You may have heard about the "Pomodoro" technique, but if you haven't, here's the gist:

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s.[1] It uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a pomodoro, from the Italian word for tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a university student. --From the Wikipedia entry for "Pomodoro Technique"

My wife found this nifty digital timer that works by twisting the dial clockwise or counter-clockwise to set the length of time you want for your timer, primarily so that she could set a limit on whatever it is she's working on. She tends to get lost in projects and time can get away from her.

I, however, am the opposite. I get lost in everything else and pretty much avoid work¹. I thought this timer was really cool-looking, and even though I have a perfectly functional timer on my smart watch, I bought one for myself.

My nifty digital timer

I'm not using this as the "traditional pomodoro technique" - what I'm doing is simply setting a time limit (I like 20 minute chunks), and in that time I can only work on something on my to-do list, or a new task that's come in. It's a bright LED reminder to NOT open my web browser and find stuff to read. Or even blog about stuff like I'm doing right now.²

It seems to be working for me, I used it twice already this morning. And when I'm done writing this post, I'll set up another timer so I can GTD.

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1. I do this because I can get my work done really fast. If I there is pressing work that needs to be done, I will always prioritize that over goofing off.↩

2. To be fair, I AM taking a break and will be getting back to it when I'm done writing.↩