Increasing Your Day's Productivity

So, there are a couple of chapters in John Sonmez's book, Soft Skills The Software Developer's Life Manual, that covers increasing your productivity.  Now, I consider myself a pretty focused person and pretty productive, but there's always room for improvement right?  Some sections talk about how ALL people procrastinate at some time or the other, but how can you get more focus and less procrastination (and minimize those distractions)?

Well, one of the recommendations is the Pomodoro Technique which is basically setting up blocks of time to focus, then take a break.  Usually in increments of 25 minutes of focused work, then a 5 minute break, then after each 4 small breaks you get a 15 minute break. 

There's a website called KanbanFlow.com that uses this technique and helps you track your time and your tasks, projects, etc.  I've been using it for about one week now and I really like it and I can tell I have become even more productive.  I know exactly what I need to do that day, and I know that I have to focus for those periods of time before I get a small break. 

I think it really helps limit the small distractions like checking email, your phone, etc.  Just set those distractions aside until break time.  The website also show you stats on how many pomodoro's you get each day, how much time you spent on particular tasks and so on.  Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!