Stop Wasting Time! (Time Management for CFOs)

I'm just addicted to that sweet, sweet dopamine. And so what that means is I end up getting easily distracted from my work. And at the end of the day, I just haven't got enough of those important things done. And then I end up feeling super guilty because I haven't been productive enough. But I found that using a Pomodoro timer is a really effective tool at keeping me focused and getting more important things done throughout the day. It's kind of been a game changer for me. Hey, my friends, welcome back to the Connected Accountant. My name is Michael King, and if you are anything at all like me, you are super pro. To distractions from Slack, to emails, to how many likes did my last Instagram post get to? What in the world is that guy doing across the street anyway? Right? Our brains have just been so conditioned to want more and more dopamine. And the way we get that is by finding stimuluses. And when they want those stimuluses, they allow us to get distracted. But the problem is when we're distracted doing those kinds of things, we're not typically getting our important work done. And so by the end of the week or the end of the day, you feel really guilty. And all the shame because you spent more time screwing around on Instagram than you did closing out your client's books or whatever the case may be. So what I want to share with you today is a really, really effective time management hack that I learned about two years ago that's been a game changer for me on getting more work done day in and day out. And that's called a Pomodoro timer. Now, the Pomodoro technique came about back in the 80s and it's a time management tool. And if you want to learn all the backstory, check out the Pomodoro Wikipedia page. It's kind of fascinating, but I'm going to give you the TLDR today. Basically, when you set a Pomodoro timer, you turn off all your notifications for a fixed period of time. I typically use 30 or 50 minute timers and I'll tell you more on why that is in a minute. But during that 30 or 50 minute timer, I have all notifications turned off. My emails closed, Slack is closed, notifications are off, my phone's on do not disturb and I pick a task that I'm going to push really hard for during that timer. After that timer goes off, I have another timer that starts for either five or 10 minutes. And during that time, I screw around. Right? That's my time to use the restroom, to get more coffee, to check Instagram, Slack emails, check in on what the creepy guy across the streets are doing. Anyway, I've given myself permission and a time block to go off and just kind of be distracted. And then I come back, reset the timer and I start that two step process all over again. And I've found that to be really, really effective because of the fact that I've given myself permission in that time block to be distracted in just a short period of time. Now, I mentioned that I typically used 30 or 50 minute timers for. Here's the reason. I've learned that in the mornings, up until about 1 o', clock, I'm way more disciplined and I can have a longer stretch of time without succumbing to the need for more dopamine. And so I'll use a 50 minute Pomodoro timer in the morning until about 1 o'. Clock. And after 1 o', clock, when I'm a little more prone to distraction, I use a 30 minute timer. And I found that that works really, really well for me. And at the end of the day and at the end of the week, I found that I get a lot more done. Now a lot of people say like, taking a five minute break every 30 minutes isn't really the most efficient or effective use of my time. And I'm like, yeah, that's true. If you're the type of person that's able to go for multiple hours on end and just like really, really crank out work, that's not me. I'm too prone to distraction. Maybe one day I'll get to that point. That's not where I'm at today. So even though I'm taking those five minute breaks maybe every 30 minutes, I still get a lot more done in aggregate. There are a ton of Pomodoro timers out there in the various app stores. The one that I prefer is called Flow and you can get that on the Mac App Store or on the Apple App Store and it's absolutely free. The reason that I love the Flow timer is that it puts a countdown right up in the bar at the top of my screen so I can remind myself when I want to get distracted. Hey, I've only got 12 minutes left until my next break. You can stay focused for 12 more minutes, Mike. Get back at it. And again, it's not like perfect, but it's a whole lot better than me not having anything. So I just wanted to share that quick tip with you today. I would love to hear your time management tips if you would share those with me on Instagram at Connected Accountant or in the comments or description below. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing you next week right here on the Connected Accountant. See you then.