Productivity

I have some bad habits. Most of them cause productivity problems. Most of
them derive from my tendency to wear many hats.

I tend to be interrupted often. I tend to lose track of tasks that are not
accomplished quickly. New tasks displace old tasks.

I have been looking for some handles to grab to help with these issues.

One handle that I found is called the pomodoro technique. The technique
involves estimating tasks and completing them with uninterrupted focus for
25 minutes at a time. The name comes from the italian word for tomato, and
that represents a tomato shaped kitchen timer that was originally used to
measure the focus period.

While it sounds goofy, (and feels goofy at first), it actually works. Even
on days when I only have 2 hours of unscheduled time, I can get some things
done – do to increased focus.

Instead of a kitchen timer, I use a small application called Focus Booster.
It works like a kitchen timer for your pc, complete with ticking and bell
sounds.

The one thing that I learned using the pomodoro technique, was that I often
interrupt myself. The technique trains this behavior out of your
repertoire. Google it and give it a 1 week trial. You will be surprised
at the results.