Today I am trialling the Procrastination Hack outlined at 43 Folders to see if it will make my working day less scattered.
The idea is that you focus on a particular task for 10 minutes, follow it up with a 2 minute break, then repeat. I am already noticing a difference. After 10 minutes I use the 2 minute break to deal with any emails, instant messages, rss feeds, etc. All those things that distract you from the task at hand.
There is a nice little freeware app called Take a Break by Scirocco which seems to work quite well for this purpose.
I gave this a try today, and I agree it’s a great way to force yourself to work through a big task when you’ve got lots of other little things that tend to distract you (RSS feeds and email are my Achilles’ heel).