Four folks need to set up their blog and share their blog address with me.

I just got through running the Contact and Consent form (Week Three, exercise three).  We still have four folks who need to shared their blog address with me using the contact and consent form, but everyone else is set up.

If any of the outliers need help, please, please, please get in touch and let me help you set up your blog and/or get the address to me via the form.

Here is a direct link to the Contact and Consent form:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHhGaW9rMGRTOUQxXzFYd21IdWRPLVE6MA#gid=0

Steve

The Pomodoro Technique: Is It Right For You? (Drafting and Productivity)

This week, you'll be moving your first paper form notes, working thesis, and working draft to a first, rough draft. This draft is due Thursday, 3 February.

Pomodoro was developed as a technique for helping to overcome procrastination. It works. However, it's become a widespread productivity technique as well. This week, as you work on your drafts, read this article, and if the technique seems to fit, give the Pomodoro a try.

Steve

The Pomodoro Technique: Is It Right For You?: "

If you spend any time at all researching life hacks, you’ve probably heard of the famous Pomodoro Technique. Created in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, the Pomodoro Technique is one of the more popular time management life hacks used today. But this method isn’t for everyone, and for every person who is a passionate adherent of the system, there is another person who is critical of the results.

Is the Pomodoro Technique right for you? It’s a matter of personal preference. But if you are curious about the benefits of using the technique, this article will break down the basic information you will need to decide if this technique is worth trying out.

What is it?



The Pomodoro Technique is a time management philosophy that aims to provide the user with maximum focus and creative freshness, thereby allowing them to complete projects faster with less mental fatigue.

The process is simple. For every project throughout the day, you budget your time into short increments and take breaks periodically. You work for 25 minutes, then take break for five minutes.

Each 25-minute work period is called a “pomodoro”, named after the Italian word for tomato. Francesco Cirillo used a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato as his personal timer, and thus the method’s name.

After four “pomodoros” have passed, (100 minutes of work time with 15 minutes of break time) you then take a 15-20 minute break.

Every time you finish a pomodoro, you mark your progress with an “X”, and note the number of times you had the impulse to procrastinate or switch gears to work on another task for each 25-minute chunk of time.

How can it help you?



Frequent breaks keep your mind fresh and focused. According to the official Pomodoro website, the system is easy to use and you will see results very quickly: “You will probably begin to notice a difference in your work or study process within a day or two. True mastery of the technique takes from seven to twenty days of constant use.”

If you have a large and varied to-do list, using the Pomodoro Technique can help you crank through projects faster by forcing you to adhere to strict timing. Watching the timer wind down can spur you to wrap up your current task more quickly, and spreading a task over two or three pomodoros can keep you from getting frustrated. The constant timing of your activities makes you more accountable for your tasks, and minimizes the time you spend procrastinating. You’ll grow to “respect the tomato”, and that can help you to better handle your workload.

Who loves it?



Steven Sande of The Unofficial Apple Weblog is a fan of the system, and has compiled a great list of Apple-compatible Pomodoro tools. Before he started using the technique, he said, “Sometimes I couldn’t figure out how to organize a single day in my calendar, simply because I would jump around to all sorts of projects and never get even one of them accomplished.”

Another proponent of the Pomodoro Technique is Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal. Shellenbarger tried out this system, along with several other similar methods for time management, and said that “It eased my anxiety over the passing of time and also made me more efficient; refreshed by breaks, for example, I halved the total time required to fact-check a column.”

Criticism



Despite the number of Pomodoro-heads out there, the system isn’t without its critics. Colin T. Miller, a Yahoo! employee and blogger, tried using the Pomodoro Technique and had some issues.

“Pomodoros are an all or nothing affair,” he says. “Either you work for 25 minutes straight to mark your X or you don’t complete a pomodoro. Since marking that X is the measurable sign of progress, you start to shy away from engaging in an activity if it won’t result in an X. For instance…meetings get in the way of pomodoros. Say I have a meeting set for 4:30pm. It is currently 4:10pm, meaning I only have 20 minutes between now and the meeting…In these instances I tend to not start a pomodoro because I won’t have enough time to complete it anyway.”

