So it comes down to paying attention and building your pile. There are many ways to compost raw materials into humus. All of them aim to create adequate conditions for the microorganisms to do their job. Pits, bins, stacks -- various and sundry forms of each abound. For our purposes, we will focus on using a common, available and affordable technique many people use in urban and rural backyard situations. This is basically a stack of minimal size [1 cubic yard] contained in a simple structure of your choosing -- woven wire or wooden sided. Fancy is not necessary, but proper aeration and moisture is. An old favorite is using four wooden palettes, stood on end and tied together forming a square. The pile is then built in the center and accessed by leaving one palette "hinged" as a gate. The heap is open to air and moisture and is of a size to ensure correct heat retention from the oxidation process.
Start with a ground layer of old leaves, straw, dried stems, paper--material primarily carbon rich. Make your layer 4" to 6" thick. Then add a layer of nitrogen. Livestock manure, hair, coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings are all heavy in nitrogen. Be sure to soak your layers with plenty of water as you build them. Remember that about 50% of the stack should be water, so get it wet! Add another carbon layer, then nitrogen, then carbon, and so on. Your pile should be 1 cubic yard in size when completed. Keep it moist and aerated to create a "hot" pile. Give it all the conditions bacteria need to do their job, and then just let it happen.
Avoid using pet feces in your heap, as this frequently carries disease from various domestic sources. Food scraps should not be dumped and left on top of the pile. This is an open invitation to rats and other vermine to adopt your pile as the dinner table. If you add table scraps to the compost, bury them in a hole in the center of the pile and cover well to insulate them from unwanted critters. Never include meat products or grease. Keep your pile natural and organic in content and it will return wonderful results to your piece of earth.
To speed up decomposition, consider particle reduction. Grinding woody
materials with a chipper/shredder hastens the breakdown of tougher organics
and lets all the composters in your pile work faster and more efficiently in
producing an end product. Also, the turning frequency of the pile speeds
things up. This keeps the thermophylls working longer, creating more heat
to "cook" with. Each turn cuts the time in half for finished compost. If you are in a hurry, turn once a week for four weeks to get a finished crop. The first two turns are the most important for keeping your thermophylls busy. Don't forget to keep an eye on the moisture of the pile.