Another "technique" i use... not exactly a technique... its more a help for concentrating the mind.
I go for a walk, and try to concentrate all my attention in hearing the sounds outside me. As you know, we humans have a tendency to speak to ourselves all the time. But, for meditating, is good to keep the mind silent, what is very difficult (at least for me), because of this constant flow of internal talk.
So, i try to move my attention from this internal talk to the outside sounds. I found that walking helps doing it. With practice, you can hear a lot of sounds of the things surrounding you, you may almost "see" only hearing the sounds... like... i cross many streets without looking, just hearing if there is some car near or not.
I noticed that being stoned out of my mind helps a lot, cause i need to keep walking and acting normal, even if my mind is racing, so i MUST concentrate all my attention in the task of walking "normally" and hearing, and doing so, there isnt any attention left to the internal talk.
When you master it, you become able to shut up the internal talk at will, just focusing your mind in another thing.
I think that was the technique most useful for me until today, cause stopping to talk with myself always was (and still is) my biggest problem.
Who would imagine that walking stoned in the streets would be a meditation technique?