3 Things That Made Me Smarter in Just 25 Minutes

“Give a person an idea, and you enrich their day. Teach a person how to learn, and they can enrich their life.” Jim Kwik, ‘Limitless’

I’m always looking for ways to improve myself as a career coach. I’m on a continual learning curve to improve my knowledge, understanding, abilities and skills so I can better serve my clients; women who crave work lives that work for them.

I’ve been reading Jim Kwik’s New York Times Bestseller, “Limitless” a book about upgrading your brain, enhancing your focus and developing your superpowers to give you a true advantage in your life and career.

This book delivers! It is filled with actionable steps that can move you closer to the life you want and fast track you to achieving your fullest potential.

One of the things Jim Kwik suggests in his book is the practice of the “Pomodoro” technique. It’s a productivity method developed by Francesco Cirillo, based on the idea that the optimal time to spend on a task is 25 minutes followed by a 5-minute break. The basis of the “Pomodoro” technique is related to how our memories work. We remember best, the things we learn at the very beginning of a learning session, class, or presentation. After about 25–30 minutes there’s a dip in our focus. A lull, where our attention goes sideways. Like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher, “Wah, Wa, Wa, Wa, Wah”.

Our focus usually comes back at the end of what we’re doing ie: reading a book, listening to a podcast, studying etc. The in-between part becomes dead space.

So my goal for learning anything new is to take it one Pomodoro at a time.

25-minute chunks of learning with 5-minute breaks in between.

One of the goals I set for 2024 was to improve my reach and connection with my audience; women who want to design and create work lives that fit them like their favourite pair of jeans.

Here’s what I learned from my first run at the Pomodoro technique this morning.

I started the timer reading an epic article by Mark Thompson — “Give It Away”. (I realize it is only a 3-minute read but I explored a few other avenues on the same topic, taking me to 25-minutes.)

3 Things I learned in 25 Minutes

Lesson #1

If you are a content or course creator, the best way to grow your audience is to give your work away.

This is contrary to the average person’s belief and may feel counter-productive if you are in the business of making money to pay your rent and put food on your table. Mark Thompson says he’s regularly asked questions like:

“Why would anyone pay for your course, if you give away the information for free?” and “What would you have left to sell?”

More and more creators are seeing the value in giving away their work, as a powerful marketing tool, kind of like “Wayne’s World”…

Giving your best stuff away for free helps to build:

• Authority
• Trust
• Credibility

If you generously share your ideas and knowledge, you will gain an audience that loves, respects and is loyal to you and your work.

Sharing valuable content for free, gives potential clients the opportunity to “try before they buy” and allows them to see if it’s a right fit for what they’re looking for.

As a career coach, I’ve always offered a free one-hour consultation where I give tons of information, resources, answer questions and give ideas that matter most to them. Sometimes that’s all they need, and they are happily on their way. The positive side to this has been me ending up with new clients because someone shared their consultation experience with friends and family.

Lesson #2

Make gifts.

“Don’t make stuff because you want to make money — it will never make enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous — because you will never feel famous enough.

Make gifts for people and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.” John Green

Austin Kleon (New York Times bestselling author), shares in his book “Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered”, the importance of making something special and giving it away to help attract the right audience.

Austin says, “Share what you love and the people who love or are interested in the same thing will find you.”

I’m learning that you don’t “find” an audience for your work, they find you because you’ve shared your process, or information without any strings attached.

Giving gifts fits so much better for me than traditional networking. I’ve always hated networking events or cold-calling, and reaching out to people I don’t know. It’s just not my superpower or in my skill set. I’m not a schmoozer. But…I really get excited about curating and sharing information and resources that will help others.

Lesson #3

“Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You” Steve Martin

If you want to attract the right audience for your work, just focus on getting really good. Share it. And people will come to you.

“Despite a lack of natural ability,” Steve Martin writes in his memoir, he’s had a very successful career in the world of entertainment. (Five Grammy Awards, an Emmy, a couple of Lifetime Achievement Awards, an Honorary Oscar, and several other awards).

Someone once stood up in an audience and asked Martin, “How do you become successful?”

His reply?

“You have to become undeniably good at something,” he said. “Nobody ever takes my advice, because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear…but I always say, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’ If you are just always thinking, ‘How can I be really good?’ — people will come to you.”

Sharing your work, giving it away, is a way to practice and develop your skill and craft in public. With every article, course, e-book, or other kind of content you create, you will get better and better.

What better way to get feedback and to see if what you are working on is really what your audience wants or needs, than to share it with the people you are trying to reach?

So there you have it.

What I learned in 25 minutes. Actually if I’m honest it was a little over 25 minutes.

It took me about 30 minutes to read and gather information and then another 25 minutes or so to sort out my scribble.

That’s a record for me!!

Not only did I get to try the Pomodoro technique (which I’m definitely adding to my writer’s tool kit) but I was also able to learn and share some valuable information with you — my audience.

Hope it was helpful!

If you liked this article and found it helpful, subscribe and follow me so I can share more with you every time I post. If you’d like to get started creating your best work-life, download my free Design Your Life Workbook — Just click “Start Designing Here”

About the Author

Hey! I’m Bonnie. I’m a mom of five kids who has lived to tell the story. I’m originally from Toronto, Ontario but now make my home in New Brunswick, Canada by the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

I’m obsessed with the idea of helping women discover their potential, their possibilities and find the work that’s right for them.

I became a Career Coach because I decided a long time ago that I was NEVER EVER! going to work in a job or stay on a career path that wasn’t right for me and I want to show others that they get to choose, design and create their best work-life fit.