Nest: Day 11
April 11, 2011 
8 Comments
Day 11
Eleven, eleven, eight = seventh heaven.
Human clock, 11:11. Photo by Litandmore.
I started using timers as motivational aids thirty years ago. My sister and I used to call it “the religion of the timer” because of the faith we had in the method. We got more done by working against the clock.
If you’re new to motivational/productivity land, try this. Set a timer for 11 minutes and start a task you hate doing. Work on it as fast as you can. Stop when the timer buzzes. You’ll be surprised how much easier it is to face knowing you get to stop after 11 minutes…and how much you get done–check out my kitchen.
Through the decades I’ve played with many time intervals. I know 15 minutes is the most popular, but for poor-distracted-me, that is too long an interval. It’s also boring in the way it divides an hour in four. So I experimented until I came to love elevens. Magic elevens give you two timed working segments per half hour (just like 15s) PLUS a bonus 8 minute break. Try the 11/11/8/11/11/8 minute intervals in an hour.
It’s important to take breaks every half hour (there’s research to back this up), especially if you’re on a computer.
All three daily feeds today are about magic 11s. When I began writing these posts, I got sucked into a web wormhole on the number 11. Check out some fun facts and speculation in the Create and the SOS feeds.
Morning routine:
Obey your BOP.
Polish your place.
Take five (an 8 minute break every half hour).
Shovel your shitspot.
*Your personal additions here: ____.*
*Your personal additions here: ____.*
Evening routine:
Polish your place.
Decide on duds.
Nest Month 1
What to do so far:
If you missed a day…the reminders below are clickable.
Polish your place twice every day.
Do your do.
Be regular and orderly with your keys.
Take an eight minute break every half hour.
Shovel your shitspot every day.
Decide on duds the night before.
Put your Brain on Paper. BOP.
Obey your BOP.
Get your zen on.
Use your timer for 11 minute timed tasks.
Little link problem in this one – the link to Create goes to a 404 page. The link to SOS goes to the SOS 1-31 main page, which might be what you wanted, but wasn’t what I was expecting (I thought I’d go straight to the day 11 pages.)
I’m loving this so far. Things are improving very slowly, but more important, the improvements seem to be sticking. Hooray!
Oops. Thanks for letting me know! I’m on a Colorado road trip right now but will fix this at the hotel tonight. Glad you’re finding this useful. I should set the timer to try to get the car cleaned up a bit. Between my mess, my sister’s, and above all, my cockatoo’s, things are getting a bit out of control…which doesn’t detract from the fun one bit.