What can you do in 50 minutes? It’s really surprising how well this time period lends itself to a variety of tasks.
You can…
- Write a blog post
- Do an aerobic workout
- Walk 3 miles
- Complete an upper or lower body workout
- Write a chapter for a book
- Wash your dishes and clean your kitchen
- Vacuum your house
- Do your laundry
- Mow your lawn
- Read a few chapters in a book
- Do your homework
Done back to back you can knock out a variety of tasks in just a few hours. The 50 minute interval with a 10 minute break allows you to keep going in a focused and productive manner. You can easily see how two or three of these activities can be combined into one 50 minute period for even more efficiency
You can put your dishes in the dishwasher, vacuum a few rooms, put the dishes away, finish vacuuming, and clean off your sink. This simple overlap keeps you focused but allows multi-tasking.
You could walk 3 miles while listening to an audio book (instead of reading). I find this makes the walk more interesting and you get the book finished much faster. Looking at the list, the audio book can be listened to while doing a variety of activities, including working out and mowing the lawn.
You can use the 10 minute break period to transition things. One of my favorite things to do is put my clothes in the washer and start the wash. I then set my timer for 50 minutes and work in a focused manner on a book chapter or blog post. After the 50 minutes is up I move the clothes from the washer to the dryer, get a drink or refresh my coffee and then start on another 50 minute interval. When that is up I take the clothes out of the dryer and may continue into another focused interval.
Multitasking works well as long as you are not trying to concentrate on multiple things at once with the same part of your brain. For example, trying to listen to an audio book and write a book chapter will not work.
These are some simple examples but with some imagination you could easily expand the list. How about walking and dictating a blog post at the same time with a small pocket digital recorder? (I haven’t tried this yet but it does sound promising). How about walking and sharing a phone conversation with a friend or pedaling a stationary bike while computing?
You get the idea. I would love to hear your experiences with this type of multitasking.
