Use a timer when you work

[miiila]

🕔 Time, we all could need more of it to get yet another job done, couldn't we ... or maybe we should spend it on something else ...?

 

Your health is an integral part not just in your life in general, but also in your ability to work, at all, and well, right now, and over time.

I'd like to suggest to anyone who hasn't a similar routine yet to try it out, use either the timer on your phone, that's what I do, I like simplicity, or maybe look into apps, Pomodoro timers, gamify your life apps, whatever your jam.

Choose a timeframe you want to focus on your work, and a break. 

An example:

You set your timer to 50 minutes. In those 50 minutes, you focus on the job at hand.
Then your timer reminds you to take a break.
You set the timer to 10 minutes.

You get up, stretch, walk around a bit, drink some water, and - important! - let your eyes focus on some things in different distances, not just in the room, look out of a window.

Your timer reminds you to focus again.

Repeat until you're done with your day's, or night's 😉 work.

Adapt according to your attention span, need for breaks, schedule, ...

 

Don't forget to sleep according to your needs, too. Sleep is so important for your wellbeing, physical and mental, as well as for your ability to work. Find out with how many hours of sleep you're at your best, and do what you can to get them on a regular basis.
Even if you're an age where an occasional all-nighter for the sake of an order might be fine, don't over-exploit your body routinely. Don't burn the candle on both sides.
If you find yourself "having to" do that, maybe you have, at least for a while, I won't pretend to know everything, including your life, but even then, it might be worth looking into if there are ways you can work smarter, not harder.

 

Stay healthy, keep your best eyesight as long as possible, and at times you feel exhausted or on edge, remind yourself of what you love about the job you're doing! 

[miiila]

I'm getting enough sleep, also have time for my health and hobbies, and still have the time, and sometimes am in the mood to read and write here too. Increasingly less, though. Thanks for worrying about my need for sleep, in any case. I hope that did help you understand. 

[goffer6575]

nice information thanks

[genuineguidance]

On 6/30/2021 at 3:26 AM, miiila said:

You set your timer to 50 minutes. In those 50 minutes, you focus on the job at hand.
Then your timer reminds you to take a break.
You set the timer to 10 minutes.

You know what is really weird!!??

I am probably going to buy a Samsung Galaxy Fit watch 2 that actually either has a setting or automatically will remind you to get up and stretch! I am the type that once I get into something, it is hard for me to break away - because, for me, when I get up to go meander, I tend to keep meandering. 😆

GG

[uchihashahin01]

THanks for sharing your experience...But as I dont have anything beside my laptop..It would appreciated if anyone can tell me if there is any application like that I can use on my laptop??

[melanielm]

This is great advice. I have timers and schedules set up on my phone. Not only do I allot specific amounts of time to different work-related tasks -- carefully calculated to keep my hourly wage where I want it -- but I do have 'get up and move around' factored into my day too. Extremely important for us with sedentary jobs.

[developer_remo]

great info

 

[katakatica]

I use the pomodoro technique (well, when I remember to do so), which helps me focus when I really need to. Time management has always been an issue for me (I'm either all in or just floating in space staring ahead...) so something like that does seem to help. Since I struggle to sleep (even though I love sleeping, it's weird I know), I really hate seeing people be all 'well, you can just sleep 3-4 hours at a time and be fine. 

NO. people take medications to get rid of these habits - why are 'we' (well, Fiverr 'gurus') making people think it's a good way to live. (sorry, I ended up ranting here!) I totally agree with you, we really ought to listen to our bodies more (take those breaks, drink all the water... and not be fixated on a screen 24/7.)

[miiila]

2 hours ago, uchihashahin01 said:

if there is any application like that I can use on my laptop??

Maybe check if you can find one for your preferred browser. I used a Chrome extension for a while to keep track of how long I was working on certain projects, so I guess there might be something like that available too, under "productivity" or so.

