15 minute productivity rule

I like to postpone

In fact, I don’t really like to postpone from day to day, but this is one of my weaknesses. I will postpone some important things until the last moment when it will have to be done.

I learned to overcome these weaknesses, trying to be more productive in order to compensate for lost time.

Blah, blah, blah, the productivity of the system ... postponing from day to day ... blah blah blah!
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I know you heard it all before, but what’s strange is that I almost always get things done well, long before the deadline.

So what's my problem?

My problem is that when I take on the real work, I end up doing millions of other little things.

Although I overcome the results of my delays on my own much earlier than the deadlines, I still struggle with the essence of my nature of postponing affairs from day to day.

It looks as if I put an evil demon of delay in a cage where he cannot harm me, but due to the fact that I still have to constantly feed him and deal with his demands, he continues to slow me down.

I call it micromedication

Maybe you suffer from this disease just like me.

Symptoms are:

- Get to work and your first actions are checking Facebook, Twitter, email and all other sites that may have something interesting and updated for you.
- Find an excuse that you need 10 minutes or so for a transitional period to check all these things before you sit down and actually do the work you are going to do.
- Choose something small, something that is not so important, and work on it instead of the necessary. (Clear mailbox, etc.)

Almost every week, I set myself the goal to write 2 modules for my next course Pluralsight .

I always do this, but to start work on a course, I always spend some time getting started to do the work directly. I sit down to do the work, but I actually start working after about 30 minutes, and sometimes an hour after I initially sat down at the computer.



As soon as I start, I usually discover that it is not problematic for me to continue working until it is finished.

As a rule, I do the same with my blog posts. I need to leave a blog post every week, but it always takes some time to get started.

Even when I undertake to write code or solve programming problems, I notice that I constantly try to do a lot of other work, such as answering emails or studying the problem further, rather than just working, focusing solely on the task.

I began to notice that it had become a regular occurrence in my life. If I got about 15 minutes on Pluralsight, blog posting, or programming, I would almost always not be distracted from the task.

I discovered the fact that I don’t want to quit my job. I would not even have lunch or lingered in order to finish it.

That was born a 15-minute rule

Based on this observation, I decided to try a little experiment. Next time I'm going to work on something, and not doing my usual ritual of checking email, checking Twitter, etc. I took the following steps:

1. Having selected one task, I sit at the computer and prepare to work on it. (It helps to disassemble the task in great detail.)
2. You should complete all distractions within 15 minutes or just make them not bother me during this period of time.
3. Work without pause and without interruption, even for 15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes, if I want to stop, then I stop or switch to multitasking.

I discovered that after 15 minutes of persistent and diligent work on one task, I do not want to leave it.

I discovered that the fact that I didn’t have the motivation or desire would actually disappear 15 minutes after work, and then it becomes everything I can think about.

I discovered that this is similar to the first few chapters of the book, which draw down into it, and you continue reading. 15 minutes is what I need to get involved in my work and want to see its completion.

I used this “15 minute rule” quite often, and I got some fantastic results.

I also made a mistake when I tried to return to my old habits, and got completely opposite results.

I tried other systems

Now I have definitely tried many other systems that are trying to solve the problem of delay or performance or both of these problems, but none of them seemed to work well for me.

I know about the work of other systems, and I know a lot of people who successfully work with them, as well as the fact that my system is really not one of these systems - it is just what I am doing.

The problem I still found in other systems is that they either:

- Too complicated to apply regularly, unless you are 100% committed to the system. (A big barrier to getting started).
- Only solve problems of performance and priority, but not, directly, work.
- Suggest that you can sit down and actually do what you intended to do. (Which, as I remember, was the hardest part for me.)

I'm a big fan of Getting Things Done and highly recommend it. At least read this, because there are actually a lot of general tips, but ...



But I don’t use it anymore, because I don’t need to organize what I need to do. My life is now so packed and planned for every day that I already know exactly what I need to do almost every hour.

I don’t even watch TV or movies ... Never. No, really, I mean absolutely never.

Thus, with my schedule, the time is so clogged that my biggest problem is not figuring out what I should do, since I already decided. Instead, my biggest problem is doing it effectively.

The closest technique to the one that I am doing is probably the Pomodaro technique. I think this is a great technique and it is almost as good as mine, and also that it most likely works for many people.



I just discovered that my mind seeks to defeat the technique.

You could call what I do with a modified Pomodoro technique, which I set for up to 15 minutes, but in fact in this case an attempt is made to avoid interruptions as long as possible.

Why the 15-minute rule works

I suspect that the main reason why this method works is because there is a definite impetus.

When we start to get an impulse, it wakes us up, but it’s harder to get it.

Focusing is also an important part of the 15-minute rule. The world today is a fast and multitasking parallel rat race in which we have to switch our attention between several things at the same time.



If you are reading this post right now, you are probably constantly switching between several browser tabs or a chat window or something else and don’t focus 100% on reading. I do not have 15 minutes to grab your attention and attract you (if you are not a very slow reader, in this case, I congratulate you on walking this distance).

The fact is that we must focus on one thing purposefully to turn off the natural desire to try to be omnipresent.

Using the 15-minute rule makes me focus and focus on what I need to turn off everything else in my mind that has the potential to distract me.

The 15-minute rule also allows me to think more about the problem, moving away from it to “admire”, rather than work on it.

It frees me from obligations. If I know that I have to work for 15 minutes, I’m not afraid to make much progress. My only obligation is to work on the problem without interruption and with full focus for 15 minutes.

I also believe that after 15 minutes I had a desire to work further . Because of the time that I have already invested in the task, I feel obliged to complete it.

Applying the rule

I hope you find this technique useful and maybe you even have something better than her. In this case, I would really like to hear them, as I am always looking for some new ways to improve efficiency.

Before I leave you on your way, I will give some farewell tips that I found useful in applying the 15 minute rule:

- Remove all distractions. This may mean closing the browser window or turning off the phone or simply ignoring the rest.
- Do not forget to focus. It will not be enough just to remove distractions, it is also necessary to focus on what you are doing. You need to think about what you are doing.
“I know that thinking is another problem, because the mind begins to wander too easily and, just thinking about the topic, it seems that this or that psychological traction is not created. However, it is not. This means that when you start writing a project, it is important to actually “do”.
- If you feel that you cannot start “doing”, then do your “do” in the form of brainstorming, where brainstorming is actually writing some kind of task list or a smart card.
- If at the end of 15 minutes you are still not plunged into work and still want to quit, do so. Go back to it a little later and try again.
- Take breaks when you need. When the first 15 minutes of focused work were over, I discovered that I can take a break so that I really want to return to my work.
- Stick a note to your work monitor or somewhere else, where you notice it, to remind you that when you sit down to work, you need to start with a 15-minute technique.