Ed Dale, Coming Home and the Pomodoro technique

OK, I was lying the other day – Ed Dale did NOT eat my hamster. And he isn’t evil – at least as far as I know. Dan Raine on the other hand… * Anyway, put on your anti-NLP shades** and certainly don’t buy anything from this blog.

Getting things done – the problem with working at home

If you work at home like I do then you’ll know that how hard it can be sometimes geting anything done and that is compounded by the distractions available in this online world. Your good intentions can be completely sabotaged by taking a “quick” look at this website, clicking through to that website and by the time you know it it’s nearly lunchtime and so not worth starting anything just yet anyway.

This has been a MASSIVE problem for me in the past, but thanks to the easy availability of outsourcing anything I know isn’t going to get done I pay for; however, there are always things I need to do.

So how do we get the things we know we need to do done and avoid the distractions? Turn off Twitter; close down your email client; stop chatting of Skype.

That gets you so far, it’s true. But what about those tasks you are resistant to? The ones you don’t want to start, but experience tells you once started you will be able to get done? The ones you’ve tried to start but just sit staring at your monitor, knowing that there are plenty of hours in the day and it’ll get done later. Or tomorrow. Or whenever.

Let me tell you a little story

We spend every August on the coast with limited internet access (although that has got much better thanks to Vodafone). In fact I spend 5 or 6 weeks away from home during this period; which coincides with one of my really busy periods.

Luckily there isn’t too much to do in terms of customer service – last summer I took to answering my few customer service emails on the beach – but I do need to keep an eye open. Also, last summer I made the mistake of doing some SEO work for a client over this period. While the strategy was already in place and most of the work was outsourced, I did have to do a few things.

So, once every few days I would have a concentrated session on a laptop. And I was surprised to find out how much I could do in an hour as long as I was 100% focused.

I realised it was because of the time pressure – I wanted to do holiday stuff, not work, so I did it as fast as possible.

When I got back to Barcelona I started to plan my day to create artificial time pressure:

• Immediately start work for 2 hours on a long term client job and one of my long term projects.
• Once that was over do email.
• Go to the gym or swim for 2 hours.
• Work on a project for 90 minutes before lunch (15 mins)
• Unstructured time to catch up on internet marketing, secondary projects, play time, and experiment.

That means that before lunch I’d done 3 1/2 hours of solid work. It may not seem like much, but it was a huge leap in productivity.

And so I was interested to hear Ed Dale talk about the pomodoro technique to aid productivity and get things done.

The first time I tried it was Saturday night in Manchester. Back at my hotel I had a couple of hours to relax, get changed and have dinner, before meeting up for drinks with Dan Raine and the gang; and there was something I needed to get done that weekend if possible.

The task was quite simple; I’d written some stuff a few years ago for another (non IM) website. The website owners now publish a magazine and wanted to rework some of that content and so pulled out relevant bits from 3 or 4 articles I’d written for them; all I had to do was make sure the content worked in its new context and write some filler and bridging content.

I’d looked at doing up while on the train from London to Manchester – I just couldn’t face it. It’s not a big job, but the kind of job I like to put off.

Anyway, I was at my hotel and decided I’d never get it done in the time available. And then I remembered the pomodoro technique that Ed had mentioned (“Pomodoro” is Italian for tomato – Google it if you want to know why).

It’s pretty simple; set a timer for 25 minutes and work without distraction until the timer goes. When it does, stop what you’re doing, take a 5 minute break, then re-set the timer and work again.

The secret sauce

In almost exactly 25 minutes I had the job done and emailed – by creating time pressure I was able to get the job done. So simple. The secret sauce to productivity is… tomato sauce (BOOM BOOM)!

And now I’m back in Barcelona I work in chunks of 25 minutes – this blog post is now four minutes into its second 25 minute pomodoro session. It seems simple, but it is highly effective, so I’m definitely going to use it to boost productivity and move my game up to the next level.

Which is just as well because I’ve got so many ideas from the Coming Home seminar – and some great contacts – that I really need to be able to get more done.

And what about the Coming Home seminar?

OK, so in how many ways was the conference worth €500?

• Learning about the pomodoro technique was worth €500 alone!
• I got drunk with Dan Raine. Seriously, how cool is that? And I’ve got the photos, so I’m expecting lifetime free membership of Immediate Edge ***
• Like Lisa Hartwell I hadn’t realised how tough it can be working online, and got a €500 boost. Sometimes you just carry on doing what you’re doing with nobody around who really knows what you do (my other half does, pretty much, although she’s never actually done it and I’ve seen her out-talk an SEOer at SEO!!! – but talking it isn’t the same as doing it).
• The quality of the people I met was unbelievable. I’m not too much into networking events because  I get a stack of cards that I never bother following up with, but I’ve got some great contacts with people who seem to be just as keyed up about getting stuff done AND I think I can work with AND have complimentary skills to my own – now that sounds like a team!
• Direct access to Ed Dale, Dan Raine et al – how much value do you think there is in spending time with them and really grilling them with questions? The kind of questions you would never see in an IM forum, let alone get a sensible answer…
• And I almost forgot – the seminar content was great. I even learned a load about Market Samurai, which I thought I knew inside out (and it was great talking to Eugene Ware on Saturday night). And if you attended the conference and weren’t already using it Eugene said in his first presentation that you just needed to go and talk to him and he’d set up a a free licence for you. What a pitch that was ****

Now, I know I am pretty much an Ed Dale and Immediate Edge evangelist. I know that what I say is biassed. I freely admit to being an Immediate Edge affiliate. And you can bash me for that if you like.

But, am I doing anything unethical or illegal?

NO

Am I ashamed of doing what I do?

NO – I’ve done nothing to be ashamed of.

Am I a scammer?

NOPE – I deliver what I say I will and I have thousands of happy customers.

Is Immediate Edge suitable for IM beginners

ABSOLUTELY NOT. And while we’re at it steer away from 30 Day Challenge Plus unless you’ve gone through the entire FREE course first.

If I write an ebook about my cat do you think I’ll be able to make a fortune and kiss my job goodbye?

Actually, I don’t know for sure, but I doubt it. Find something people actually DO want to buy – that’s the key to success.

Can Ed Dale and/or Dan Raine – or any member of their team – walk on water?

You know – that’s a good question. I never thought to ask/force them at gunpoint to try it even though we were in a bar right next to the canal. HOW DUMB AM I? *****

Disclaimer – lame joke alert!

Sometime people don’t get my humour, which has had massive (but unintended) consequences for at least one big internet marketing launch, so I’d better spell it out despite the fact there is no launch that I know of. Well, maybe Xmas – now who thought that one up??? – and I’m pretty sure I can’t derail that 🙂

* Not as far as I know. But he might be.

** I know next to nothing about NLP. So there.

*** Joke about the free membership – he did get seriously drunk though.

**** A FREE pitch. Wow that’s what I can tough marketing.

***** You knew I was kidding. Right?

Categorised in: immediate edge, internet marketing

This post was written by David