I am a very busy mom, dog owner, home owner, athlete and I have a regular job. I am also easily distracted. 

Over the years, I have learned that creating daily habits is the key to success. I run with my dog every morning within half an hour of waking up – she needs to be walked either way, so why not just pick up the pace? In the evenings, when my tween daughter is getting ready for bed, I use those few minutes to learn Spanish and Japanese (personal goals). 

Research says that people’s brains don’t actually multitask, but rather switch quickly between tasks and make each take longer, while also compromising quality. I am not one to argue with science. I did, however, realize that there are tasks that require different parts of me and can be very successfully combined. For example, when I listen to webinars, I can easily sit on my stationary bike and get that workout out of the way. Walking with my pup is great time to listen to the news on a podcast. And nothing relaxes me better before bed than reading a little!

No matter how much I’d like it to be otherwise though, I don’t have infinite time. After reading about pomodoro technique, I decided to give it a shot and started to set my timer for 25 minute intervals to do the work. I quickly realized that this isn’t working for me – barely any of my tasks actually takes 25 minutes! I also always juggled a long to-do list, trying to match items on it to the amount of time at hand.

And this is when it occurred to me: 25 minutes may be optimal time for focus, but I am not required to follow it. Instead, I can set my timer for how long my task should take. Yes, it encourages breaking some work into smaller bits. That, however, makes them appear less overwhelming and prevents procrastination. What I like most about setting time is that it reminds me to move on. I have many perfectionists and artists in my life and I have noticed that they keep performing a task for much longer than necessary, always finding some minor detail to fix. But they forget about the law of diminishing returns. At some point, it has to be good enough, so you can work on your next task.