What's your #1 productivity hack?

2yr ago

133 replies

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.

Replies

kaunteya suryawanshi

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.

Trying to figure out life

@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.

Sebastian Tamayo

Product Designer | Maker | UXC

Turning off my phone works well for me.

Sonika - Zonka Feedback

Co-Founder at @zonkafeedback

@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

Vaibhav Dwivedi

Exploring Psychology @ Psych.email

@sebastianxtamayo Agreed. Putting your phone away from your sight helps a lot.

cofounder of usevidbix.me

@sebastianxtamayo @realdesigntack You mean that because of calls? Because laptops (social, news, ....) are there also!

Vaibhav Dwivedi

Exploring Psychology @ Psych.email

@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.

LucidPix

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?

Digital Marketing Specialist

Writing down current tasks and working in accordance to the plan.

@yuriy_alyabyev this alone is powerful enough to reduce a ton of anxiety.

Building Strip Finance

@yuriy_alyabyev @vishipedia Productivity is not the problem, priority is. And once you have a task list that is solved.

@yuriy_alyabyev yep, agreed. Writing my "intentions" for the day has changed my life.

iOS developer & UBC student

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

@pravin_john

@sidyakinian This one I'm going to try!

@sidyakinian haha, this is a neat trick, I'm going to try this 😂

Emilio Segreste

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,

Emilio Segreste

@jackburns16 @jack_wright1 Nice I will checkout

Co-Founder, More

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.

cofounder of usevidbix.me

@rossbaltimore And do you do it in a meeting? Or sharing this with the team? Or it is for you alone? Interesting!

Co-Founder, More

@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?

Co-Founder, More

@jack_wright1 we do both! The standup has been super helpful, too.

Sonika - Zonka Feedback

Co-Founder at @zonkafeedback

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!

cofounder of usevidbix.me

@sonika_zonka_feedback Good one! Multitasking and millions of tabs open kills my focus too!

Sonika - Zonka Feedback

Co-Founder at @zonkafeedback

@lluis_m_ventura The most productive things are perhaps the hardest to do! :D

@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.

Technician

Toni Engelhardt

Coffee

@toniengelhardt haha, yes, coffee is my savior.

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 😂

Jessica Mansourati

Founder of nibble.fm!

the get focused extension for mac (basically pomodoro technique) with a 25 min timer and 5 min break timer :)

@stockholm Interesting, you're the second person to post about this. Curious is this much different then just setting a normal timer?

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!

Building something new | Mental health

8 hours of sleep.

cofounder of usevidbix.me

@marsnegrette Essential!

Founder of BrainSquall

@marsnegrette YES! I track that sleep baby! It matters.

Christien Louviere

CoFounder - BDEnergy

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.

cofounder of usevidbix.me

@clouvi Can I read something about this PEP system?

Christien Louviere

CoFounder - BDEnergy

@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...

cofounder of usevidbix.me

@clouvi Thanks!

Android Developer

Leave my phone in other room

Co-founder @ Reclaim.ai

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.

cofounder of usevidbix.me

@henry_shapiro I do it in the morning, but seems interesting your approach! i will test it.

Adesunloye Tennerick Adeola

Tech Entrepreneur

@henry_shapiro interesting

@henry_shapiro I like this

@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.

Co-founder @ Reclaim.ai

@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 ;)

Digital Marketer, Growth Hacker

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.."

Nevena Sofranic

Techie. ✌️ Building Recrooit.com

@ryanhartman savage 😂

cofounder of usevidbix.me

@ryanhartman I do it from time to time! You feel pretty well after that, right!?

@ryanhartman haha, this is actually the approach I took. Now I just keep it at 0

Michael Martinho

"In my happy box"

A cup of coffee, and some sound around. Nighttime really helps since the rest of the world is off.

Co-Founder @ Cardanti

@michaelmartinho If sounds work well for you, try Brain.fm, it works wonders for me :)

Michael Martinho

"In my happy box"

@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!

Co-Founder @ Cardanti

@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.

Create a to-do list for the day with a few of important tings, teake breaks