Moving On and Pomodoro

MOVING ON

Long time no post. Things have been busy here in the cluttered land of Christine. Long story short- I'm moving.

Max likes moving because it means he can play in the attic and lay on that nasty ass carpet.

A couple months ago I got word from my landlord that she would like to move back into her own apartment for a variety of reasons. After some negotiations on the timing- I will be relocated to a new place as of the end of August.

I am a little sad as I did put a lot of work into the place, with shelving, painting, etc over the past two years. However, it does bring with it new opportunities for better places (perhaps one with off street parking and a dish washer? Maybe? Pretty please?!)

I am moving in with my boyfriend of a year (will be a year and two months at the time of the move.) Which is also exciting in a variety of ways. I haven't lived with even a roommate besides my cats in over five years. I can be a little territorial when it comes to space, which is a bit worrisome, but I know if there is anyone I can cohabitate with, its him. This means that after the move there should be lots to talk about with setting up the new place, and organizing as we merge our two households. (Luckily he doesn't own nearly as much as I do haha!)

This also means that this decluttering project has a deadline... a deadline that, while I haven't entirely been doing nothing with, I certainly have been fairly lazy about. Its hard when the sun is shining, there pretty landscapes to draw and mountains to play on. But the deadline is coming up, and its coming up fast so I need to start buckling down and getting this shit done. So I plan to go back to weekly posts on my progress.

POMODORO

As focusing on this daunting task has been difficult, I have started looking to productivity tricks and tips.  There is one that I have used before that I keep coming back to and seems to work the best for me.
Its called the Pomodoro Technique created by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980's. Its so utterly simple its stupid.

All you need for it is a timer (the original was a mechanical, tomato-shaped, kitchen timer; hence the name pomodoro)  and you set it to twenty to twenty-five minute increments that you work in. Each of these work periods are followed by a five minute break. After three to four turns of the pomodoro you take a longer fifteen minute break.

Sounds almost too simple I know.  I am not entirely sure how to explain why it works, but I think it has to do with knowing you are only working on the project for a finite time, rather than becoming overwhelmed by the mass of whatever project you are under taking. Half the time I am surprised to find out how long I have been really working when using it.

There are a variety of apps you can buy that have the settings already built in if you so desire to get fancy with it. When working on my computer I tend to use Tomighty, which lives on a corner of your desktop while you work.

Well I am off to get back to work on this attic I have been avoiding. Til next week clutter folk!