Cube Timer Mindfulness

Procrastination tip of the day:  Use a timer to prompt you to stay on task.  


Great for:  
- limiting how much time you fall into the emailfacebook vortex
- when tasks loom large, and it's hard to start because there's so much to do
- when you wander from one task to the next, frittering your time away


Get yourself one of those cube timers (google it).  You can use a kitchen timer, but I love the simplicity of just turning the cube timer to the side you want, in increments of 5, 15, 30, and 60 minutes.  Pick a task, and flip the timer to an amount of time you'd like to work.  Like right now, I've got it set for 15 minutes, because I want to stay focused only on writing this blog for the next fifteen minutes.  


Someone might say, "Oh!  But I have SO much to do, I really need to set it for two hours!"  If you were able to set a timer for two hours and stay focused on task the entire time without prompting, then you don't need this tip anyway.  You can flip the timer onto the "30" side four times in a row if you really want to devote two hours to a single task, and the half-hour beeps will help you stay on track.


When it beeps, take stock.  Are you still on task?  Have you wandered off, opened your email, or your favorite website?  Are you done with the task?  If not, set it for another 5.  (If you want 10 more minutes, you'll have to do 5 minutes twice with this timer.)  The beauty of keeping these increments short is it brings you back to mindful awareness of what you're doing.


I love using this for email wrangling.  I've recently become aware of how many HOURS a day I lose to email and facebook.  Now, I set the timer for 5 or 15 minutes, and then dive in guilt-free.  The timer is going to be my watch-dog, to pull me back to awareness, so I don't need to worry I'll lose track and spend too much time.   I can play with complete abandon, because my little timer friend will pull me back to awareness of how I'm using my time today.  


I'm starting a project that's so big it intimidates me a bit.  But I can easily work on it for 15 or 30 minutes to get going, and the timer lets me start, knowing I can break it into smaller chunks and stay focused the whole time.  Give it a go!  Let me know what you think.  :)