On the surface, there isn’t much to the popular plastic-tomato-kitchen-timer-based productivity system. Take a deeper look behind it’s simple facade, and you’ll find something quite profound. And perhaps most importantly, it’s something that is easy to miss when trying the system out for yourself. What is the pomodoro technique? The Pomodoro Technique uses a timer for tracking work sessions, and subsequent break sessions. Francesco Cirillo, the technique’s inventor, accomplished this by using his kitchen timer that looked like a tomato*, which led to the quirky name: tomato, or pomodoro in I ..read more

Wall Street Journal Best-selling Author, Joshua Becker, joins me to discuss the ideas behind his new book Things That Matter, and catch up after a two-year Break the Twitch podcast hiatus. Pre-order his new book, coming out April 19th anywhere books are sold. Or right here. Subscribe to the Break the Twitch Podcast: Apple // YouTube // Stitcher // Spotify // TuneIn Do you want to live a meaningful life—with very few regrets—and make a positive difference in the world? But is culture distracting you from doing so? Perhaps moments, days, and years go by w ..read more

Have you ever loved email? I have—but perhaps my experience is unique. Being born in the mid-eighties, I’m part of what is referred to as The Oregon Trail Generation. I was born into a relatively low-tech world and saw the iPhone arrive in my early 20s. It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with technology and the internet in the late 90s, but social media wasn’t a concern in my day-to-day life. I registered my first email account, and it was a beautiful thing. Every email I received was from a friend, family member, or somewhere fun. Dialing up the internet on my 14.4k modem was always s ..read more

If you’ve heard about minimalism, you probably know a big part of it is about living life with less stuff. Since embracing a more minimalist lifestyle starting in 2014, I’ve never looked back. Getting started with minimalism involves honestly assessing all the items in your life. What started as an intimidating process has now helped me become more confident, not just in a social context, but also in making decisions. Minimalism has helped me in more ways than one. The minimalist lifestyle has also opened me to new and diverse experiences. Besides, becoming a minimalist has made my life a who ..read more

It’s easy to think that “slow living” needs to look like this image, but let’s challenge that idea, Amy and I decided to make this month’s Attention Collective theme slow living and stillness, and that choice might seem a bit odd at first. “Anthony,” I hear you say. “Haven’t we just gone through the longest involuntary slow down in recent history?” You’d be making a valid point. The last year has been vastly different for everyone, but it undoubtedly has impacted us all. For many; it brought a lot of isolation and boredom. Parents with school-aged kids I’ve spoken with actually got busier too ..read more

The idea of self-compassion is a pretty tough sell for most people, including me. It took me about seven years of writing here (and about a year of therapy to dig even deeper) to begin understanding its role. Even now, understanding is one thing, but actively practicing it is something else all together. It’s a skill that requires building to be effective. Sign in to your Attention Collective account to view this page.  Collective page for more details. Cheers, Anthony The post Break the Twitch Building Blocks of Self-Compassion [Member Content] first appeared on Break the Twitch. Th ..read more

As you walk out the front door, you do a mental check to make sure you’re not forgetting anything. “Keys, wallet, phone. Check.” The classic three-tap check hasn’t failed you. The smell of fresh pinewood brushes your nose as you step down the stairs of your wooden porch. On the second step, it happens — again. Your foot breaks through the wooden stair, sending you tumbling. It’s not like you stomped on it with all your strength; you expected more from the high-quality lumber you installed recently. It was more like stepping through a soggy saltine cracker, the board crumbling to pieces. “What ..read more

We’ve all done it. We start off with the best of intentions to work out regularly or to write daily. The first couple of weeks go great. At some inevitable point, we have a busy day or something comes up—and we fall off. Keeping up a new habit can be hard, but we can significantly improve our chances when we set ourselves up the best we can with intentional readiness. With intentional readiness, we can reduce the friction and increase the ease in which we do the thing we’ve set out to do. That way, it’s easier to do the thing as planned—even when the unexpected happens or when we’re grumpy or ..read more

Writing things down on a to-do list is what many of us do, myself included. Not only do lists help me remember what tasks or projects I need to tackle, but they also keep me accountable. Having a way to keep track of things helps me to prioritize and stay organized and productive. But you know that one thing on your list that sits for days without getting done? It’s the one thing that moves from one day’s list to the next day’s and the next day… If you experience this too, you’re not alone. A couple of years back, Anthony came up with a procrastination hack called the Habit Rule of Half. This ..read more

As mentioned in the article on aspirational clutter, getting rid of the things you do want is a different game—one that may be more difficult than decluttering what you don’t want. While decluttering may seem challenging at first, after some practice, many of us get the hang of it. For those who could use a refresher or if you’re new to decluttering, give the Declutter audio series a listen. You may also find different decluttering methods helpful. At some point though, you’ll start getting into the aspirational clutter territory. And that’s where many people, myself included, have encountere ..read more