I'm on deadline again this week and today I've got quite the ambitious to-do list. With three stories due by Friday (including my break into another national woman's magazine!), I really can't afford to waste much time even though procrastination runs through my veins.
A couple weeks back I read about The Pomodoro Technique which works under the concept that breaking up tasks and time into 25-minute-long chunks with breaks in between will increase your productivity. After every little pomodoro - or tomato in italiano - completed, you get a five minute break and then a longer one after four pomodoros. All you really need is a timer and a piece of paper to chart your progress, but mytomatoes.com makes it really easy to track how much you've accomplished in a day.
I've yet to make it past four consecutive pomodoros, but hopefully today I'll be able to focus for a nice chunk of time before the ADD tendencies kick in. Oh, and my reward for being good? A movie date to see Iron Man 2 tonight. (But let's face it, I'll still be going even if I'm bad.)
Image: pomodorotechnique.com