FlowTime
How to Practice the Flowtime Technique – A Step-by-Step Guide to Maximize Your Concentration
The Flowtime Technique, unlike the Pomodoro Technique, is a flexible time management method where you alternate between work and rest according to your own waves of concentration, without being tied to a fixed time. For those who want to know "how to practice it," this article provides a detailed explanation of the steps and tips for effectively implementing the Flowtime Technique.
The 5 Steps to Practice the Flowtime Technique
In the Flowtime Technique, you start working without a timer and take a break when your concentration wanes. Let's look at the steps from preparation to review, based on this fundamental cycle.
Step 1: Select and Prioritize Your Tasks
First, list the tasks you need to tackle for the day and prepare to start with the highest priority ones. Like the Pomodoro Technique, focus on one task per session. For prioritizing tasks, using the Eisenhower "Time Management Matrix" is recommended. This method classifies tasks into the following four quadrants. [https://eisenhower-matrix.yattask.app/](We have released it as a sister app, so please give it a try)
- Urgent and Important: Top priority, start immediately.
- Not Urgent but Important: Worth doing, so plan and tackle it.
- Urgent but Not Important: Delegate to others if possible or allocate time later.
- Neither Urgent nor Important: Decide to drop it (it's okay not to do it).
By selecting tasks based on these criteria, you can narrow your focus to the truly important tasks. It's also a good idea to choose work that requires a large block of time, such as large creative projects.
Step 2: Prepare Your Work Environment (Eliminate Distractions)
Next, create an environment conducive to concentration. Proactively remove elements that could interfere with your work. For example:
- Tell family or colleagues, "Please don't talk to me until X o'clock," or close your room door to block entry.
- Put your smartphone on silent or airplane mode and turn off PC notifications.
- Use noise-canceling headphones as needed to block out ambient noise.
By reducing external and internal distractions in this way, you create a state where you can fully immerse yourself in the task at hand. Also, tidy your desk and prepare necessary materials so you can start working immediately.
Step 3: Start Working Without Watching the Timer and Record Your Time
Once you're ready, open FlowTime, start the timer, and begin your highest priority task. Make a note of your start time (or turn on the recording of a time-tracking tool). From then on, as long as your concentration lasts, immerse yourself in the task without looking at the clock. The key is to "not stop until your concentration breaks." There's no need to interrupt your work at mechanical intervals like 25 minutes. Conversely, when your concentration reaches its limit, it's a signal to stop working.
While working, avoid being distracted by your phone or other tasks, and give your full attention to the single task in front of you. If other tasks or ideas pop into your head, jot them down in a memo and set them aside until your current task is finished.
When you stop because your concentration has waned, record the end time. This start and end time data will be useful for analyzing your work duration later.
Step 4: Take a Break When Your Concentration Wanes
When you feel your concentration declining, take a break immediately. This break is a crucial reset time to re-enter a state of flow in the next session. During the break, even if it's just for a few minutes, completely step away from work and relax your mind and body. Avoid mindlessly scrolling through social media on your phone. Instead, it's recommended to do things that refresh your mind, like light stretching, meditation, or going for a walk. Even just taking a deep breath and closing your eyes can be effective for brain fatigue recovery.
There are no set rules for break times. It's okay to rest for as long as you feel is necessary. However, as a general guideline, the technique's creator, Zoë Read-Bivens, suggests the following, which is roughly 20% of your work time:
- For work sessions under 25 minutes → about a 5-minute break
- For work sessions of 25-50 minutes → about an 8-minute break
- For work sessions of 50-90 minutes → about a 10-minute break
- For work sessions over 90 minutes → about a 15-minute break
Of course, this varies from person to person, so you can take longer breaks if you need to. The key is to feel that you are sufficiently rested and can concentrate again. As the saying goes, "You can achieve far greater results by tackling tasks refreshed after a break than by dragging on with fatigue," so aim for high-quality breaks.
Step 5: Review and Adjust Your Cycle
After completing one cycle of a Flowtime work session and break, briefly review the results. Check the time spent on the task and the timing and number of breaks you took. By repeating this review over several days to a few weeks, you'll begin to see your concentration span and the number of sessions you can handle in a day. For example, data such as "I was able to concentrate for 45 minutes in the first session today" or "I needed a break after 30 minutes in the afternoon" will accumulate, revealing the trend of your own concentration patterns.
When you start the timer with FlowTime, you can use the automatic statistics dashboard feature, which saves you the trouble of recording.
Use the data you've gathered for future planning. This allows for schedule optimization, such as scheduling important tasks during your peak concentration times and handling smaller tasks during periods of lower concentration. For example, if you find that "I'm most focused from 9 AM to 12 PM," you can schedule creative deep work during that time, and handle lighter chores or use the Pomodoro Technique for short tasks during the sleepy post-lunch period.
By reviewing logs over multiple days, you can also feel the degree of productivity improvement from the Flowtime Technique. If you feel that "I can concentrate longer than before" or "I've found a certain rhythm," continue the cycle while making small improvements. Conversely, if you don't feel it's effective, try reviewing how you take breaks or select tasks, or flexibly experiment by incorporating parts of the Pomodoro method.
