Getting Things Done for Developers

I strongly disagree that developers should stop whatever they're doing just to do any 2-minute task that comes up. This would be a huge distraction. When you're a developer, you need long chunks of quiet time to focus on your project. Constantly interrupting that focus to do 2-minute tasks is a sure way to make sure you can never get "in the zone" and concentrate on anything.

Personally, unless a 2-minute task is time-sensitive, I let a bunch of them pile up, then take 30 minutes or so to do them all at once.

Another item to add: Be good at filtering tasks when they come in.

A lot of people are not good at simply discarding work when it comes in, which is the best time to say 'No' or do the quick analysis to see whether it will actually add value.

Unfortunately, this takes some time and intuition to build up. You have to trust yourself that you can make decisions that are fast and accurate.

Does it really work to (try to) split your tasks in to 15 minutes chunks?

I often feel this kind of approach just ends up consuming more of my time as I'm constantly organising and splitting my tasks instead of just doing them.

This is similar to what I'm doing. I want to add, that there is always a rule - there are no strict rules.