“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I now understand the meaning of this old proverb.
With good intentions, I sat down to write this very post, but only managed to have a staring contest with a blank screen. It ended in a tie, since neither of us blinked for a long time. Eventually, I gave up, ambled around, and retrieved a book—The Dyer’s Hand, a collection of essays by poet W.H. Auden. I hoped reading would spark inspiration and get my own creative juices flowing. This book, by the way, had been sitting unread on my nightstand for way too long, probably setting records in my local library system for the number of times I’ve renewed it.
The very first quote in the book hooked me in:
A book is a mirror: if an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out. C.G. Lichtenberg
Forty minutes later, I still didn’t have any creative breakthroughs, but I knew I wanted my own copy of Auden’s book, and that’s how, your honor, I ended up on Amazon’s website. As luck would have it, they were running a "3 books for the price of 2" promotion, so I spent the next hour and a half looking for two more books to add to my cart. You’re right to wonder why it took me that long to find two books in the largest bookstore on the internet. I have the same question myself. Maybe this is what they call a rabbit hole?
Soon, chores and life called out to me, and not only did I abandon my book search quest, but also any hope of getting the post written that day.
The only time I have an abundance of motivation is when I need to do something completely unrelated to what I should actually be doing.
I eventually got around to writing this post, thanks to one productivity technique that saves the day for me. Every. Single. Time—the power of mini sprints! It is the only valid and workable solution I’ve found when faced with something overwhelming.
I set a timer, stop multitasking, and focus on the elephant in the room until the timer goes off. Then I stop, guilt-free.
If it weren’t for such focused, short bursts of effort, I’d forever be languishing in the nether world between good intentions and countless distractions—like scrolling Pinterest, rearranging socks, or watching travel videos for places I’d never visit.
Why mini-sprints work
Our brains can only focus on a task briefly before getting tired, bored, or distracted. Sprints allow us to stay well within the horizon of effective focus.
Charles Darwin worked in two or three intense 90-minute bursts each day, spending the rest of his time walking, napping, or relaxing. This approach helped him process ideas and stay fresh.
Maya Angelou wrote in focused, short bursts (about 4-5 hours a day), believing that too much time spent writing in one stretch led to diminishing returns. She once said:
I work in bursts. I leave something unfinished and let my subconscious do the rest.
Thomas Edison believed in working in short, intense bursts, with breaks in between to keep ideas fresh.
Tools like the Pomodoro technique help us focus intensely on one activity for a short duration.
With this technique, you commit a finite amount of time to a task and call it done when the time's up, regardless of whether the task is actually finished or not. Such timeboxing makes even herculean tasks look less daunting and, as a result, more doable.
I find this an excellent tool for two types of activities:
a) Those you really don't want to but should do. Anything creatively challenging that gets you out of your comfort zone or mundane stuff like paying bills, filing paperwork, decluttering, or even exercising.
b) Social media indulgences or binge-watching streaming services are great candidates for timeboxing. Yes, you can live a little. Give yourself a finite amount of time to TikTok, doomscroll, or get into pointless arguments online. But when the timer goes off, stop, even if it means losing that futile online debate.
As I mentioned earlier, Mini-sprints are the only reason I accomplish anything challenging.
Go on, try it, if you haven’t. It is a game-changer.
I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done. Steven Wright.