About a year an a half ago, I started down a six month path that would dramatically change my life. I began dedicating myself to learning about investing, self-development, and eventually software development (surprisingly, all three topics are much more closely related than you might think).
I was lucky enough to have a job where I could listen to audio books while I worked most of the time, so I got to the point where I was passively listening to audio books around eight to ten hours a day. Eventually I got to a point in my learning where I realized that I needed to take action in spite of my fears and rationalizations as to why things were good enough already. I had a great, stable job that I liked and made good money from. But during this period of learning/ growth, my mindset had shifted from seeing a world of scarcity (where I needed to fight to hold on to the “security” that I had) to seeing a world of abundance, and there was no going back.
Taking action to pursue a path that I was truly passionate about became inevitable.
But for me to get to the point where I could act in spite of my fear, I had to undergo a transformation that came from rapid learning. And the technique that I give a large portion of the credit for enabling this transformation, is the technique described below.
This is one of the most effective methods I have found for grasping difficult material, or accomplishing tasks that I have been struggling with. But this technique could be used for anything you want to do that requires a lot of mental strain and focus.
The Pomodoro — Focused/Diffuse — Rotation Technique
Phase One
Set a timer for your desired productivity period. This should be around 20–45 minutes (most people recommend 25 minutes for a normal Pomodoro Period).
For the first phase, the same rules apply as during a normal Pomodoro period.
