How a 19th Century Productivity Hack Can Deliver Exponential Results in 2018
Hours and hours of practice are necessary for great performance, but not sufficient. How experts in any domain pay attention while practicing makes a crucial difference.
- Daniel Goleman
Focus, The Driver of Excellence
I. English Clockwork
For those of you who didn’t major in English literature, “Trollope” probably sounds like it might be a stop on the Piccadilly Line just before Southgate, or maybe he’s a character in A Midsummer’s Night Dream?
Actually, our Trollope is one Anthony Trollope, a prolific 19th century English novelist who wrote forty-seven novels, as well as dozens of short stories and a few books on travel. For many years, he also held down a job at the post office, requiring him to write as efficiently and quickly as possible before heading to work. His best known novels revolve around a fictional English county known as Barsetshire and have received generally positive reviews over the years, but overall no one can dispute the sheer volume of his creative genius.
In his autobiography, Trollope explained the secret of his constant and prodigious output. It turns out that he used a technique that would be familiar to any modern time management guru, allowing him to consistently knock out 250 words every 15 minutes, like clockwork.
“It had at this time become my custom to write with my watch before me, and to require of myself 250 words every quarter of an hour… This division of time allowed me to produce over ten pages of an ordinary novel volume a day, and if kept up through ten months, would have given as its results three novels of three volumes each in the year…” (1)
At first glance, Trollope’s approach may seem a bit mechanical, but in our digitally distracted age, it turns out that there is a tremendous power in carving out blocks of highly focused time for dedicated productivity.
II. Italian Tomatoes
One modern apologist for chunking out Trollopian blocks of time is an Italian writer and consultant named Francesco Cirillo. His approach to time management, conceived in the 1980s, is predicated on chunking your working day into tiny but intense bursts of high attention and productivity called the Pomodoro Technique.
The system takes its name from a tomato shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used to break work into intervals of about 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. (Wisely, he chose to go with the “Pomodoro Technique” branding which sounds much more compelling than the English translation — the “Tomato Method”).
According to Cirillo, “For many people, time is an enemy. We race against the clock to finish assignments and meet deadlines. The Pomodoro Technique teaches you to work with time, instead of struggling against it. A revolutionary time management system, it is at once deceptively simple to learn and life-changing to use.” (2)
The process Cirillo champions is deceptively simple, somewhat absurd, but just like Trollope and his watch — it is remarkably powerful.
1). Set your tomato timer to 25 minutes.
2). Turn off and tune out all outside distractions.
3). Work continuously until the timer rings.
4). Take a five-minute break. Stretch your legs, get some coffee, etc.
5). Set your timer for another 25 minutes.
6). Repeat 4X.
It turns out that four tiny tomatoes worth of intense work and concentration yields much greater results than our typical ping pong method of work in which we are constantly moving between emails, phone calls, documents, meetings etc. Not only does staying focused for short bursts help reduce “switching time” between tasks, but it also helps end procrastination because no matter how unpleasant or monotonous a task may seem, we know we can endure it for at least one or two tomatoes!
III. Wilsons on Repeat
While Trollope was partial to his pocket watch and Cirillo liked his tomato timer, I would like to introduce a third approach that is entirely browser-based and endlessly customizable. Based on a site called ListenOnRepeat, you can think of this as a musical tomato time management approach. Like other systems, the goal is to carve out blocks of highly focused time, but with this method it’s done by using YouTube music clips set on repeat.
The goal is to use these timed video clips to signal your wandering brain that an intense burst of concentration is at hand — no distractions — no holding back — no wiggling away. It should be noted that research has shown that certain music can significantly raise attention levels. In fact, psychologist Elizabeth Margulis wrote a book called On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind that explores how playing songs over and over can unlock new levels of attention and creativity.
Along those lines, if you’re really interested in performance improvement, then it’s worth considering the musical habits of someone who has won 23 gold medals over the span of 16 years. Besides looking totally chill, it turns out there’s a very practical reason that Michael Phelps had his headphones on before every gold medal race. According to Stefan Koelsch of Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in Leipzig, Germany, “music can have influences on the breathing rate (e.g. via emotional effects such an increased arousal) which will alter oxygen levels in the blood, or relaxing effects (so that fewer muscles consume oxygen, which also increases oxygen levels).” (3)
So, if you really need to get in the zone before an Olympic-sized event, you can listen to Michael Phelps’s RIO entire 2016 playlist on Spotify.
However, for those days when you’re not trying to win an Olympic gold medal you can simply use ListenOnRepeat to build your own musical tomatoes with songs that can range from focused and calming to crazy and energetic. As you’ll discover, different musical tomatoes work better for different tasks.
To help you get started, here are links to some of my favorite and most productive “musical tomatoes”, but ultimately the key is to experiment and find songs that work especially well for you.
