{"id":9844,"date":"2026-08-14T23:36:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T23:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=9844"},"modified":"2026-08-14T23:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T23:36:38","slug":"time-slipping-between-your-fingers-try-this-simple-hack-to-make-the-clock-work-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=9844","title":{"rendered":"Time slipping between your fingers? Try this simple hack to make the clock work for you"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Time can feel fluid. It leaks, spills and evaporates unless we\u2019re able to contain it.\n <\/p>

Read more Murder is at lowest rate since the 1950s. Trump touts it as a personal success.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n It can even feel as if time is no longer linear, sometimes looping like \u201cGroundhog Day\u201d (every day a carbon copy of the day before) or contracting (\u201cThat only happened yesterday?\u201d) or expanding (\u201cMonday feels like a month ago!\u201d) or just fogged in (\u201cWhat day is it?\u201d).\n <\/p>\n

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\nInspirational quotes to get us through the coronavirus shutdown<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n Then there is the collective, or self-induced, pressure to be productive, to make the most of the extra time we have. Whether it\u2019s home improvement, work projects, something creative or just reading a book, we\u2019re hungry for concrete accomplishment.\n <\/p>\n

\n This whole time problem led me to a simple hack I\u2019ve been using to wrestcontrol of my days in the service of certain activities and projects I want to accomplish. I also learned that someone else had already come up with asimilar idea.\n <\/p>\n

\n Time is still, for the most part, shifting back and forth and up and down. And much of the action is during an alternative dystopian timeline I hope to escape from, which is also the plot of \u201cBack to the Future Part II.\u201d But I now have more control than I did. I\u2019m getting more done.\n <\/p>\n

\n What I came up with was a time cup, a way to capture handfuls of time before they evaporate. \n <\/p>\n

\n The Pomodoro Technique\n<\/h2>\n

\n In the 1980s, while I was wasting countless hours playing video games, listening to my Walkman and riding my bike without a helmet, an entrepreneurial college student turned productivity expert named Francesco Cirillo came up with a time management method he named the Pomodoro Technique. The name is the Italian word for tomato, which is the shape of a once popular kitchen timer in his native Italy.\n <\/p>\n

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\nTHE SOUND OF MUSIC, Julie Andrews, 1965, TM and Copyright \u00a920th Century-Fox Film Corp. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Everett Collection\nCREDIT: 20th Century Fox\/Everett Collection<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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\nHow to hack the week so any day is your favorite day (even Monday)<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n The gist of Cirillo\u2019s technique is to use the timer for 25-minute intervals of concentrated work, followed by a five-minute break, and then take a longer break after you do a string of four short tomato bursts. I\u2019m oversimplifying, as evidenced by the fact that Cirillo has a book and consulting business devoted to his method, so you can get as deep into the pulp as you want.\n <\/p>\n

\n My simplified version is to identify a handful of long-term and ongoing goals and then devote short (15 minutes only!) bursts of uninterrupted time toward them. I set a timer on my phone or watch and then do one task until time is up. (On the rare occasion I do need to stop mid-task, I pause the timer while I take care of the pressing matter and then get back to it.)\n <\/p>\n

\n My version is shorter in length and lacks a schedule, which work for me. After I learned about the Pomodoro, I tried 25 minutes but found that extra 10 minutes was hard to maintain. And my days are constantly changing so I need the flexibility without sacrificing the focus.\n <\/p>

Read more \u2018Very outdated\u2019: Trump\u2019s directive to revert to steam catapults on new aircraft carrier baffles naval experts<\/a><\/p>\n

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\nyour brain on multitasking Gupta orig_00001103.jpg<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nYour brain on multitasking<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n Fifteen minutes is simply easier to manage in terms of keeping out the world now that we have Slack, email, texts and other technology that didn\u2019t exist when tomato-shaped kitchen timers were the rage.\n <\/p>\n

\n How it works for me is that I have a list of activities that I give only 15 minutes to, one time every day. I\u2019ll cram in 15 minutes with my first cup of coffeeor before bed or at lunch. \n <\/p>\n

\n Even though time is a zero-sum game and these bursts don\u2019t keep me from doing anything else, I feel like I\u2019m starting to win that game.\n <\/p>\n

\n Examples of what I\u2019ve done or been doing in 15-minute daily chunks:\n <\/p>\n

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