The Pomodoro Technique is an excellent productivity and time management system which I have stumbled upon and have been using for a few weeks now.

It is extremely simple to use and powerful, as it hones your focus and discipline in quite a gentle way.  Its aim is to get us to tackle and complete items we avoid doing due to fear of failure, or a dislike of the task.

The name 'Pomodoro' comes from the tomato-shaped kitchen timer which was used by the inventor of the technique.  I of course, use my iphone.  The important thing about whichever timer you use, is that it has an audible ring.  This and a piece of paper is all you need.

The basis of the technique is through firstly defining a unit of time 'a Pomodoro', as being 25 minutes.  Your task needs to be worked on solidly with no distractions during this time.  For longer tasks you join the Pomodoro's together, but not before having a 4-5 minute break between each Pomodoro.  For shorter tasks, you group these to go into the one Pomodoro.  

Every 4 Pomodoros (2 hours) you have a 15-30 minute break.

Here is a brief daily structure:

1.     Daily tasks are written down and prioritized.
2.     A heading for 'Urgent and Unexpected' is created, where anything urgent which crops up and needs to be dealt with that day is noted.  If at the end of the Pomodoro you still believe task is urgent, you can rearrange your day's schedule and slot this in as a Pomodoro.
3.     An activity sheet is created - where all 'to do' items are listed as they come up.  This could be follow up actions from the day's activities, or anything else - this sheet is simply a repository for things to do, so they don't get forgotten.
4.     Tasks are tackled in 25 minute blocks, distractions are noted and dealt with in the 5 minute breaks, or scheduled into the daily worksheet.

The way it has really helped me is that:

• I now know exactly how long I am spending on a task (I just count the number of Pomodoros)
• I become acutely aware of my distractions (if a Pomodoro is 'broken', you need to start the timer again - so there is an incentive to not give in to distraction)
• I have been able to tell those around me that I am 'in the middle of a Pomodoro' and this has lessened ad-hoc distractions (I am yet to teach the dogs about this)
• I am finding that I am getting to tackle difficult tasks which I have avoided, because I can chunk it up into 25 minutes at a time.

The real success for me has been that I am still very happily doing it after two weeks, and my days have felt very productive.

Here is the link to access The Pomodoro Technique website where you can access the free downloadable book of the technique also.

Give it a go - I'd love to hear your feedback if you try it.