“Wilsons”
This amazing clip of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys recording Good Vibrations is only four minutes in length, but you can play it on ListenOnRepeat for multiple plays. After just a few repeats, the incredible harmonies and creative energy from Good Vibrations will definitely start spilling over into everything you’re working on. I’ve found that just four or five repeats is good in terms of productivity, but if you need a deep creative jump start, try 10 or 15 repeats.
“Croatias”
The Croatian Baroque Ensemble has a number of videos on YouTube, but this 20-minute version of Bach’s Brandenburg №5 is one not to miss. If you are looking for a lively tomato for productivity and focus, be sure to give this one a try! After listening to two or three Croatias on Repeat you should definitely notice higher levels of creativity and calmness.
“Titans”
If you’ve seen the movie “Remember the Titans”, then you’ll really enjoy seeing some of the scenes and listening to this great 60s hit over and over again. Great if you need a burst of energy!
“Dog Days”
This is another short one, but if you need energy, six or seven Dog Days will leave you bouncing around more than a double-expresso.
“Goodbyes”
If you’re up early in the morning and don’t really feel like practicing whatever it is you need to practice, try watching five or ten repeats of this Under Armour commercial with Michael Phelps doing his Olympic training. The video imagery, combined with the song by The Kills, makes for a haunting combination.
“Hummingbirds”
If you enjoy George Winston, then you should definitely try putting some of his songs on repeat. I’ve found “Hummingbird on Repeat” to be particularly good for creating a state of relaxed flow at the start of the day.
“Emmanuels”
This is a very poignant rendition of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” with just a piano and a cello. There is a certain timeless quality to this one that helps to put things in perspective on even the most stressful of days.
“Springs”
New research reported in Inc. Magazine has found that The Four Seasons: Spring by Vivaldi to be especially helpful for enhancing creativity and problem solving. This version with Itzhak Perlman is a great version to listen on repeat!
“Powaqqatsis”
Last but not least! You may find this sound track by Phillip Glass too distracting, but at 1 hr. 39 minutes, this is not just one tomato, but an entire extra-large Sicilian pizza with everything on it. Yes, this goes against the principle of tiny 25 minute bursts — but if you really need to bring the heat for a massive amount of productivity, try cranking this one up for an extended work session.
These songs are just some of the musical tomatoes that I’ve found helpful for staying extra productive. For example, this post took approximately 4 Croatias, 15 Dog Days, 20 Hummingbirds, 10 Wilsons and 1 Powaqqatsi to write.
Regardless of which music you choose, the key is to focus at an all-out sprint for the tiny duration, followed by a tiny break, and then circle back for another round of listening, and so on throughout the day.
Obviously you will want to use songs that work for you, and then apply them as needed. The goal is to find a handful of songs that jolt you into the Tiny Instant Genius Zone and that you love listening to over and over again. Just remember, when the music starts all the distractions must stop so the exponential productivity can begin to flow!
IV. Tiny Take-aways
1). Because time is malleable, deliberately carving out short bursts of productive time like Trollope can dramatically bend time in your favor, creating Tiny Attention Zones of super high focus and productivity.
2). The Pomodoro technique is a proven Trollopian method for carving out useful blocks of time. There is even a dedicated website that describes this approach in more detail, so if you really want to dive further into Pomodoro land, Start Here .
3). Yes, there’s an app for that! The Be Focused app is helpful for carving time into short bursts.
4). As we’ve seen, music is another powerful way to carve out specific blocks of time. In fact, research has shown that listening repeatedly to certain songs can create powerful highly creative Tiny Attention Zones. Use sites like ListenOnRepeat.com to play your own favorite songs over and over.
5). By activating Tiny Attention Zones — other digital distractions are put on hold, effectively allowing you to control the digital onslaught, rather than drowning in non-essential trivia each day.
Jim Walker is a writer, speaker and marketing expert from Philadelphia. His latest book, The Magic of Thinking Tiny, is available on Amazon.
NOTES
(1) “Anthony Trollope: Autobiography of Anthony Trollope.” Autobiography of Anthony Trollope by Anthony Trollope: Chapter 15 (Continued) — The Literature Page, www.literaturepage.com/read/trollope-autobiography-178.html.
(2) “The Pomodoro Technique® — Proudly Developed by Francesco Cirillo | Cirillo Company.” The Pomodoro Technique® — Proudly Developed by Francesco Cirillo | Cirillo Company. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016. https://cirillocompany.de/pages/pomodoro-technique
(3) Maese, Rick. “Does music give Phelps an unfair advantage?” Baltimoresun.com, 19 May 2016, www.baltimoresun.com/bs-mtblog-2008-08-does_music_give_phelps_an_unfa-story.html.
