How we got extra few

hours in the 24hrs a day?

Short story of the culture and

development.

Karol Pokojowczyk from Colibri.io

• Last months we’ve been focused

on the development of the new

version of our app - Colibri IO. We

can see the finishing line but we

can’t call it a day yet.

• But in the meantime, I was

thinking about the things I’ve

learned during last months and

ways I’ve discovered.

• I know that most of you have

certain ways of work generated

and optimized - but trying out new

things is always a great experience.

Here’s a few new things

which we used or which

helped us squeeze even

more from our productivity:

1. The pomodoro technique

• This is a time management

solution similar to other timeboxing

techniques that many

programming and collaboration

teams have adopted.

• Basically, it’s 5 simple steps. And

you need a timer, like a kitchen

timer, but of course there are apps

for that too.

• Steps:

Tasks identification

Set your timer to 25-minutes (or 1

Pomodoro) and work

When the timer ends, put a checkmark

beside the completed tasks

Take a 5-minute break before the next

Pomodoro

Repeat!

• After 4 Pomodoros (120 minutes),

take a longer break - 15-30

minutes. After this break, you

repeat the cycle.

• This technique helped us to fix

bugs quicker and more effective.

2. Gmail tabs and filtering

• There are two sides of the same

coin with Gmail tabs. In the sea of

mails, offers, requests and spam –

tabs work perfectly. When you have

only 30 minutes to focus on your

mail – it’s super effective.

• But then I stumbled upon

Mailchimp’s report about open

rate and came to conclusion that

what’s best for users is a problem

for marketers and ecommerces.

3. Group ticketing system - i.e. Asana

• Asana helped us with task

management. A very simple app for

teams. Plan, organize and stay in

sync.

• You don’t have to spend a lot of

time on task management, it works

pretty well combined with

Pomodoro technique.

4. Get early feedback on your MVP with

Marketing Automation - i.e. Klaviyo

• All of our work wouldn’t be worth

the effort if we didn’t know our

users first reactions.

• So we created a simple demo/tour

to see what people think and

emailed a link to the most active

users this week by using Klaviyo,

marketing automation tool.

• Lively reactions and tons of

feedback turn out to be a great

motivation for the whole team!

Just a few simple things can bring

fresh perspective in days filled with

ordinary duties.

And what are your methods?

Would you like to share?

This article was originally published on Colibri’s blog. Find

out more: How we got extra few hours in the 24hrs a day - short story of the culture and development of

Colibri.IO

Author: Karol Pokojowczyk

CEO Colibri IO

@KarolPokojowczy

@Colibri IO