Setting a timer helps Dracula’s Memory Secret to play a little trick on your brain. If you think you have to sit down and focus on a task for the next 4 hours that is very daunting and so you but it off. However if you say I will just sit down for 30 minutes that seems more doable. When you have completed the first 30 minutes your resistance to starting the task has been broken. As our brain craves completion, so you will naturally want to work for another 30 minutes.
When you first start using your timer, you may find that thoughts or worries of other tasks pop into your mind. If this happens have a notebook by your side and jot down your thoughts.