After creating a list of activities and prioritising them you should allocate time for breaks in between activities.
There are a couple of techniques that can help you to divide time into periods of activities and breaks:
Pomodoro technique
The activities will be executed in 25 minutes, alternating with breaks of 5 minutes. After four pairs of activity-break or at the end of one activity that takes longer, the break will be about 15-30 minutes. You can use a timer or a smartphone application (iPhone or Android) to measure time.
| Activity 25 min | Break 5 min | Activity 25 min | Break 5 min | Activity 25 min | Break 5 min | Activity 25 min | Break 15-30 min |
| 30 min | 30 min | 30 min | 30 min |
Periods of 90 -20 minutes
Alternating periods of 90 minutes for an activity with 20 minutes for relaxation.
| Activity 90 min | Break 20 min | Activity 90 min | Break 20 min | Activity 90 min | Break 20 min |
Periods of 45 -15 minutes
Alternate intense activity for 45 minutes with a break for 10 minutes. This method is used to allocate time for classes and breaks in institutionalised educational programs in several countries, for example, Finland and France. After 5-6 pairs of activity-break, it is necessary to take a longer break of around 30 minutes. In other environments, periods of 50-10 minutes are used (educational system in Romania).
| Activity 45 min | Break 15 min | Activity 45 min | Break 15 min | Activity 90 min | Break 20 min | ||
| 60 minutes | 60 minutes | ... | 60 minutes |
Each person may choose a certain duration for an activity, depending on his age. A younger person can focus for a shorter period of time or depending on type of activity i.e. learning requires more time and concentration than information searching, or writing a project requires a shorter time than synthesising a text.
