Do It For 15 Minutes--or 90?

I am a big fan of Flylady, a cheerful, encouraging program to help overwhelmed procrastinators stay on top of housework and other home maintenance tasks. One of Flylady's mantras is "just do it for 15 minutes, and then switch to something else. You can do anything for 15 minutes." This is meant to combat the dread of working on an unpleasant task for a long period of time, and also to prevent burnout. I have often used this tactic to good effect when cleaning the house or doing other chores--15 minutes to clean in the kitchen, then reset the timer and spend 15 minutes on folding laundry, etc. I like variety, so this works well for me.

Recently I read an article by Steve Pavlina (I've been spending a lot of time on his site lately) called "Do It Now," in which he suggests working in 90-minute blocks. He elaborates:

"When you sit down to work on a particularly intense task, dedicate blocks of time to the task during which you will not do anything else. I've found that a minimum of 90 minutes is ideal for a single block....The state of flow, where you are totally absorbed in a task and lose all sense of time, takes about 15 minutes to enter. Every time you get interrupted, it can take you another 15 minutes to get back to that state."

Both of these approaches--the 15-minute one and the 90+ minute one--sound reasonable, but obviously they are incompatible. So how can you use both to your advantage?

After giving it some thought, I decided that working in 15-minute blocks is best for tasks like housework--things that require more physical energy than mental focus, and things that you have to do rather than want to do. The longer block is more useful for work which primarily requires mental energy and is part of what you have chosen to do with your life. For me, website design would fall into this category.

Now, personally, I don't think I have the same trouble dealing with interruptions as Mr. Pavlina has--especially if it's a little thing like letting the dog out. But I do know that it takes me a little while to get absorbed in a project, and so it's beneficial to set aside a longer block of time for activities that I want to get absorbed in. (Unloading the dishwasher is not one of them.)

Your mileage may vary, however. It's generally a good idea to experiment with different time-management techniques to see what works best for YOU.