Pomodoro Technique: The Simple Way to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated

One simple technique that will help you get motivated and stay motivated when pursuing your goals and dreams!

Did you know that we all have different motivational styles that work best for our type of personality? This has been scientifically researched and studied by the American Psychological Association.

In order to get motivated and stay motivated, we have to determine the ideal motivation style for us.

Motivation is what drives you to work toward and succeed at something. It influences your behavior and your ability to accomplish your goals. Motivation can come from a desire or a curiosity from within you, or it can be from external forces urging you on.

Either way, it is up to you as to whether or not you will get motivated and stay motivated!

Since motivation styles vary for different situations and different personality types, no single type of motivation works for everyone. And different types of motivation will affect our outcomes in different ways.

The motivation style I’d like to dive deep into is…

The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s that aims to help you with maximum focus and creative freshness in order to complete projects faster and with less mental stress.

It’s a simple process where for every project you work on throughout the day, you budget your time into short increments and take breaks periodically.

The standard is to work for 25 minutes, then take a break for five minutes.

Each 25-minute work period is called a “pomodoro,” named after the Italian word for tomato. Francesco Cirillo developed the technique and used a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato as his personal timer!

So after four “pomodoros” have passed (100 minutes of work time with 15 minutes of break time), you take a bit longer 15 to 20 minute break.

Then each time you finish a pomodoro, you can mark your progress with an “X,” and note the number of times you had the impulse to procrastinate or switch gears to work on something else during that 25-minute chunk of time.

How can the Pomodoro Technique help you get motivated and stay motivated?

Frequent breaks keep your mind fresh and focused. If you have a large and varied to-do list, using the Pomodoro Technique can help you move through your projects more quickly because you are sticking to the clock!

If you know a timer is winding down it can ignite a fire in you to finish your task. Spreading a task over two or three pomodoros can keep you from feeling frustrated.

It’s the constant timing of your actions that make you more accountable to yourself, and helps you to minimize the time you spend procrastinating.

 You can grow to “respect the tomato!”

The Pomodoro Technique can help you handle your workload. Believing that you can change and excel in time management is part of having a growth mindset, which high achievers strive for. It has inspired apps and software like Toggl (a task management and time-keeping program) for example.

Here are the six steps to follow in order to implement the Pomodoro Technique:

1. Decide on the project or task to be done
2. Set a timer for 25 minutes
3. Work on the task
4. Finish working on the task when the timer rings, and put a checkmark on a piece of paper
5. If you have fewer than 4 checkmarks, take a short break (3 to 5 minutes), then go back to step 2
6. After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15 to 30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go back to step 1

If it’s a challenge for you to figure out how to organize a single day in your calendar, especially if you tend to work on all sorts of projects but don’t seem to be able to finish them, the Pomodoro Technique may be the perfect technique for you.

And now, here’s a free gift that will help you get motivated and stay motivated on your journey to creating a life you truly love living!

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If so, my free 10-minute Developing Your Mastery of Intention guided audio meditation is for you!