Pomodoro with meditation during the breaks
Meditate until you can clearly visualize every step of your next task.
Only visualize the steps that you can complete in 25 minutes.
Sit down at your desk and set a timer for 25 minutes.
Work until the timer goes off.
Stand up from your desk and sit down on the floor for meditation.
Meditate until you can clearly visualize every step of your next task.
Repeat.
If you’re not familiar with the Pomodoro Technique, here is the Wikipedia page.
The original technique suggests taking a short break (5-10 minutes), but it doesn’t specify what you should do during the break.
For me, meditating during the break is an opportunity to take my work off the computer screen and visualize it on the blank canvas behind my eyelids. Or I just clear my mind and observe the thoughts that pop up.
It’s similar to this quote from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two if you envision a group of producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes. They’re the producers, the problem solvers. They’re cutting through the undergrowth, clearing it out. The managers are behind them, sharpening their machetes, writing policy and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies and setting up working schedules and compensation programs for machete wielders. The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, “Wrong jungle!”
When you’re at your desk, you’re producing. Your skill is execution.
When you’re meditating, you’re leading. Your skill is seeing the bigger picture.
It’s hard to see the bigger picture when you’re staring at all the numbers and letters on your computer screen.
Once you take a step back, stretch, sit down, and close your eyes, you give your mind space to work with the information it already has.
It’s also a good habit to move your body so that you're not sitting in your office chair for hours at a time.