type of things that give your mind a break so that it’s not working so hard and allow your mental energy to rest and recoup so that you’re able to focus when you do come back to work.

I. There’s a lot of research about passive breaks and their effects on stress reduction. So if you have a really stressful job or if you just focused on a Pomodoro type of task, that created a lot of stress. Maybe that’s like bookkeeping, I know that causes stress for a lot of business owners, maybe if you’re doing a Pomodoro with bookkeeping, you follow [00:16:00] up with a passive break of something that’s more restful and reduces that stress so that you’re able to come back to work, not like a stress ball.

Another thing that I think could be good for a passive break is if you have a creative outlet that truly is mindless and restful for me, I, recently that’s become crocheting and not the type of crocheting that allow, that makes me think a lot because there’s definitely like new projects and new stitches I’m definitely a beginner, and so there’s definitely some projects that make me think a ton, and that is not mindless or restful. But if I’m in the groove of a project, like knitting a blanket or crocheting a blanket or something like that. And it’s just the same stitch over and over and over again.

That can be very restful and just like allow my mind to like zone out, which is really nice.

Okay, so just to recap, types of breaks, active breaks, get yourself moving and active breaks are great for sedentary or highly mental work. And then [00:17:00] passive breaks are more mindful breaks, and they’re really great if your work is really active or if it’s really stressful.

So hopefully by this point you’ve brainstormed some different types of real breaks that you could take to give yourself a little energy and focus and creativity boost throughout the day. And I just wanna close on a couple of really interesting things, just some research around Pomodoro and how taking breaks works that will hopefully incentivize you to take real breaks.

The first thing is that it’s been shown that taking frequent breaks throughout the day is actually more effective than taking one or two longer breaks. Like if you’re a person who works all morning, takes one long lunch break, and then forces yourself to work until you quit in the afternoon, research would actually show that taking smaller, more frequent breaks could be more helpful in terms of being energized and productive throughout the day, and also ending the day feeling good and not completely exhausted.

Research also shows these two things go hand in hand, [00:18:00] that taking a break before you actually feel like you have to take a break is when you should take a break. So in other words, don’t wait until you feel completely exhausted or burnout or like you’re out of focus to take a break. I think that’s how Pomodoro shines, because it forces you to work for a certain increment and then take a break and you might end your pomodoro, whether it’s 25 minutes or a hundred minutes, feeling like, you know what?

I can just keep going. I feel good. But don’t take the break because there’s a reason why it’s formatted like that. Because taking a break before you feel like you have to take a break actually helps you recoup your energy before it’s past the point where you’re gonna recoup. You’re just so burnout that you’re like, you’re done for the day.

So if you’re somebody who’s into time blocking it could be interesting to plan your time blocks around the Pomodoro method and planning like longer blocks in the morning, shorter blocks in the afternoon, and slotting your tasks into those time limited tasks and making sure that you’re planning for break throughout the day too. If you’re somebody like me who only has a couple times a day where you know that you can get work done, [00:19:00] you could just plan one or two Pomodoros a day and put like your most important or high focus or need to get done tasks in your Pomodoros so that you are time capping it and making sure that you’re able to get through that task.

Because again, tasks expand to the time that we allow them. So Pomodoro can be a really helpful technique if you do have limited time to get things done, to be really intentional about how you choose that time. And then also intentional about taking breaks and resting recouping afterwards. If you haven’t tried Pomodoro or you feel like you’ve tried it, but not to the best of your ability and this inspires you to try it out, I would love to know how it goes for you or if you have any tips or tricks that you wanna share with me.

My email is jade@jadeboyd.co, and I’m the person who answers those emails. So if this episode resonated with you, I would love to hear from you and here how this worked for you. And like I said, this is part of a series, so if you’re not following the podcast already, make sure that you hit follow because this is a bite-size episode, but one of many to come.

So if you’re feeling like, you know what, Pomodoro isn’t right for me. There’s many other techniques that we’re gonna [00:20:00] talk about, both how to do them, misconceptions about why you might think you have tried it, but might not have tried it the right way. And also looking into the research of like, okay, why should I try this technique and does it actually work?

And what does research say about it? So many episodes to come. So if you enjoyed this one, you won’t want to miss out on what’s coming up. So make sure you hit follow. And again, if you try Pomodoro, I would love to hear from you and I will see you next week.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Business Edit Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d be so grateful if you take a screenshot and share it on Instagram. Tagging me@jadeboyd.co. I’m on a mission to empower a new generation of women to become the types of wives, moms, and business owners that they’ve always wanted to be because empowered women change their families and communities for the better, and this is how we’ll change the world.

Sharing your takeaways from this episode on Instagram will help more women in business discover helpful episodes and level up in life and business each week. [00:21:00] Don’t forget to check out the show notes for the tools and resources mentioned in today’s episode because good ideas don’t grow businesses.

Action does. I’ll see you next time on The Business Edit podcast.