The Power of 10 is a tool to schedule measurable and manageable activities into your day to support mental health and wellbeing, which in turn promotes increased productivity.
The power of 10 began from realising the importance of using any spare moment possible to benefit my wellbeing during lockdown and maintain the best balance between working, parenting, housework and “me time”. I really struggled with this juggling everything last year and started to do some research to assist. I found so many articles and suggestions and was amazed how many activities seemed to be linked to the number 10, from top 10 songs to improve your mood to 10-minute HiiT sessions. So maybe this could be used as a “magic” number to guide my self-help.
The more I thought about this it made sense and I could make this work to my advantage, if nothing else as a starting point I could manage 10 minutes out of my day.
For the first week I used 10 minutes as a framework but doing different activities each day. Walking for 10minutes, 10 minutes reading, 10-minute phone call to a friend etc. I was amazed how much better I started to feel.
From here the idea of using 10 as a quantifiable base expanded rapidly, firstly I tried 10,000 steps in a day then 10 pages of a book, and also writing down 10 things that were really bothering me and how to deal with them or to actually let go of the negative feeling.
I have also now started to use the Pomodoro technique which is a 6-step time management tool alongside the “power of 10 activities” to increase my productivity without increasing my stress levels. By scheduling my day even further into task time slots and using the associated breaks mindfully.
After a month of using both techniques I felt like back to myself and I have used the “power of 10” daily ever since. Anyone can use it and it can mean what suits them on any given day from physical activity to emotional outlet. It is about creating “tasks” to schedule into your day to benefit yourself.
You can even share your “power of 10” ideas with your colleagues and friends to support them too.
Vicky Seel – Operations Manager
