I love being able to optimize my schedule in order to make it as efficient and as productive as possible.  Starting when I was in high school and continuing until the present I have used the Pomodoro Technique to schedule my day.

The Pomodoro Technique, created by Francesco Cirillo , encourages us to break up our tasks into manageable segments of time interspersed with “reward” time segments.  For example, today I needed to accomplish house cleaning, correspondence regarding the sale of our home, write a blog post, plan for a flight, conduct two meetings at work, and then conduct a training flight this evening.

In order to keep me on task I broke my tasks into bite size segments of time:

• Clean bathrooms for 30 minutes
• Then, drink a cup of coffee and read for 15 minutes as a reward
• Next, call our realtor and follow-up with an email
• Then, as a reward, check my LinkedIn profile for 10 minutes
• Etc, etc

This technique allows me to accomplish my tasks, receive a reward for the task completed, and then motivates me to take care of the next task. I have fallen in love with this technique, let me know how it works for you!