The Best Damn Way I’ve Ever Found To Get Things Done
by Ben Curtis
Off-Topic:
Working from home for the last couple of years, I’ve tried just about every productivity idea, software and system in the book to get more (or any!) stuff done, and pretty much most of them don’t work for more than about 2 days… after which they drive you so mad trying to follow their complex productivity rules that you feel you want to explode!
So this is the latest system I’m using, I reckon it’s pretty good whether you work at home or in an office, and I certainly can’t claim to have invented it. I’ve cobbled it together from a few sources (Eben Pagan, Tim Ferriss, me…) Here we go:
1. Start the day with a list of a couple (no more!) of really important things you need to get done. Write these down on a piece of paper on your desk. As you get them done through the day, put a big satisfying line through them! Alternatively use a simple text document, and write DONE next to things as you get them, well, done.
Now the IMPORTANT bit:
2. Work in the following way. 50 minutes work, 10 minutes rest, 50 minutes work, 30 minutes rest. Repeat as necessary.
During each 50 minutes block you work 100% on the task of work you have set yourself. No email, no youtube, no IM, nada, just hard work on the most important task you have to do that will inevitably lead to more money for you or your company. Sounds tacky, but that is what work is for, isn’t it?
I have a little desktop timer/alarm widget for the Mac that I set for 50 mins, it chimes when it’s time for the break.
3. At the end of every 50 minutes, make a note somewhere, on or off the computer, of what you have done. This is your work diary. It helps you see how much you are doing, making you feel good about yourself when you review it at the end of the day.
4. In the 10 and 30 minute breaks, get far away from the computer if you can. Make a cup of tea, go for a walk, talk to the cat… Don’t do any sneaky work!! (If you are in an office and can’t leave the computer, read some relaxing newsy stuff etc)
5. Never process all your email until you have done at least one 50+50+10 stint. If you really have to look at it, do, but don’t start answering email. Make ‘email’ one of your 50 minute sessions, but not during the first 2 or 3 of these 50 min sessions of the day.
I find it is best tackled just before or after lunch. And once you get into it, empty your inbox! Process all of it! Then leave it. Close that program. No cheating. Email is a ‘productivity’ killer. The biggest. Give it it’s allotted time, no more.
Conclusion
Well, it’s working a treat for me. More work, less guilt about not doing enough, and a good record of everything I’ve done. Even if you just get two, max 3 of those 50+10+50+30 sessions done per day, and you don’t break the rules of distraction, you will be doing more than before, guaranteed.
Thought it might help someone somewhere! Comments welcome…
Posted: August 13th, 2008 under geek stuff.
Comments: 26
Comments
Comment from Jill (la vieja de la manga)
Time: August 13, 2008, 8:55 am
If it works for you it must be good 
I’ll forward this to the family. And thanks too for notes from Asturias, Marina looks terrific and I can’t wait to walk the gorge. Abrazos Jill
Comment from luke
Time: August 13, 2008, 10:19 am
Very interesting. I’ve never read anything on time management before but your system is very close to what I naturally do. But my work periods are 60mins; I check the time when I’m waining and it is normally after an hour. I’ll try cutting to 50mins and see if I’m more productive. My work is intense, normally sitting in the same place. If I have to do more physical and less cerebral work then I work for 3 or 4 hours without a break. My difficulty is what to do in the break periods, since I could easily over do the caffeine or snacks. Most of the time I don’t work on the computer so that can be a diversion for me but often too diverting (this blog is sometimes to be blamed). I’ll have a go timing my breaks to make sure they are not excessive.
Comment from Spanish Justin
Time: August 13, 2008, 11:11 am
I work for myself too and have an awful time trying to structure my day. To this day I still have no structure! I just some how get most things done, especially when people start hounding me for replies.
BUT I did find a good way to fill the rest times….I bought a pool table for the office!
I don’t think I’m getting any more work done but my pool playing has improved massively
Comment from leftbanker
Time: August 13, 2008, 11:37 am
I wrote a post about working at home a long time ago. Maybe I should try your method.
Comment from John
Time: August 13, 2008, 1:02 pm
Sorry Ben, but since I discovered your site and yours and Marina’s podcasts any structure I had to the day has gone completely; but at least my Spanish is improving at several Km/day.
Comment from Ben
Time: August 13, 2008, 3:13 pm
Well John, that is an entirely acceptable excuse!
Comment from Pepino
Time: August 13, 2008, 5:42 pm
I suppose Ben’s plan is a good one for him as, apart from Marina, he doesn’t have any colleagues bickering and pestering. In my old job in the UK for example, closing your email program wasn’t an option, as often colleagues would send me an email, and then shout across the office to prompt me if they could see me at my desk but I hadn’t replied instantaneously!!
