My son has ADHD. The two best techniques that work for him are:
a) lists
b) the timer

Everything is broken down into 15 minute chunks with the timer and that makes everything doable. He has lists for getting ready in the morning and at night, and lists for projects or anything else that come up.

You might like this blog. It also has a lot of interesting AD/HD links.
http://addfinances.blogs.com/blog/

I recommend http://www.backpackit.com/.

It's very nice because you can make up to five pages (for free); I have one for work and one for home, to start with. On each page, you can make several lists. (I haven't run into a limit there yet.)

I like it because of the larger organization (that you can make pages, and then categories of things (lists) under that basic organization. I also like the fact that I have the same tool at home and at work, without having to carry it with me. it's not as ubiquitous as David Allen might like, but it does it for me.

I like and use todo.txt http://www.todotxt.com/
Plain text files, written in python.

I'd suggest Mark Foster's books over David Allens for someone with high distractability. Allen's process doesn't address 'oh Shiney!' except to tell you to put it on a list which you look at once a week. This list eventually expands to suck all the air out of your life.

Mark Foster is much better about making achievable commitments. Tom Limonicelli's Time Management for SysAdmin's is very similar to Foster's perspective. There's no one more distracted than a SysAdmin.

Giving myself permission to save something till tomorrow, rather than giving into the distraction has been a great relief.

There's a yahoo group for Foster's _Do It Tomorrow_, which has a good book summary.

Another book I highly recommend, is _The Now Habit_ by Neil Fiore. The yahoo group for that book also has wonderful summaries.

_Getting Things Done_ sounds good, but I found it really a total waste of time. And I really wanted to like it, because of the whole Zen thing.

I hope this helps!

I'd start with the book summary for _Do It Tomorrow_ on the yahoo group do_it_tomorrow. It's in the files section: DIT Chapter Summaries
Charles Cave's summaries

And also, Flylady is good for those home maintenance and cleaning tasks we all need to do. Brief tasks, highly structured. A bit annoying in tone, but one can tune that out.

Yes, the emails are overwhelming. I found the "What to clean in this zone" lists very helpful.

One of the worst thing that I have done, but the best in terms of distraction, has been refusing to log on to the Internet until noon -- or after 18:00. Setting aside a clear chunk of the day with no Net access has forced me to focus on getting RL tasks done. I still need to ruthlessly priorize and make lists, short bites, very structured, but keeping off the Net is huge.

I don't know if this will help or not, but...sometimes at work if I have a task I really need to do but am avoiding or can't focus on, I sit down and set a timer and work on it for 15 minutes...then I either keep going, or do something else and come back later for another 15 minutes. Eventually I hit a rhythm where I am making more progress on it than non-progress and I just want to keep going.

(All uses of "you" are intended in the generic sense. Many could probably be replaced with "I" :-) )

Well, for many things, try to follow the OHIO (Only Handle It Once) rule when you can. You pick up the bill; can you pay it *right now*? Then do so. If not, do the next best thing, and put it somewhere (with other bills, say) where you can sometime soon pick them up, pay them all, then get rid of the waste.

It can also help to force some things. I have a bad time trying to clean up; I don't know where to put things. Well, I force myself to pick a location. "But, but, but, maybe that's a bad location!" Yes, but it *is* a location, better a bad location than "scattered everywhere". If I'm doomed for all eternity for picking a bad location, I'm probably just as doomed for having it scattered.

Breaking things down into tiny tasks can also help. If you can't balance your checkbook, maybe you can balance ten transactions. If you can't clean off your desk, maybe you can just get all of the non-work items (cups, etc.) off of the desk. You can stay focused long enough to do those little things, so do those. Do enough of those, and you'll accomplish something.

One of the worst things to do is sit still, or look for something to hold your interest... that's how you end up wasting time (i.e.: doing it, but not enjoying it) reading blogs, LJ, Usenet, etc., looking for stimulation.

In the last 30 minutes I reviewed 12 voice mails and had 3 phone calls. The only way I manage that sort of thing is to keep a big fat miquel ruis notebook and write everything down as it happens. I prefer a notebook to stickies as it preserves temporal order, and I often remember things relative to other things. Also, it makes me look much friendlier/smarter than I am, because I've gotten in the habit of writing down the caller's name at the beginning of the call, at the start of my notes, so at the end, I can say goodbye with their name.

Lots of people like index cards, but I couldn't cope with that, not enough information on one page.

I thought writing everything in a notebook was the definition of writer.

Are the attendees of SF book group writers?

"mystery book group shopper" is hilarious.

I have taken to making lists and using my Outlook calendar at work for everything. I definitely have days where things just seem to leak out of my head, so these lists really help make me feel more secure.

I have a packing list for trips that I modify for individual trips so I won't forget stuff I need. It speeds up the process and cuts down on worry.

I've thought about carrying a notebook, but I haven't gotten there yet. I sometimes email items to my work account so I can put them on the Outlook calendar. Or if my SO needs me to do something, I ask him to email me so it won't fall out of my head.

If I am walking to the store and only buying a few things, I count the items. I find I can remember a number (4 or 5), and then can reproduce the list from the number. It's not perfect, though.

Also just having the list on my desk or table and I can add to it. If I do a Peapod shop, I'll make a draft order a few days in advance and add things as they occur to me before their deadline.