Another critic is Mario Fusco, who argues that the Pomodoro Technique is…well…sort of ridiculous.

“Aren’t we really able to keep ourselves concentrated without a timer ticketing on our desk?…Have you ever seen a civil engineer using a timer to keep his concentration while working on his projects?…I think that, like any other serious professional, I can stay concentrated on what I am doing for hours…Bring back your timer to your kitchen and start working in a more professional and effective way.”

Conclusion

One of the best things about the Pomodoro Technique is that it’s free. Yeah, you can fork over some bills to get a tomato-shaped timer if you want…or you can use any timer program on your computer or phone. So even if you try it and hate it, you haven’t lost any cash.

The process isn’t ideal for every person, or in any line of work. But if you need a systematic way to tackle your daily to-do list, the Pomodoro Technique may fit your needs.

If you want to learn more, you can download a free PDF book about the technique here.

Do you have experience using the Pomodoro Technique? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

"

Why You Learn More Effectively by Writing Than Typing

A lifehacker article you might read, that is, those who hesitate to take note. Just taking notes in longhand helps you learn--even if you don't go back to study the notes later. Kinesthetic learning...listen up.

Why You Learn More Effectively by Writing Than Typing

Writing Good, Weekly Learning Reflections

 In your weekly learning reflections, make sure to try to use as much detail as seems reasonable and useful.  Use plenty of examples of what activities and readings helped you learn.  The idea is to help you build up useful material for the mid-term and final portfolio's reflective cover essays.  In these essays, you'll be analyzing your learning and class participation in terms of the learning outcomes for the course.  The more work you do each week, the easier and richer your portfolios will be.  Since the portfolio is 50% of your grade, this weekly work translates into a much higher grade and less time spent drafting the mid-term and final portfolios; so, the extra time spent on the learning reflections each week is worth the investment.


To save your weekly learning reflections, post them to your blog. 


Steve

Thanks to those who expressed concern about my mother.

Thanks for your concern about my Mother.  So far, things seem to be going well.  They had mother immobilized while they made the clam brace, so the fragments of her broken bone would not sever the nerves in her spinal column.  They got the brace made and fitted to her, and the scan showed that while she had it on the bone wasn't moving.  This is a great thing, as it allowed her to sit up for the first time since Saturday.  She briefly sat up in bed, and she lay back down.  

Today the doctors are going to see if it is safe to remove the neck brace they had in place; so, she may get more mobility.  Regardless, it looks as if she will be in recovery for at least several weeks, but this is so much better than being paralyzed or worse.  

She even sent my older bother, John, home.  He had been hanging out with her at the hospital, and he was exhausted.  This is my mother, the retired nurse, caring for and about others even when she should have others caring for her.

Again, thanks for your concern.

Steve

Holding virtual office hours Wednesday through noon, and in person office hours on Friday. --Steve

My mother, who is 90, fell and broke her L5 vertebra.  She's in Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem, NC, being fitted for a clam brace.  Since I don't have any meetings scheduled for today, I'm going to work from home today, so my family can get in touch if needed, and I can stay better caught up and up to date on what is happening.

I'll be available through email--sbrandon@reynolds.edu--and phone--804-262-8585--during my regular office hours for today, and I'll plan to hold extra, on-campus (231 Massey) office hours through 1:00 PM this Friday.  I have meetings 1:00-3:00 PM on Friday.

Steve

Class Webpage Updated with "Assignments S11" Tab

We've updated the Learning Community's webpage with a tab called "Assignments S11."  Each week, as we activate the assignment descriptions for the week, you'll see the links to assignment descriptions become active.  We'll announce this activation on the "Global Connections" announcement blog on under the "Announcements" tab.

We have also listed the due dates of all the major drafts, tests, group study guides, etc. for the semester.

Steve