It's Time To Step Back On Wealthy Affiliate
I think we all know how quickly time goes, especially when we are working online; computer time seems to go even faster than normal time! As you know, I’m very grateful for the Wealthy Affiliate platform, it’s a great place to learn and a great place to communicate with like-minded people.
I normally start my day by having a really quick look at the news and weather and then commenting on a few Wealthy Affiliate blogs. Commenting and reading blog posts is a great way for me to wake up, it also helps to warm me up for blog writing.
Over the past six months or so, I have been using the Pomodoro technique, it’s something that really seems to work for me. The Pomodoro technique works on the basis of being focused for 25 minutes and then taking a short 5 minute break. I must admit I generally work through the break and work for another 25 minutes. The time can be adjusted from 10 minutes and up to 4 hours. For me, it’s a great way to stay focused and gives me great accountability. I almost use this technique for everything I do online.
You can see my previous blog post below.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/roybretton/blog
One of the many good things about the Pomodoro technique is that it makes you realise how much time you are spending on various tasks. It’s very easy for me to spend a good hour on Wealthy Affiliate without hardly realising it.
The fact is that this time could be spent writing a blog post for my website or creating a YouTube video. As the spring season moves closer, my off-line business starts to get busier, so time becomes even more scarce. So I’m going to take a step back for a few months and see how everything goes.
I’m very thankful for the Wealthy Affiliate platform and the fact that we have training that we can access at any time, which is fantastic. I also really enjoy communicating with the Wealthy Affiliate community, as there are some fantastic members on the platform. We can also learn a lot from communicating with other members on the platform.
I always think it’s a very fine line to get the balance right in life! I will obviously still be on the platform, but I am just not participating quite so much. I’m really grateful for all the wonderful members that I have met on the platform and will continue to do so, some are very long term members and some are new! I always think that everyone has something to bring to the table, whether they are a beginner or an experienced Internet marketer.
Thank you for reading.
Roy
Recent Comments
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Roy, Pomodoro is great. Our brain can only focus at a high intensity for 20 mins. That is why Ted Talk limits their talk to 20 mins. Promodoro is 25 and that gives you the 5 mins to warm up and cool down wash session. The breaks are important, don’t miss it. Good to know what is important and work on those.
Thank you for commenting, Stan, I do appreciate it.
That's interesting, Stan, that TED talks are just 20 minutes. I think the best thing for me about the Pomodoro technique is the fact that it's accountability and knowing the clock has gone around. I can look back and see how much I have achieved in a given time.
I will often set the timer for longer than 25 minutes. For example, if I'm writing a blog post, I don't really want to stop, I want to finish before I take a break. Rightly or wrongly.
Have a great week.
Roy
The first thing I want to say is , you will be missed, or at least your sage wisdom will be. Secondly, I think that you came here primarily to make money and you should put your business interests first. I look forward to your return and you becoming an ambassador again
Thank you for your kind words, Catherine, it's appreciated.
I agree, it should be business first and social second, Catherine. Having said that, replying to a few comments and blog posts first thing in the morning helps to wake me up, mixed in with coffee!
Partha gave a classic Partha answer, which was good.
Have a fantastic day on your travels, Catherine.
Roy
The Pomodoro technique sounds like a winner! One thing I like about it: It's very good for your body to get up from a sitting position and move about regularly. If you sit and workfor 25 minutes and then get up and move around for 5, you are doing your body a favor.
Thank you for your reply, Fran, it's appreciated. I hope you are keeping well and that business is good.
That's very true; it's good to get up and move around. However, I must admit that I will often do three 25-minute sessions before I take a break. I think probably the biggest thing for me is the fact that its accountability and it tells me that another 25 minutes has gone by, what have I achieved!
Have a great day.
Roy
It's all about balance Roy, you have to do what makes the most sense to you and your work flow. Even if you are not interacting here as much as you normally would, I would rather see you build out your business and be successful there, than to over-invest your time and energy into the communication side of things.
We appreciate you and your a big part of the community and family here, and thanks for sharing your strategy that is helping you with productivity as well! See you around!
Thank you, Kyle; your comment makes a lot of sense and is appreciated!
I really do thoroughly enjoy being here, Kyle, it's a great platform. If you have time, you can see my answer to Partha, who made some great points.
Have a fantastic weekend.
Roy
Thanks a million for keeping us plenty busy, with such engaging, and much stimulating content that just keeps on giving exponentially, and does not believe in letting up, any time soon, and falling short of any unexpected tail spin, not on any of our lives. That is pleasant, yet, unusually, rare. Rare is good for the soul, because it always keep it up, alert, raring to go, and always on the lookout for some of the best trending, mixes there is, and more where that came from.
Stepping into the unknown actuaries of assorted variations, always creating multiple chapters of special times that was, that can be re-invented, upgraded, and all that is happening now, and is expanded upon, awarding a much more happier medium, more than ever before.
There are more home runs hit out of this particular park than fouls are hit out.
A nicely blended mix, of a combination, order, makes for a great recipe(s) any and every time.
It is ingeniously, infectious, and contagious.
T
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Hey Roy,
Yup, wise choice.
I do agree with everything you've said, but in truth, many of us use WA as a social outlet, myself included.
Now, something to consider about the Pomodora technique, which no-one really tells you, but something I've worked out for myself.
During your 5-minute breaks DO NOT do anything that will DISTRACT YOUR MIND.
There is research into this, and off the top of my head, when distracted (or bombarded by information, as is the case in the 2000s) it takes something like 23 minutes for the mind to get back into "work mode".