Comment from Pepino
Time: August 13, 2008, 5:45 pm
…not that Marina bickers and pesters of course! You know what I meant to say 
Comment from Ben
Time: August 13, 2008, 6:01 pm
@Pepino - best I don’t answer that last comment
Comment from Jon Hundt
Time: August 13, 2008, 7:32 pm
all well and good for you desk-jockeys, but some of us self-employed individuals actually have to go OUT of the house and WORK (physically!) -
no IM, no email, no YouTube, no desktop-timer widgets (what the heck does that mean?), no cups of tea, long walks, or talks with the cat…
Sounds like some of us are just now learning why it’s called “WORK”…
Comment from Ben
Time: August 13, 2008, 8:36 pm
@John, you are lucky! No youtube, no skype, no widgets… what a life!
Comment from Jon Hundt
Time: August 14, 2008, 7:22 am
Ben - maybe I would be luckier if I got to do all my outside work in a place where it doesn’t rain 364.5 days per year…
Comment from Edith
Time: August 14, 2008, 12:38 pm
If only I could put this into practice! In the average Dutch office, they expect you to attend at least one meeting a day. And meetings are sacred! :-(((
Comment from Jonk
Time: August 14, 2008, 1:12 pm
Hey Ben, sounds a bit like Eben Pagan’s for sure. Tim Ferriss is an inspiration to me. I have done a lot of outsourcing since reading his book. So many people bag it out but there’s so much to learn from it. I agree that in terms of productivity you have to get rid of all those distractions. MSN absolutely kills my productivity, so much so that if I’m doing work I never open MSN, ever.
Comment from Pepino
Time: August 14, 2008, 3:11 pm
I could find a distraction in a vacuum, I really could. Give me something to do, and I’ll instantly find something else I’d prefer to be doing. My boss has just passed me some urgent things to do… and what is the first thing I do when I return to my desk…? Log into my private email, send one to a friend, change my facebook status, check for new posts on the NFS forum…. and maybe at some point before home time, I’ll do that thing I was given.
Somehow I get my work done and don’t get complaints so maybe I’m just lucky…. or perhaps there’s a good kicking coming my way one day soon
Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: August 15, 2008, 1:48 am
I’ve yet to have a work day without meetings. I spent all day in meetings the last 3 days and will do so every week for the next 8 months.
Comment from Lynda
Time: August 15, 2008, 6:00 am
Just found your website. I’m going to try your time planning, sounds good. I,m trying to write a book, here in the Andalusian mountains and end up gazing at the view and procrastinating or suffering with insomnia and then too tired to concentrate during the day.
Comment from Ben
Time: August 15, 2008, 8:26 am
@Pepino - remind me never to employ you
@vs - you have my sympathy!
@Lynda - I’d wait until it cools down a bit, the heat can’t help! Either that or employ caffeine!
Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: August 16, 2008, 4:31 am
It ain’t so bad, Ben. The coffee is decent and abundant and the bennies are quite generous.
Comment from gary
Time: August 16, 2008, 2:58 pm
Developing my website has been on the back burner for a while. At the moment its a hobby that finances two, maybe three trips a year to Spain. Clearly I would like that to increase but each time I decide to have a development day I struggle to focus. I get up at 8, coffe & toast, see to the dog and into the office. I stare at the screen for ten minutes then do the email, then check NFS - purely in my role as a moderator you understand. Hours later inspiration still has not hit so I abandon the effort & take the dog out, play with the grand children watch some TV, cook a meal, anything but actually work. Then, uually just before bedI go to check for one last time and finish up still typing when the dawn corus is chelping away…
Had I done 5-6 hours work in the morning I would have been well pleased, so now I’ve done it at night Im cross with myself, not to mention unpopular with the management who has been awake every hour, or so she says, wondering what the hell I am doing.
Yet the funny thing is if I was workin g under a commission and someone said “3000 words on (insert subject here) by lunchtime please” - it would be done. why cant I dio this myself?
Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: August 16, 2008, 6:22 pm
@Gary: You could hire me as your boss.
Comment from Ben
Time: August 17, 2008, 9:40 pm
@Gary - if our entire living didn’t depend on it I probably would be in exactly the same position as you!
Comment from Geoff Harrison
Time: August 18, 2008, 4:49 pm
Anybody who has the self-discipline to successfully work from home has my respect. I had to admit defeat a while back and now rent a desk in a shared office in Barcelona. Apart from the obvious advantages of improved productivity and a more structured day there is the bonus of being surrounded by a very pleasant bunch of people with whom I can practice my Spanish.
Quite ironic however that having spent years trying to escape the drudgery of office life I now actually pay someone to be allowed to sit in one. The next step will be to employ someone to be my boss.
Comment from Geoff Harrison
Time: August 18, 2008, 4:57 pm
@ValenciaSon: Just noticed your offer to Gary. Can I take you up on it?
Comment from Marc
Time: August 19, 2008, 4:08 pm
Hi Ben,
I’m an irregular reader of your blog, but was happy to read this piece about time management for home workers.
I’m also a Spain-based home worker, struggling every day to get the things done I had planned. I must say that your comment on the e-mail answering is an eye-opener. Till now I had the natural reaction of trying to reply to each email almost immediately. You can imagine what the consequences were …
I’ve tried a new way of working, similar to what you propose, and it really helps !!
Hope I can keep this up.
Comment from Ben
Time: August 19, 2008, 4:56 pm
Hi Marc, glad it helps! The best thing ever is to turn off automatic send and receive!
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