[developernasim]

Thanks for your great information

[miiila]

2 hours ago, genuineguidance said:

when I get up to go meander, I tend to keep meandering. 😆

That's how my plants manage to survive probably. And why I need my phone timer to tell me to get back to "real work". 

 

10 minutes ago, katakatica said:

and not be fixated on a screen 24/7.)

Yes, really, it's hard, since screens now provide so much of work, communication, entertainment of all kinds. Very convenient, and you don't need to own and keep so many physical items around, but it has its downsides. 

[shafiqul77]

2 hours ago, genuineguidance said:

You know what is really weird!!??

I am probably going to buy a Samsung Galaxy Fit watch 2 that actually either has a setting or automatically will remind you to get up and stretch! I am the type that once I get into something, it is hard for me to break away - because, for me, when I get up to go meander, I tend to keep meandering. 😆

GG

I understand your information will helps every freelancer.

[uchihashahin01]

Thanks I got the right extension I wanted

 

 

[azadfardin01]

4 hours ago, katakatica said:

I really hate seeing people be all 'well, you can just sleep 3-4 hours at a time and be fine.

I did this a lot when studying for upcoming tests (especially for my finals), and for a lot of people it only works if after a few days of sleeping like this, you take a whole vacation day just for sleeping and resetting your biological clock.

[wp_kid]

I use rescuetime to track my "Productivity". I tried to use timer, but not much luck. rescuetime was better for me !

A screenshot from a random day from last week's activity 😄 

[embfatema]

Very Good information Thanks 

[miiila]

47 minutes ago, azadfardin01 said:

did this a lot when studying for upcoming tests (especially for my finals), and for a lot of people it only works if after a few days of sleeping like this, you take a whole vacation day just for sleeping and resetting your biological clock.

Young parents tend to do this a lot too, without the sleeping whole days and resetting option, and the result often reminds of the walking dead 😉 (hm, no zombie emoji ...?).

Seriously, though, sure, it's fine for sprints, and sometimes, you have no choice too, but it's not good in the long run, and I think there's research that says it's not possible to completely "catch up" on sleep loss by "oversleeping" later.

It also depends on the individual, of course, someone who generally needs less sleep can probably get away with even less sleep easier than someone who generally needs more sleep, and it also gets more difficult to get over nights with little or no sleep as you age, at least that's been my experience, and I haven't met anyone yet who claimed it's different for them, while it seems that elderly people often need less sleep. And some, more. 😄

How much sleep one needs might also partly depend on the quality of sleep, like if it's quiet, or you live on a noisy street, whether the room is too warm, ... you might not really wake up and lose sleep that could be counted in minutes or hours, but with ideal circumstances, maybe one person will be just as rested with 6 hours of sleep as another under less ideal circumstances with 8.

Sleep is a really interesting topic. There are also people who have the theory that, for example, 4x2 hours a day are just as good as 1x8 hours. That's something that freelancers are in a better position to try out or implement if wanted for sure. 

I don't always go to bed at the same time, so I set my alarm for the next day variably, and most of the time, I wake up without needing the alarm, which might be a good test to see if one gets enough sleep. If you wake up without needing your alarm, you probably got enough sleep. If I sleep until the alarm goes off and I'm still tired, it can be a sign that I'm sick, or currently need more sleep for some other reason, and depending on my schedule, I can see if another hour helps, or take a nap later.
I like naps, but they are tricky, there are many theories about the ideal nap time, like that a nap may only take about 15 minutes, or you'll wake up more tired than you were before. There are YouTube videos for naps of different duration, pretty much anything up to the "Nasa power nap" of 90 minutes, or more, with music to help with falling asleep and sleep phases, and a "ding" or actual alarm at the end. 

What's everyone's experience with naps? Yay, or nay, did you work out your ideal duration, or have a no-go duration?  (I don't see an option to build a poll on this forum, that's a pity.)

 

[monirthuin]

I take rest every hour  doing jobs. 

[shahareja_dev]

Great news 🙂.

[sajalmolla]

very important information for time mangment.

[saifuls_design]

It`s  a great tips.