Can you focus for 25 minutes? 👀⚡️

👋 Hi! I’m Pedro Wunderlich, co founder and designer of Wakeout. Thanks for being a subscriber.

🙏 First, thank you to everyone that replied to our questionnaire. The number of responses were almost overwhelming, but the feedback very valuable. Thank you! (The offer for a free month of Wakeout still stands, btw. Last week to get it!)

⚡️ This week we talk about little victories. People tend to focus on giant, ambitious goals which usually leads them to inaction. The goal is simply too overwhelming. The famous alpinist Andrea Cardona, the only person in Latin America to have climbed the tallest mountain in every continent said, “don’t focus on the summit, that’ll intimidate you. Instead focus simply on the next step that you must take. Eventually, that’ll get you to the summit.”

We’re hard at work getting this huge update out for you guys (and into the hands of our beta testers), but enjoying every step of the way.

In case you didn’t read the preview issue, Active Day is our new activity program that makes it convenient and fun to reach the required activity daily goal—20 minutes per day. It spreads the requirement into four mini sessions that you can do anywhere.

For each mini session, we’ve designed these sweet illustrations so you know where you’re at. Once completed, you’re rewarded with a fun animation and a cute illustration of Wakefield happily tired and satisfied.

We believe a good experience is impactful in helping you stay motivated to be active. These little touches go a long way. 

Many have heard about the pomodoro technique, yet few practice it. It’s the underlying philosophy of our Active Day approach to being active, and for being productive, it’s powerful and effective. It divides your focus sprints into 25-minute intervals with 5-minute breaks in between. After four sprints, take a longer, 30-minute break. 

Who can’t focus for 25 minutes? It’s a simple idea developed in the 80s, and still applied today (even for coding and design sprints). Short, super focused blocks time are so productive because it fits well with how our minds work. They tire and get distracted easily. We can fight it, or work with it. And 25 minutes is a very enjoyable amount of time to do almost anything.

Want to give it a try? Here’s a simple online pomodoro timer.

Tempt yourself with convenient, simple tasks that’ll give you frequent gratification. 

Instead of writing down “Complete Quarterly Project” on your todo list, break it down into 10 or 20 steps that’ll inevitably lead you to it’s macro completion. With each check off the todo list, take a 5 minute break. Reward yourself with a healthy snack. Feel good about yourself. 

The idea is simple: you’re training yourself with frequent, little rewards. The obvious return is increased productivity, but the real reward is that you’ll enjoy your work much more, with constant mini victories through the week.

There’s nothing magical about making your bed every day. However, it’s been touted as a life changing habit by many people. The reason makes sense: you start your day overcoming a challenge. This sets the mood for the rest of the day. Now you’re in the task-completing mood, ready to take on the next challenge.

Great things have small beginnings. And starting your day by completing a small task is a powerful thing.

Just reply to this email with your thoughts. We’d love to know.