---
title: "More Timer Power"
id: "4647"
type: "post"
slug: "timer-power"
published_at: "2015-02-11T04:11:37+00:00"
modified_at: "2015-03-09T03:17:07+00:00"
url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/timer-power/"
markdown_url: "https://johnpoelstra.com/timer-power.md"
excerpt: "I heard a great interview with Jim Woods over on the Rap With Nic podcast several weeks ago. In addition to some great productivity ideas I was reminded of the power of the timer. I use them from time to,......"
taxonomy_category:
  - "Productivity"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "timer"
---

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# [More Timer Power](https://johnpoelstra.com/timer-power/)

I heard a great [interview with Jim Woods](http://www.rapwithnic.com/jim-woods/)
 over on the [Rap With Nic podcast](http://www.rapwithnic.com/)
 several weeks ago. In addition to some great productivity ideas I was reminded of the power of the timer. I use them from time to, but not as much as would benefit me. I tried out his suggestion and it saved me a bunch of wasted time.

Jim described how he sets a timer when he goes onto social media. The other day I was trying to be more disciplined with my time and so when I opened my personal email to take a break I hit start on the timer that was set for 5 minutes. Before long I was lost in a worm hole of links and queries and then suddenly the timer rang. Without them who knows how long I would have gone.

I picked up these timers at the Dollar store. Sometimes I use them for the Pomodoro technique, but more often than not I work in random blocks of time and use them to force me to focus. They are always sitting right in front of me.

#### John Poelstra

John Poelstra coaches directors in finance and software. Trained through the Co-Active Training Institute, he has coached for more than 10 years, with over 520 clients and 3,150 sessions, including people at well-known Fortune 100 companies. In over 30 years of professional experience, he spent 25 in technology and finance: software testing, project management and team leadership at Red Hat and Dell/EMC, and finance as a bank auditor at Wells Fargo and a CPA at Grant Thornton. He hosts The John Poelstra Show podcast and is based in Portland, Oregon.

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February 10, 2015

[Productivity](https://johnpoelstra.com/category/productivity/)

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