The hard truth is that time waits for no one. And if you want to accomplish more, you should learn to keep up with the time. No amount of time management books and training sessions can make you perform better unless you set your mind to it. It's not enough to collect the best time management practices and approaches until you recognize your flaws. Today I am going to discuss a very special technique of time management that aims to provide a person with maximum focus and creative freshness, thereby allowing them to complete projects faster and with less mental fatigue. And I believe this will help you a great deal in your life. So please bring in your pen and paper and note down all the steps. Until then, I shall wait for you. I am on a mission to coach and mentor 100,000 high school students and help them realize their dream of studying in the best universities of the world and build happy careers for themselves. And today I'm going to introduce you to a very powerful time management technique, the Pomodoro technique. And that will help you manage your time efficiently. And I believe all of you are ready to note down the steps. So let's get started. I believe everyone wishes to solve this problem of time management, but aren't able to do it. And some of the common mistakes they do are like they try to be a perfectionist. Now there's nothing wrong in being a perfectionist, but in order to produce high-quality work, they sometimes, in fact, I should say most of the times, lose track of time. And this often causes stress, burnout, anxiety, and that impair their performance. And many times it might not be wrong to be comfortable with imperfection too. And secondly, not able to concentrate and remain focused. Now most of us at least once experienced this state when you read a paragraph of text over and over and can't get a grip of what it says. Now it's because our mind is wandering and we are unable to concentrate. Then we are not able to schedule tasks effectively. Now, this is a very important thing. Now you cannot manage your time and focus if you prioritize the wrong things and invest time in the wrong goals, then not able to track time. Time management isn't possible without learning to track time. It might sound difficult, but once you implement it into your routine, it'll reveal unexpected trends and insights. Then not able to cope with stress. Now, stress management and time management, they actually, you know, go hand in hand. And if you wait until the last minute to complete your task and then fail to plan ahead and prioritize, then you are definitely more likely to feel stressed. Then being bad at estimating time. And most of us tend to underestimate how long projects and tasks will take us to finish. Now, this phenomenon is actually called planning fallacy. And then lastly, not managing our distractions. And by distractions, nowadays I can say our emails, notifications, social media, paper clutter, and then there are thousands of articles on the internet on how to manage this. But in reality, on top of this, we are distracted from important work by other lower priority work. And it happens to all of us. And these above points were actually difficult to manage even for me. And I am the sort of person who would sit for hours in front of the computer, and I used to measure my productivity by the number of hours spent on my laptop instead of the tasks completed. Now I believe many of you also do that. Talking about students, they would often say to their parents, they've already studied for like 10 hours in a day, and including the school time, tuition time, and I can't do more. But the truth is, results aren't there to show even for them. But you know, after all this, I was actually, you know, thinking about what kind of time management technique uh should be good for me. And then after hearing so much about the Pomodoro technique from friends, and then there's a friend of mine, Vinicia Credo, and she is a great career consultant. She also informed me about it. So I decided to give it a try. Now let me share that process with you, and that process is actually very simple. In step one, we just have to choose a single task we'll focus on and let's write it down. Then step two, set the timer to 25 minutes, and each 25 minute work period is actually called a Pomodoro. And if you're wondering what this means, it's actually an Italian word used for tomato. And Francesco Cereglio named this method Pomodoro because he used a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato as his personal Pomodoro timer. Then coming to step three, work on the task until the timer rings and put a check mark on your paper. Then step four, take a short five minutes break and then coming to step five, work for another 25 minutes on a different task. And then after 3-4 work periods of 25 minutes, take a longer 20 to 30 minutes break. And see, this is the whole process, and I believe you have noted it down. It's very, very simple, and there are many benefits of this method that it actually sets the time for our distractions and it limits open-ended work, then it actually turns this, you know, all this work into a game. Thanks for the timer, and then it actually helps you move away from procrastination. Now, let me give you some quick tips for using this Pomodoro technique in a very effective way. See the first thing you just have to invest in a timer, nothing more is required, and any app or even the your phone timer will be a great tool. Then you just need to, you know, choose your tasks for the day. Like select a task that needs to be completed in a day or a project on which you need to progress and work till the timer alerts you. If you're not used to this method, you'll have a strong urge to check your phone, chat with a friend, or reply to emails before the timer alerts you. So do not fall into this trap and keep working until you get alerted. Then enjoy your break. Even if you have gotten into a state of flow, it's time to get up and enjoy your break. And that will help you reduce stress and make you feel fresh. And then have a clear plan. Because before you start working, you must take at least 15 minutes to plan your session or Pomodoros. Now prepare a tutor list and record the number of Pomodoros that even every task will take. So if you work 8 hours or more every day, you should ensure that you don't exceed 16 Pomodoros a day. And in case this happens, consider postponing the less important tasks. And then lastly, extend or reduce the length of your Pomodoros depending on your tasks. Like some times of work will require you to work for extended periods to get things done. So, like writing, coding, or composing something that will require to be in a state of flow to get good results. So, in the state of flow, 25 minutes can be too short. So, therefore, extending your sessions would be a better idea. If you're feeling tired or experiencing mental resistance, you should consider reducing your sessions to 15 or even 10 minutes, and you should adjust the intervals based on your energy level, the number of tasks that need to get done, and the type of work. Like we say, there cannot be one solution to all problems. So it's not necessary that this technique can also solve everyone's problems, but I'm sure it's worth giving a try. So I hope you find this podcast useful. If yes, please subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Google Podcasts to get notified. All my podcasts are around 10 to 15 minutes, so they are short and crisp. Please share a 5 star review. And if you're part of my community, please share your learnings below. If you wish to reach out to me, I'm Kapil Gupta, your study abroad expert, and join my career advisor hub on Facebook and Instagram channel BrainX EduTech and get lots more in useful information. So until the next episode, cheers, God bless, keep inspiring, bye.