The Best Productivity System

 50 Effective Ways To Boost Your Productivity

Time Management

You need to make yourself and your goals a priority. This starts by
completing your most high level, strategic action FIRST, before checking
your email or responding to phone calls or other requests. People and
technology will always be there to distract you. One study
found that Fortune 500 CEOs averaged only twenty-eight uninterrupted,
productive minutes a day! To be truly successful, you must be able to
set boundaries and make your biggest strategic goals your daily
priority.

Here are some examples of time management strategies most people may find acceptable:

• Control "Time Vampires" who suck up your time. These are people
  who ask if you've "got a moment?" and proceed with a two-hour
  conversation. Sometimes, you just have to have the courage to say "No"
  or to schedule a meeting for another time.
• Add an end time for your appointments.
• Schedule and bunch telephone calls. Avoid answering the telephone
  during periods of concentrated work, or at least cut the conversation
  short and schedule a call back time.
• Lunch appointments should start with meeting at your office, not the restaurant.

Here are some more extreme strategies:

• "Script" your workday and scrupulously avoid interruptions. An occasional "pick and shovel day" is allowed.
• Don't use, accept or go through email communications. At least have someone else screen them for you.
• Don't personally participate in social media.
• Avoid or control the use of cell phones.

GET YOURSELF A CALENDAR

Austin Kleon:

So I decided to make 250 poems in 25 weeks. 10 poems a week. I couldn’t see it happening, so I drew it. 25 rows, 10 checkboxes. Until all the checkboxes would be full 
And that’s how I’ve been living for the past four months. Every week, there are 10 checkboxes to be filled, and I fill them. At the end of every poem, there’s the satisfying X.
Creating any long work of art is all about time management. Any goal you want to accomplish: get yourself a calendar. Break the task down into little bits of time. Make it a game.

Number one productivity tip:

Get yourself a calendar, and schedule the work you have to do in there. Make sure the calendar is the type where you can see a day or a week at at time (not a month at a time), so there’s room to write under each day. Then, mark in any regular commitments you have…Once you’ve got all that there, you will be able to see how much time you really have to work….In the time you have for work, assign yourself very specific tasks…Taking a little time to get all this in your book will do several things for you.

The Pomodoro technique: a time management method

Productivity gurus of all sorts, ranging from Merlin Mann to the Flylady (aka Marla Cilley) recommend using a timer. 
Pomodoro, named for a tomato-shaped kitchen timer and based on working for 25 minutes with 5 minute breaks and a longer break every four sessions.
The key here is to promise yourself that when your 25 minutes is up, you can walk away and do something else.   Do a little bit of work, get a little bit of reward.  Even 25 minutes a day will help you see some progress and get out of the procrastination cycle. It increase your focus when you feel scattered, to break through distraction and to help ensure that you’re making progress on the things that really matter to you.

Cf. software programs with timers and stopwatches for Windows:

• GTD Timer
• Cook Timer