While tapping alone, I used to procrastinate a lot. I already knew one way of dealing with this: tapping on procrastination. (It’s always about avoiding something, where the driving force is usually fear.) One day, I came across another solution through a question on Reddit about a piece of software helping with procrastination. Someone suggested a timer for the Pomodoro Technique, so I started experimenting with it. Half a year later, I still use this technique on an everyday basis; not only for tapping, but also other mental activities such as reading, studying, translation, and writing. It indeed helps me overcome procrastination, and it’s a great way to train my brain to focus (and perform) better and be more persistent.

A Game of Tomatoes

The Pomodoro Technique is a simple but powerful time management method that can help you increase your productivity. A basic version of the technique involves getting a timer (it could be a mechanical one or a timer app on your phone or computer) and dividing your task into smaller segments (also called pomodoros, which means “tomatoes” in Italian). These segments are 25 minutes long and there are 5-minute-long breaks between each of them and a longer break after the 4th pomodoro. For example, if you want to read a book, you would set the timer for 25 minutes, read until the timer goes off, and do something unrelated for 5 minutes: you may want to get up and move around a bit, drink some water etc.. You repeat the same steps 3 more times, but this time (after you’ve been reading for 4×25 minutes) you take a longer break (I tend to make it 15 minutes long if I do the same activity for that long). The Wikipedia article on this technique as well as the website pomodorotechnique.com also suggest putting a tick on a piece of paper with a pencil after each finished pomodoro to measure how much work you’ve done and motivate you to complete what you started.

I talked about the benefits of this technique in my last Toastmasters speech, one of them being a way of training your brain to focus on only one thing at a time. In a world of smart phones and social media, a lot of people are conditioned to be interrupted at random times, so they focus their attention on one thing, and after a few minutes (or even seconds!) they focus on something else. As claimed by Cal Newport in his TEDx talk video, this constant shift in context can greatly reduce your ability to concentrate and produce valuable work. However, if you practise paying attention to a single task over a longer period of time, that’s what becomes natural for your brain and you can get more work done under the same amount of time.

The Pomodoro Technique and tapping: the perfect match?

Just like reading, studying, translation or writing, tapping also requires your full attention in order for it to be the most effective. In FasterEFT, the reason tapping and many other techniques work is that you aim at your problem—step into it, feel it, see it, hear it—and break the hypnotic state of trance associated with it. After you’ve aimed properly, you may break your trance with, for example, taking a look at funny images or videos on the Internet. However, from my experience, those images or videos may captivate my interest so much that even if I intend to stay there for only a few seconds, I often end up browsing the web for over 5-10-20 minutes. After that, no wonder I don’t feel like tapping anymore.

To prevent this from happening, I have my list of problems to solve (my Peace List) in front of me and I tell myself to focus on aiming and defractionation during each pomodoro, and avoid thinking about my problems during the breaks. Should a tempting thought of, for instance, going online come up, I tell myself, “I only need 25 minutes. Then, you can do whatever you want.” This allows me not only to aim better but to become less burned-out. I normally didn’t use to be able to tap for more than ca. 50 minutes a day—and it felt like a chore, making me want to avoid working on myself for days. Now, I can easily tap for over 90-120 minutes almost every day. After such a “session” with myself, it truly feels like I’ve done so much more work than tapping without the help of the Pomodoro Technique.

Once I told somebody about the combination of these two techniques, he said that he doesn’t like to “force” tapping on himself; he just does it when the need comes up naturally. I personally wouldn’t call it “forcing”, but rather “a little self-descipline”. Most issues have a huge resistance to them, so much that some people would rather die than having to face those. Now, would you keep them tucked away in a closet so that they can continue affecting you unconsciously or would you do something about them? I’ve made a decision to do whatever it takes to get rid of what’s been holding me back, even if it involves trying something new—a stricter control in this case.

If you want to gain the most benefit from applying the Pomodoro Technique, I also recommend taking a look at your daily routine. I’ve heard some people say that they don’t have enough time to tap. On the other hand, I noticed that although the Pomodoro Technique can help me with focussing better, this effect is reduced if I do counterproductive activities. I found a possible solution to both of these issues while reading a blog post by John and Koichi on the website Tofugu.com; and the key word is prioritise. You may want to take a look at what kinds of things you do throughout your day—from the moment you wake up in the morning until you go to sleep at night—and identify how much time your activities cost and how much value they have to you. (If it helps, write a table where you schedule your whole day.) If you find that something is a time sink and yet brings little value into your life, replace it with something more valuable or find a way to minimise the time it takes. I’ve realised that spending hours on social media and various entertainment sites aimlessly to eliminate boredom not only excel at disrupting my attention, but they rarely prove to be valuable. So, I commit myself to what feels fulfilling instead—learning, evolving, and making connections in the real life.

Conclusion

While doing FasterEFT sessions with someone else is recommended, working alone is also a must for the best results. As I’ve discussed, I had a few challenges with tapping alone, namely being able to focus and aim well and being burned-out quite soon, leading to procrastination. The Pomodoro Technique has helped me greatly with all these, and combined with tapping my way, it feels like the ultimate self-help solution for me right now.