The Pomodoro approach It’s widely accepted that our attention flags after a certain amount of time (that’s why 15 minute stand-up meetings are well-loved, although not used often enough).
Using the Pomodoro method, you allocate 25 minutes to focus on a task or project, and then 5 minutes to take a break (check e-mail or social media, grab a coffee, etc.) The 25 minute intervals work best if you get rid of as many sources of distraction as possible. The website tomato-timer.com is an ad-free (as of this writing) website that makes this super simple.
Time sheets and job sculpting A common source of frustration is feeling that we don’t have enough time for the things we most need or want to do. Job scuplting is the practice of hiring and placing staff by matching their areas of interest and ability to the job responsibilities. But you can do this for yourself.
A simple exercise involves chunking your time into types of tasks, and then tracking the amount of time you spend on each type of task. This helps you stay focused on the activities or tasks that will help you succeed in your current endeavor.
It also can provide documentation to help your manager understand how much time certain responsibilities take. Ultimately, you will spend less time dithering in unproductive areas and more time focusing on the work that moves your priorities forward.
But how does this work in practice? Use a timesheet tool like My Hours or the time tracking included in ClickUp.
Define your projects any way you like. Mine are:
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Strategy / vision – any activity used to gain insight or do overall planning. Because marketers can easily get overwhelmed by executing projects, it’s important to allocate enough time to strategy.
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Execution – anything related to planning and executing marketing activities (from trade show coordination to writing to meetings)
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Internal communication – sharing or receiving ideas and information related to company culture or processes
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Measurement — because marketers are tempted to spend too much time measuring, rather than tracking, our performance.
I kept it as simple as possible so that I don’t have to think too much about tracking time – the point is to chunk things into general buckets and discipline myself not to get stuck in time-wasting activities.
Someone else might choose to monitor their stress levels by using Steven Covey’s quadrants:
- Urgent and important
- Important but not urgent
- Urgent but not important
- Neither urgent not important
If you have different constituencies you’re accountable to, you can set them up as “Clients” to understand how much of your time they’re taking.
If you have a task that you feel is taking up too much of your time, you can track it to show your manager and support your case for an additional hire.
After using a time tracker for a while, you can understand better how you’re spending your time and make changes if needed.