Basically, we can't stop thinking about what we've just read or seen for around 23 minutes into our next task.
One of the main things that folks do in the modern day and age when "taking breaks" is to take a scroll on social media.
However, our subconscious mind is "chatting away", making judgements, thinking about things, and overthinking things.
The EXACT SAME can be said for "taking little work breaks" and scrolling through Wealthy Affiliate.
And these exact same SUBCONSCIOUS MIND "tricks" occur.
"Oh look, Vitaliy's got a great class on WordPress, I'll watch that later today"
"Why is this newbie askng this question again, they were answered last week by 7 people, and again this week by another two people, what are they not getting?"
"Oh I see someone commenting on the fact that Jaaxy QSR isn't loading properly, oh man I wanted to do some keyword research, I'll have to wait until later."
"What is Diane going on about now, how annoying is that Old Fluff? "(LOL)
That's your 5-minute break over, you then start your next 25-minute work session, BUT for 23 minutes of that 25 minutes you are OVERTHINKING SUBCONSCIOUSLY all the things you've just seen and read".
Not very conducive to working hard.
This is why there is so much talk in Productivity about "Being Busy" and "Actually Working".
This is also why we often feel absolutely shattered on a day when we didn't do much physically, and didn't really get much work done.
The brain may only be about 2% of total body weight, but it uses approximately 20% of ALL our energy (our brains are the biggest energy-sucking part of the human body).
For me, on a "proper working day", my phone is in airplane mode from the second I wake up (I put it in airplane mode before I go to bed, yes, I know, not much help in an emergency, LOL).
I do not log into email, social media or WA, until I've done around 5-6 work short sessions, usually about 2.5-3 hours.
During my breaks I will do nothing more than make a cup of coffee, sit in the garden and take in some fresh air, or do about 5 minutes of squats and press ups!
I will typically get more work done, early in the morning during that 3ish hours, than I usually would in TWO WHOLE DAYS if I started those days by "socialising".
Finally, yup, I take "Wealthy Affiliate Breaks" very often, usually 4-6 weeks (and I usually come back to 1000 PMs from people who are worried I've died or something, LOL, bless them, how sweet!)
As much as I enjoy the place, and really like a huge number of people, for me, it is purely a social distraction.
Work first, socialise later.
I respect your decision and completely understand it.
Here endeth the lesson!!! Hahahahahaha!!
Partha
See attached. I knew it was going to be good 😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
There's ALWAYS a
BUT
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Lmao 😂
Surely nothing better than spending 23 minutes thinking about ME?
There's absolutely no way I can respond to that without getting into deep sh*t or coming across as a kiss-ar*e!!!
Therefore...
NO COMMENT
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hello Partha,
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my blog post, I do appreciate it. I also appreciate your great style of humour and your knowledge!
First of all, I agree that it's great fun reading and replying to various blog posts, but it can be time-consuming. There are also some great members on the platform, where we can learn from each other. But it is very much a social outlet, as you mentioned, but at the same time is good to meet with like-minded people.
Before I say any more, Wealthy Affiliate is a great platform. I'm disappointed that I didn't find the platform when I first started out online. The reason I have put this sentence in is that I don't want people to feel any negativity towards the platform.
I hear you regarding the Pomodoro technique, Partha, to be fair I actually rarely stop for 5 minutes, it's more of an accountability machine that tells me another 25 minutes has gone or whatever I set the timer for!
Great minds think alike, Partha, this is exactly what I have heard from the boffins, that it takes around 22 minutes to get back to normal, if you are interrupted. My wife can't understand why I get annoyed when I'm trying to do something and she disturbs me 5 million times in one hour!! If I get disturbed too many times, I just lose my drive to work efficiently and end up having a very frustrating and annoying day! I need to learn to rise above that, in all fairness.
I hear you 100% about having a break on social media or anything similar, it takes our mind of what we should be focusing on. And then it goes in the opposite direction! I actually think most people would be better off without any social media whatsoever, that includes Internet marketers.
That's so true; so many questions have been answered time after time. Especially the one who signs up for Wealthy Affiliate and then asks what do I do now, despite it being written in front of them!!
That is so true about your subconscious mind going to other places after scrolling social media or other platforms. The perfect way to lose that perfect workflow!
It's interesting about the brain performance, Partha, I must admit I hadn't heard that! But it does make sense.
Putting your phone in aeroplane mode is a great idea. However, I can't really do that as I need the phone for my offline business, and if people do not get a reply, they will go to the next person!
Email can be a massive distraction if we are not careful, probably for most of us, we only need to check our email once a day, unless we are waiting for something in particular.
It's interesting how you take your breaks, Partha, I heard from a very knowledgeable Wealthy Affiliate member who is sometimes referred to as "King Partha" I believe. I have started doing a few exercises in my breaks, which you actually suggested!👍👍 I have also listened to a few things that Phil has to say on exercise! My work used to keep me fairly fit, but it's not quite as physical as it used to be, so I want to try and keep my fitness.
One of the reasons why I like to get up at 5 AM is due to the fact that there are no disturbances, the wife is asleep, the phone doesn't ring and I'm far more focused first thing in the morning than at night!
I noticed that after Christmas, you went missing for quite a long period, Partha! But I know you are a busy man and it sounds like you have an excellent work ethic. I admire all the knowledge that you have acquired over the years about Internet marketing, etc.
Work first, socialise later; that's a great motto and worth remembering!
Well, the lesson may have ended, but I really enjoyed it; thank you so much.
Roy
😂🤣
Good reply.
Bux
Thank you, Bux!
Have a great week.
Roy