Pomodoro saved my butt during my senior year of college. I put off a book report until the last minute and found myself needing to read 5 chapters about medieval Italian republics in 3 hours. I allocated 1 Pomodoro to each chapter, and said that if I hadn't finished the chapter before the end, I would skip to the next one. This forced me to speed read and skip confusing parts (instead of re-reading them 10 times). The report wasn't one of my best, but I wouldn't have finished it at all without the structure I got from Pomodoro.

I used the focus booster app for OS X, I highly recommend it: http://www.focusboosterapp.com/