The Work Cycle Explained

The original concept has been around awhile, but the basic idea is very simple:
• You work for 30 minutes, focused only on a single task. WITH NO DISTRACTIONS!
• When the time is up, you give your mind a break and do something completely unrelated, also for 30 minutes.

And then you repeat the cycle: work/break, work/break – 30/30, 30/30.

The tasks you do are completely up to you. The activities you do during breaks are also completely up to you.

That’s it! Extremely simple. Extremely effective!

Have you ever spent a lot of time and effort trying to solve a problem and end up not solving it…but when you sleep or take a shower or whatever, you think of the solution? This new way to work has you doing that a lot more often.

Here’s why it works so well:

The time constraint forces you to focus. You know you don’t have much time, so you don’t waste it doing something else.

You take breaks more often. These breaks act like a reward; you start to look forward to them.

Doing something else helps you solve problems. Have you ever spent a lot of time and effort trying to solve a problem and end up not solving it…but when you sleep or take a shower or whatever, you think of the solution? This new way to work has you doing that a lot more often.

You enjoy yourself while you work! Eventually, it doesn’t feel like work at all! Instead, it feels like a game where you anticipate the rewards you give yourself for doing good work.

The 30/30 Idea – Enhanced!

So now you know why the app is called 30/30. However, while 30 minutes for work and 30 minutes for a break is balanced, it’s not very realistic.

What the app does is expand on the original idea to make it even better:
• You can give each task its own time – from 1 minute to 1 hour.
• You can create as many tasks as you like. Enough for OVER 10 DAYS of tasks without repeating!
• You don’t have to create a strict work/break pair of tasks if you don’t want to.

A Simple, Effective, Interface.

The idea for how you work is simple, but the app is even simpler!

The main screen is completely free of buttons. Instead, you use gestures to manipulate the tasks and navigate through the app.

The display is simple but attractive, and yet it still shows you everything you need to know:
• What am I supposed to be doing right now?
• How much time do I have left to do it?

You type yourself a short label for what you should be doing, “Answer emails” for example. You specify how long you want to do that, and you can select an icon to act as an instant reminder for that task, an envelope perhaps.

The interface gives you subtle reminders to help you: each task is assigned a color. When it’s time for that task to start, the screen changes to that color.

Traditional options and settings are available to you but they are out of the way. You can get access to them whenever you wish.