Items13The creator’s order
  1. 1Pomodoro TechniquePomodoro TechniqueThe default for good reason: work for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, repeat. Francesco Cirillo built it as a college student around a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato, which is where the name comes from. It suits tired evenings because 25 minutes is short enough to agree to even when you…0
  2. 2Flowtime TechniqueFlowtime TechniqueCreated by Zoë Read-Bivens as an answer to the Pomodoro's fixed timer, Flowtime lets you work until your attention genuinely fades, then rest in proportion to how long you lasted. Note your start and stop times on paper or in a spreadsheet; the suggested breaks run from 5 minutes after a stint…0
  3. 3The 52/17 RuleThe 52/17 RuleThis one came from a company's own data rather than research. In 2014 the time-tracking company DeskTime looked at the top 10% of its most productive users and found a common pattern of about 52 minutes of work followed by a 17-minute break. It is not a peer-reviewed or controlled study, and when…0
  4. 4TimeboxingTimeboxingTimeboxing means moving your to-do list into your calendar: "Chapter 4 reading, 7:00 to 7:50" instead of "read chapter 4" floating on a list with no time attached. For evening study the gain is that the decision about what to do is made in advance, before you are tired, and a fixed end time stops…0
  5. 5The Five-Minute RuleThe Five-Minute RuleWhen the hardest part of the evening is opening the laptop at all, promise yourself just five minutes on the task, set a timer and begin. If you still want to stop when it rings, you can. That permission to quit is the whole trick, because it turns starting into a small decision rather than a…0
  6. 6Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time (2001)Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time (2001) 7.9/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2001Eat the Frog, the technique from Brian Tracy's book Start with the biggest, hardest and most important task, before anything easier has a chance to fill the time. Tracy's "frog" is that task, and the method is simply refusing to warm up with email, tidying notes or reformatting flashcards. It is…0
  7. 7Implementation intentionImplementation intentionAn if-then plan decides in advance when and where you will start: "If it is 7:30 and dinner is cleared, then I open the course reader at the kitchen table." A review of 94 tests of this approach found a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals. It costs one sentence, written once, which makes it…0
  8. 8Cal NewportCal NewportBorn Jun 23, 1982Cal Newport's shutdown ritual Newport ends each workday by bringing his task lists up to date and then saying a fixed phrase, "schedule shutdown, complete," so he can switch off fully afterward. For anyone studying after a day job, this is the hinge of the evening. Five minutes to note tomorrow's…0
  9. 9Phone in Another RoomPhone in Another RoomThe simplest change to your surroundings, and one with real evidence behind it. In a 2017 University of Texas at Austin experiment with nearly 800 smartphone users, people whose phones were in another room significantly outperformed those whose phones sat face down on the desk, and it made no…0
  10. 10Website and App BlockersWebsite and App BlockersWhen willpower is the scarce resource at the end of the day, hand the job to software. Freedom blocks the sites and apps you choose across your phone, tablet and computer at once, can run on a recurring schedule so your study block starts itself, and has a Locked mode that stops you quitting a…0