I finally admitted I've been faking productivity for months; what actually keeps you focused?
by•
Okay, small confession. For the last few months I've been "busy" all day but somehow shipping almost nothing. Tabs open everywhere, jumping between Slack, notes, half-written docs… and by 6pm I couldn't tell you what I actually finished.
Last week I stripped everything back to three things: one notes app, a timer, and physically closing Slack for 90 min blocks. First time in ages I actually felt like I made progress instead of just looking productive.
But I know I'm probably still doing this wrong. :)
So I'm curious — what's the one habit or tool that genuinely keeps YOU focused?
24 views
Replies
Honestly, closing Slack is the move 😄 The notes app and timer are nice, but for me the biggest difference comes from deciding the night before what the one thing for tomorrow is. Just one thing, not a massive to-do list.
If that gets done, I count the day as a success. Anything else is a bonus. The days I don’t do this are exactly when I end up “busy” for 8 hours and wondering what I actually accomplished.
@jared_salois Okay the "decide one thing the night before" trick is genius 😄 Takes all the pressure off that giant to-do list. Definitely stealing this one. One thing done = win, love it! Do you write it down somewhere or just keep it in your head?
This is so me :D
But Claude work really increased my effect and amount of results that I produce.
@adamkamaneh Ha, glad I'm not the only one 😅 And honestly same — Claude's been quietly carrying my output lately too. No shame in the AI assist!
I try to focus solely on high-priority tasks in the morning and finish them.
Closing email and physically closing Slack during that time is a good strategy.
Once I’ve finished my high-priority tasks, I open email and Slack in the afternoon, and I try not to be too hard on myself if I end up being unproductive.
The one thing that changed this for me: I stopped trying to keep all my to-dos in one list. I run three different businesses (software company, care home, cafe) and for a long time I had one giant list mixing café shift problems with software bugs with care home stuff, my brain just froze every time I looked at it. The real fix was accepting I can't watch all three closely every day, so I built myself a tool (FounderFlow, I'm the founder) that watches across all three and just tells me the 1-2 things that actually need a decision today. Wasn't trying to do more, just stopped guessing which fire was loudest.