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What's your #1 productivity hack?
Mine, is this one "Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and usually almost ignored." from Sam Altman. I take the time each day to prioritize my tasks, meetings, etc.
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Sebastian Tamayo
Turning off my phone works well for me.
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@sebastianxtamayo Hardest to do, but really does work. So much of my work is connected to the phone that it's mostly impossible to do. Hence, I work great at night!
@sebastianxtamayo Oh, I agree with this. Or I just keep my phone away from my work table. Out of sight, out of mind :D
@sebastianxtamayo @realdesigntack You mean that because of calls? Because laptops (social, news, ....) are there also!
@sebastianxtamayo @lluis_m_ventura When you have your phone in sight, the notification beep and light on phone distracts and sometimes, puts focus aside from what I was doing on laptop. It kinda makes you "zone out" from a deep focus state. Maybe the same thing with calls as well.
@sebastianxtamayo Yeah, totally agree! I find this especially effective first thing in the morning... basically avoid checking any email / social media for the for 1.5 hours of the day.
At the end of the day, I close all my browser tabs and just look at my to-do list. I take the three things I want to get done tomorrow and put them at the top, uncategorized.
I then think about those things for about 5-10min (no more than that, unless you want to get sucked into a late night) and then I log off.
When you wake up, you'll look at your to-do list and realize that you have three main things to focus on, and you'll immediately recall what you thought about them the day before. You'll also get the benefits of sleeping on those thoughts.
@henry_shapiro yeah, just started forcing myself to do this one. I used to just clock out. Forcing myself to clean up the desktop definitely create a better start to the day.
@jack_wright1 Awesome, great to hear! Yeah, for some reason I find this activity to be more effective personally at the end of a day instead of the morning. Mornings are foggy for me and it's nice to wake up to a list of three goals instead of having to mentally get myself there in the morning while I'm still trying to get my caffeine levels right ;)
@henry_shapiro Very true!
Also I just saw that you created a time blocking tool! I came really close to working on a similar product, but decided to make a morning routine app instead: magicmorning.co/
Going to try out Reclaim now!
@jack_wright1 Awesome! Magic Morning looks super cool -- we're actually working on a feature right now that blocks time for Daily Habits (e.g., I want to meditate 3x a week between 7a and 9a M-F, ideally for at least 30m). Integration oppty?
@henry_shapiro Hey! Awesome. Yeah I think there may be a opportunity here. Our roadmap is fixed for the next 3 months, but let keep in touch.
Stopping work on an exciting note, e. g. with one simple unfinished task. Makes you wanna go back to it.
@sidyakinian This seems interesting :). I can recognize lots of times when that worked for me even though I did not do that intentionally. I will try to do that more often. Thanks
@yuriy_alyabyev @vishipedia Productivity is not the problem, priority is. And once you have a task list that is solved.
A cup of coffee, and some sound around. Nighttime really helps since the rest of the world is off.
@andrei_popa33 Thanks, checked the product out and not sure having this over Spotify or Youtube is much more valuable. I can get the same in those locations. Just can't see paying for another service. Appreciate the send though. Interesting nonetheless!
@michaelmartinho Oh yea sorry I forgot it's not free, I've had a lifetime coupon on it or something. I can't to heavy tasks without it anymore.
Mine is an extension to yours. Its picking the right thing to work and time framing it.
Whenever I pick up a task I time frame it. Otherwise the schedule goes haywire.
@kaunteya_suryawanshi totally agree. Currently looking for a way to block my hours in the day to only do specific tasks. Once the time is up, I move to the next task.
@kaunteya_suryawanshi @aisharaheem6 Hey! I almost developed a time boxing app. I feel like the aren't great options out there. Google calendars is ok, but it's a bit of a pain to manage on mobile. Toggl's pretty decent actually... still leaves a bit to be desired though.