How to Understand Your Own Concentration Patterns
By making the Flowtime Technique a habit, the waves of your concentration will be accumulated as data. By analyzing this information, you can grasp your personal concentration patterns, such as "how long can I stay focused?" and "at what time of day is my performance highest?", which can then be used for future work planning.
First, continue to record the start and end times and duration of each session, as well as the length of your breaks. You can record this in a handwritten memo or a spreadsheet, but it's automatically recorded when you start the timer with FlowTime. The important thing is to be aware of "how long it took for my concentration to break" and "what triggered the interruption."
For example, writing down the reason for the interruption in a journal or memo, such as "11:30 concentration broke. Took a break due to drowsiness," will help you identify your weaknesses (e.g., getting sleepy after lunch). While your concentration duration may vary from session to session at first, as you accumulate data, you will understand your own standard, such as "it's better to take a break after about X minutes on average."
Furthermore, by analyzing your records with a time management tool, you can also grasp uneven productivity throughout the day. As shown in the figure above, a statistics screen of a certain tool can show you at a glance the times of day when work is progressing well and when it is not. Generally, human concentration has a circadian rhythm (chronotype), and there are individual differences, such as being a "morning person" who is sharp in the morning or a "night owl" who gets going in the evening. If you can identify your most focused time by looking at your logs, you can dramatically increase productivity by allocating your most important tasks to that time. Conversely, design a work style that follows your rhythm, such as deciding to take breaks or do miscellaneous tasks during low-energy periods.
Tips for Flowtime Beginners
The Flowtime Technique's high degree of freedom can be confusing at first. Below is a summary of tips and advice for beginners.
- Start with short sessions – Don't try to concentrate for a long time right away; start with about 15-30 minutes. As you get used to it, gradually extend your work time. Think of it as gradually pushing your limits.
- Relax completely during breaks – When you decide to rest, even for a short time, completely step away from your work. Your brain won't rest if you start checking work emails or social media on your phone. Instead, dedicate your break to resting your brain by moving your body or closing your eyes and meditating.
- Make your environment and routines your allies – If it takes a long time to get focused each time, it can be effective to share with your family that "from X to Y o'clock is deep focus time" or to establish a ritual for entering a state of concentration, such as light stretching or making coffee before you start. Devise ways to smoothly enter a flow state with a set procedure.
- Get support from peers or tools – If you find it difficult to manage on your own, making a promise with colleagues or friends to "report our Flowtime progress to each other" can make it easier to continue. It's also effective for beginners to borrow a moderate amount of "enforcement" by using dedicated apps or timer functions mentioned in the next chapter.
Don't be discouraged if you can't concentrate well at first. The Flowtime Technique is a process of finding what works for you through trial and error. Try to continue with a sense of enjoyment while accumulating small successes.
Utilizing Flowtime Management Apps
The Flowtime Technique has its challenges due to its flexibility. A disadvantage is that it requires strong self-management skills because there is no fixed timetable. Since you can work indefinitely as long as your concentration lasts, there's a risk of working overtime without taking breaks, or conversely, taking excessively long breaks. To avoid these pitfalls and continue with the Flowtime Technique, it is essential to devise ways to objectively view your own state.
A powerful ally in this regard is tools and apps for time management and tracking. For example, an automatic time-tracking app can record your start and end times in the background without you having to jot them down each time. Since the cumulative time for each task and the number of interruptions are also datafied, you can accurately grasp "what I actually spent my time on and for how long." While analyzing time manually can be a hassle, with a tool, it's easy to get visualized reports with graphs and timelines later.
Some apps can automatically detect idle time and record it as a "break," or allow you to manually enter task names and reasons for interruption to correct the log. By utilizing these functions, you can analyze "when interruptions are most likely to occur" and "what are the main sources of distraction." In fact, the creator of Flowtime, Read-Bivens, also recommends identifying and eliminating the biggest time thieves by recording the events that caused interruptions. It is also possible to customize notifications, set reminders to ask yourself "Am I concentrating now?" at regular intervals, or, conversely, completely block notifications from social media and email during work. By leveraging the power of technology in this way, you can lower the hurdle of self-management for the Flowtime Technique.
Furthermore, the accumulated data will reveal your most productive times of the day and the average time required per task. This will also be useful for future schedule creation and improving estimation accuracy. If you can grasp trends like "the XX task usually takes about X hours," you can allocate the appropriate amount of time when incorporating the same task into your plans. By optimizing your work style based on data in this way, you should be able to fully enjoy the benefits of the Flowtime Technique.
The Flowtime Technique is a method that allows you to work flexibly according to your concentration, but it also requires autonomy and ingenuity.
However, by practicing it with the right steps, deepening your self-understanding by analyzing your records, and using tools as needed, you will be amazed at how much your productivity and job satisfaction improve.
Please use this guide as a reference and try incorporating the Flowtime Technique starting tomorrow. You will surely grasp the feeling of "riding the wave of your own concentration." Immerse yourself in your work, and when you rest, rest well. With this well-balanced work style, may you lead a more fulfilling life every day.