At work, I’ve been using the The Pomodoro Technique and it seems to be increasing productivity and reducing anxiety. I haven’t read the Pomodoro book, so I may not be using correctly, but so far so good. I use a website called Tomato Timer to time my intervals.

I’ve also incorporated more interval training into my exercise routines (and daily or near-daily exercise seems to help me sleep better and reduce stress). I’ve committed to going on one long run per week, and I try to take yoga classes when I can. But on the other days I’ve been trying to go on a short run or do a Tabata routine.

On the short run (~2 miles), I incorporate as many one- or two-block long sprints as I can manage after I’ve warmed up in the first mile, so the whole thing generally takes about 15 minutes. The Tabata workout takes 8 minutes: 2 minutes of warm up, 8 sets consisting of 20-second high-intensity exercises paired with a 10-second rest, and 2 minutes of cool down. On days when I can’t fit a yoga class or longer run into my schedule, it’s nice to have exercise options that I definitely can find time to do.

I hope these techniques might be useful to others. I’m also interested reading suggestions for similar techniques, either at work or in the rest of my life.

My city has grown rapidly and the elementary schools are very crowded yet there has been real reluctance to build more schools. Instead of converting the music and computer room and storage space to classrooms what would happen if they rented space from the church or rec center down the street. All of the parents whose kids were being housed “off campus” would be aware in a very dramatic way of the overcrowding of the school. Questions start to be asked when members of the church realize school kids are using their space etc. Perhaps sometimes dramatically not doing it makes the point better then anything else.