The Answer: Finido
We knew exactly what we wanted. To make a tool that would help people to focus on the present, without losing sight of the their future. The benefits of living in the present were apparent: less stress, being more healthy and ultimately, being happier (read the previous blog). So we read all the books and blogs we could find, in search of the best techniques to be more productive.
The right thing, right now.
After a few blogs we already came across a technique that we really loved: the Eisenhower matrix. Named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States of America from 1953 until 1961. Dwight had to continuously make tough decisions on which of the many tasks he should focus on each day. This finally lead to inventing the world-famous Eisenhower principle. The Eisenhower matrix is a 4-squeare grid. The top 2 boxes are respectively labeled Urgent and Not Urgent at the top. The top row is labeled Important to the left, and the bottom row is labeled not Important. The idea is that you list all the tasks you have in one or another of these boxes. The tasks that are in the box Important/Urgent should be done immediately, while the tasks in the Not important/Urgent box can be done when you have time left. The Imported/Not urgent tasks can be done whenever you want, and the Not important/Not urgent tasks should be delegated to somebody else or be thrown out. Are you still with me? Although this is a great system to prioritise your tasks, it does has some problems. For instance, who has time to manage all his tasks like this? Also, every day the importance and urgency of tasks changes. You would have to categorize your tasks every day! We think that you should only have to think about a task when you create it. The ideal solution would be if you could just enter a task and the tool would automatically prioritise the tasks for you and do this every day, without you worrying about it.
A step every day is a walk in a lifetime
But was the Eisenhower matrix enough to get the peace of mind we were looking for? We felt there still were some hurdles. If the Eisenhower Matrix tells you what to do, wouldn't you just overflow with work right before every deadline? To solve this we stumbled upon the work of William James, a pioneering psychologist and philosopher in his time. He wrote in 1887 about how behavioral patterns shape you and the beneficial effects of doing something daily. Rather than only working when there is much need, for instance when there is deadline in the near future, William James argues that by working every day a little, you develop a habit which takes the effort out of effortful control. It also helps you because you can finish tasks way before deadlines, so you don't have to stress when deadlines are near. That's why we decided Finido should be able to split tasks up and devide them over the hours you have.
Work hard. Break hard.
OK. So we have a tool that selects the right task for you and reminds you to work everyday. But then you have to start doing the real work. Could we also find a way to help you with working on these split-up, pre-selected tasks? Yes! After some weeks the answer was presented to us on a well-read productivity blog: the Pomodore technique. The official Pomodore technique is a time managment method developd by Francesco Crillo in the late 1980s. The Technique uses a timer to break down periods of work into 25-minute intervals called 'pomodori' (from the Italian word pomodoro for 'tomato'), seperated by short breaks. The method is based on the idea that frequent breaks can improve mental agility and helps you to be more productive over a period of time. The idea is that you decide on a task to work on a track your time for 25 minutes. After working 25 minutes you have to take a 3-5 minutes break and start working again. This combined is called a 'pomodoro'. After every four 'pomodori' you should take a longer break of 15-30 minutes.
Finido. Live the moment.
How to implement this? Although you can read a lot about techniques and practice them yourselves, we felt there should be an easier way for people to use this methods. That's why we choose to develop an application for mobile devices. The reason for this being that you always have it with you which is convenient if you want to add a task on-the-go or want to work anywhere you want. An application that would keep track of all deadlines, organize all tasks, help the user to be more productive and ultimately, give peace of mind. So you know, that when you finished the tasks of today, you are truly free to live the moment.