Alt Pomodoro Technique : 40 Min Spritns , 5 min breaks. after 4 sprints a long break 30 min. And I use to control the time the App Be focused Pro ( for mac)
@emilio_segrestev yeah this makes a lot of sense. You may want to check out what @jackburns16 is working on. Similar concept, but they offer up good content during that break,
Currently, I'm trying something I call the Daily Sitdown. It's like the daily standup meeting, but it's close to the end of the day. It really helps people clarify, in their minds, how productive they were that day. I find that it helps me to be mindful about what I'm working on, and it lets the rest of my team know they can count on each other to deliver.
@rossbaltimore And do you do it in a meeting? Or sharing this with the team? Or it is for you alone? Interesting!
@lluis_m_ventura we haven’t been doing it in a meeting, just because we tend to finish up at different times. But, I’d like to try that out. We’re all remote now, so any excuse to have a quick, real-time chat with my teammates (or anyone, for that matter) is a net positive!
@rossbaltimore hmm interesting. We've been running the standard morning standup, but flipping it might have some interesting results. Have you tried both?
Lately, while I am working at home with the fam: Noise Isolating Headphones. I get so much more done when I am not constantly distracted.
@benjamin_nau lol, yes, these are a godsend... especially with the yippy little dog that lives next door to me 😂
What headphones do you use?
Doing one thing at a time. It's been the hardest thing for me to do. I keep too many tabs open and keep shifting between things. Which is always messy and nothing gets ticked off my list. So now I make a list and do only one thing at a time, even if it means having to hold off replies to the team. Tick off one thing, then get back to next and in between keep time for team conversations. Works wonders for me and I recommend to everyone who starts doing too much together!
@sonika_zonka_feedback Just to kind of piggyback off this, I also keep too many tabs open :) I find that "cleaning" my desktop at the end of the day (i.e. closing all tabs, removing everything from my desktop) has a cathartic effect.
I remove all the things around me that are unnecessary. Like cleaning my desk and turning my phone off. However, besides that, being in a perfectly quiet place where no one is talking ( or being alone ) is the biggest factor regarding my productivity because it helps me to build momentum and flow.
O yeah, and I eat dark chocolate because it improves my concentration, thus entering faster into workflow.
@alex_matei20 Yep! totally agree with this one.
There's this great line from Anthony Bourdain's book, where a young prep chef is having trouble keeping up.
As the story goes, the head chef comes up behind him, and slams his hand down on the young prep chefs work station, and pull his hand up - now covered in all sorts of food scraps. He holds his hand 3 inches from the young chefs face and says "This is your mind right now, you can't work if your mind is a mess"
A clean environment is a clean mind!
I built a system called PEP based on the OKR system. It stands for Purpose Energy Priorities.
If you're looking for a quick fix hack though, the Pomodoro timer ranks high for me.
@lluis_m_ventura How about a video? :) I find think I explain it better this way. Feel free to ask me any followup questions. Thanks for asking! https://www.loom.com/share/9f202...
From time to time if I haven't gotten to inbox zero in a while, I'll just archive everything.. figuring.. "eh, if it was important they'll try again.."
@ryanhartman I do it from time to time! You feel pretty well after that, right!?
Definitely taking regular, short breaks. Check out Boost's article on 10 tips for productivity while working from home: https://boostextension.com/blog/...
@jackburns16 Good stuff here dude! Thanks for sharing. Going to try preparing meals ahead of time. Seems like a nice time saver. Unfortunately #4 isn't really an option ATM 😂
@makmanager Reminded me of the (slightly longer term) Intercom mental model for roadmaps: 6 weeks, 6 months, 6 years https://www.intercom.com/blog/66...
I write a todo list everyday. I also try to focus on the items I am most passionate about and tick them off the list first.
@lluis_m_ventura yes exactly. It kind of makes me feel happy to see stuff ticked off my todo list.(: also, I can normally get more done when I am passionate about what I am doing...
Redirect websites to 127.0.0.1 in my host file lol https://peterthaleikis.com/posts...
@spekulatius1984 Thanks for sharing this! This hack was very effective for snapping out of bad browsing habits