DIY Intervention:

Focus and ProductivityJanessaEscajeda

NTR 598, Fall 2013

Problem: how to focus

• Why?

• Always jumping from task to task, don’t know where

my time is going

• Distracted at home, online

• I’ve gotten away with it, last minute (brain dead)

• Preferences

• Prefer getting small tasks out of the way

• Think in terms of 1-2 days out, not week(s)

• Work best in the morning: focus on one thing

Purpose: Prioritize

• FirstTask Pro

• Android app created by my uncle (beta version)

• Basically a Master “To Do” list

• Create categories with a list of tasks and mark which is

highest priority

• “Today” category lists the those items and you pick which

of them is the highest priority from there

• Therefore, you should always be working on your most

important task

Planning: May not work

• Found that reoccurring tasks didn’t fit well into this priority scheme

• Something bigger may be more “important” but something else may be be due sooner

• Can’t realistically complete those items, so can’t check off… so nothing to show I was doing anything

• So switched gears: the Pomodoro Technique

• Breaking time into 25 minute “pomodoros” followed by short break (5 min)

• After 4 Pomodoros take a longer break (20-30 min)

• Used FocusBooser (focusboosterapp.com)

Progress: Productivity

• More realistic for me

• Breaking large tasks into smaller chunks so start on

them sooner

• Flexibility to alternate with small tasks

• Results?

• Hard to measure (catch-22)

• Quantify focused time

• Past Wednesdays: don’t start until 12 or 1pm

• Started only with 2-3 pomodoros in the evening, then 6

• Today I started at 9 and focused until 3