Sounds like a neat story title right?
The more you learn about me - the more you will see the experimentation is how I approach all facets of my life. From day to day learning and work, to my mental and physical wellbeing, the journey towards my daily %1 better never stops.
You’ll notice the Experiment tag across different series or blog post categories - This tag illustrates the many facets of life where I put experimentation into place.
Please note: I am not a health or wellness expert - these are just steps that work for me (or for which I experiment with daily).
Background
I have had a standing desk for quite some time. My use of it ebbs and flows - in that I sometimes use it quite often - or others times find myself so lost in my task at hand that I’ve gone a whole day without moving. With a goal of ensuring I move and care for my body on a regular cadence I’ve wanted to find ways to increase my use of the functionality.
Add to that the quest of enhancing my focus and deep work time each day - I began experimenting with different tools and mechanisms for measuring where I allocate time and where I don’t as it aligns to my objectives.
Consumer Footprint
I am very late to this train - but I was on a quest to try new time management processes and wanted to try a variety of options that do not incur more consumerism or purchase of gadgets that I may or may-not use. The app store on my devices was just the cure - there is a long list of time management and habit/focus tools with many of them having ads or premium functionality. I get it, we’re all out here to make a living. I selected an option from the list for my android device and went to work.
Pomodoro Technique
For those who are like me an just discovering this technique -
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s.1 It uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student
In Action
Toss on some headphones - Set the audio to white noise - and get to work.
The first 25 minute interval ticks-away as I set all device notifications to do-not-disturb and focus on a single task.
Quicker than you would believe - the timer dings and a 5 minute interval starts to signify rest time. Here is where the desk comes in. Rest time is where I stand up - my first instinct now is to hit the desk button for stand-height and stretch and answer any notifications or messages.
Rinse and Repeat
My body moves more with the simple period of “rest” time. I could have been allocating this time all along - but now I have explicit timers counting and tracking.
Time Management for the real world
It’s worth noting that these sessions of time are specifically scheduled for blocks in my day when I do not have other conflicting requirements. Usually at the start of my day I will review my calendar and start to plan out my daily work schedule. Things change and I adapt accordingly. This means there are other avenues of movement worth exploring - stay tuned for my under desk treadmill review (spoiler - it was free).