You may not know it… but the Italian word for tomato can help you hit your goals.
Sometime in the 1980s, Francesco Cirillo developed the Pomodoro Technique.
It’s a simple productivity idea.
When you have a task to do, set a timer.
In college, Mr. Cirillo used a kitchen timer. He would set the timer the moment he sat down to complete a task. The goal, obviously, was to complete the task before the timer went off. His timer happened to be a tomato-shaped kitchen timer.
The Italian word for tomato is Pomodoro. Thus, the name. The Pomodoro Technique.
It works. I use this technique all the time. In fact, since I usually struggle to write the tip of the week, I am using it right now.
The Pomodoro Technique helps me fight Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law states that a task will expand to the time allotted.
In other words, if you give yourself all morning to write the Tip of the Week, it’s going to take all morning.
If, however, you use the Pomodoro Technique and if you only give yourself a half-hour, it’s only going to take a half-hour.
And, it did. It took me about a half-hour to come up with the Tip of the Week, type it, and edit it.
Give it a shot. Do you find your projects stretching out to fill the time allotted? Try setting a timer first. Estimate how long it will take, set a timer, and get to work.
You may find yourself with some extra time on your hand this weekend!
Summer school
Live classes are officially over for the summer. However, I am still teaching two courses. I will continue to do so unless I decide to go biking out west when it gets too hot in Tennessee.
I am teaching a Latin course. In this course, we are continuing to work our way through Exercitia Latina by Hans Ørberg. We are currently in chapter 19. If you are a member of my site, you are welcome to join us. We meet every weekday at 8 in the morning, central time zone.
The other course is a Spanish course. We are reading through the book All Spanish Method by Guillermo Aviles. We are currently in chapter 16. If you are a member of my site, you are welcome to join us. We meet every weekday at 7 in the morning, central time zone.
What do I recommend?
“To learn Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, or German, which books do I order?” This is the most common question I receive.
To find my answers, just go to my site, www.dwanethomas.com.
Find the resources tab, and find the language you are looking for in the dropdown menu.
For example, if you are looking for the books I recommend for learning Latin, click on the Latin tab: https://dwanethomas.com/resources-latin/
Same for Greek. Same for Spanish. And, so on.
Down at the bottom, below languages, you will see three more tabs, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise.
These are the three categories I have used for years to organize my goals. They are based on Benjamin Franklin’s maxim: “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
In these tabs, I include books and links that help me achieve these goals. You may find them useful as well.
I’ll make it easy for you. Here they all are:
- What I recommend for Latin: https://dwanethomas.com/resources-latin/
- What I recommend for Greek: https://dwanethomas.com/greek-resources/
- What I recommend for French: https://dwanethomas.com/french-resources/
- What I recommend for Spanish: https://dwanethomas.com/spanish-resources/
- What I recommend for Italian: https://dwanethomas.com/italian-resources/
- What I recommend for English: https://dwanethomas.com/resources-english/
- What I recommend for Health: https://dwanethomas.com/healthy/
- What I recommend for Wealth: https://dwanethomas.com/wealthy/
- What I recommend for Wisdom: https://dwanethomas.com/wise/
And now… the same thing I say every week.
Subscribers sometimes use my weekly emails as reminders to unsubscribe from my site.
Just keep in mind… I offer something no one else in academia (as far as I know) offers. Stick with me for 3 uninterrupted years and you will have a lifetime subscription.
I now know this is a dumb business decision on my part, but I have heard from many of you that it is a huge help, so, for now, the offer stands.
Of course, if you are just starting out in Latin, you may be happier with Visual Latin.
Visual Latin is a full-blown Latin course. It is rigorous, just not as rigorous as the classes on my site. The classes on my site are more “next level” classes, really.
By the way, if you are into etymology (the history of words), and if you would like to see me make a fool of myself, you might enjoy Word Up.
Five years ago, or so, we launched this series just to see if it would work. It did. And, after years of listening to many of you beg for more, I finally gave in and agreed to make a fool of myself once again. So now, Volumes 2 and 3 of Word Up are available.
And… if you aren’t a member of my site and would like to join, click here: https://dwanethomas.com/join/.
I hope you had a very happy Saturday!
Dwane
P.S.
If someone forwarded you this email and you would like to hear from me every week, just go to this page: https://dwanethomas.com/
Scroll down a bit until you see my book, Via. Enter your name and email and you will hear from me weekly. You will also get a free copy of my book, Via!
