Blue Eye

A productivity tool to manage your tasks: Hourglass

Lifehacker has an interesting article on how to use a timer to get more things done by creating a system whereby you dash through your-to-do list; and keep the time as you do it.

Here’s an excerpt from the original article: Stop Procrastinating and Dash Through Tasks with a Timer

Trick yourself into starting by deciding to work on the task for just a handful of minutes and guarantee yourself a break at the end of that time. For example, commit to work on your task for 10 minutes. Ten minutes! That’s one minute for each finger on your two hands. Anyone can work on anything for 10 minutes, and that includes you and that thing you’re putting off.

First, get a timer—an egg timer, a digital watch, a cell phone timer, a software timer, the kitchen timer, whatever’s available. Pick your biggest, scariest, most put-off task. Choose the next action, set your timer for 10 minutes, start the timer, and begin.

When the timer goes off at the end of the 10 minutes, stop. Get up, walk around, get a drink, and pat yourself on the back for what you’ve just done: you stopped procrastinating and got started.

Then, do it again.

I thought this was a fantastic Idea!

So I put it to the test.

We have these great hourglasses at Office Divvy. We typically use them to keep the time in a meeting, facilitated session, panel discussion etc. But today I grabbed the 30-minute and the 5-minute hourglasses to manage my day and tasks.

First, I allowed myself only 30 minutes of play time (which includes having my coffee, checking my facebook and twitter accounts, and writing this blog post). You will see below –from the large hourglass, I’m doing well, time-wise. 🙂

By the time the hourglass runs out, this post will be up; and I’ll move on to my to-do list, using a combination of the 5 and 30 minute hourglasses for different tasks.

What do you think of the idea of keeping a timer as you run through your to-do list?

Do you have other proven methods to effectively manage your day and tasks?

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This blog post previously appeared in the Old Office Divvy Blog
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Ky Ekinci

I'm a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Office Divvy. I am an entrepreneur, a trusted advisor, a world traveler, a Coworking advocate, and an appreciator of fine cigars.