Which productivity hack do you think is underrated? Share.
Everyone has their favourite routine to perform at their best.
Some are advocates for the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes of intensive work, with a 5-minute short break), others love time-blocking, a few plan the entire week on Sunday, and there are even people who say ice-cold showers à la Wim Hof help them focus.
What’s the most underrated productivity hack in your opinion?
For me, it’s sleep + walking.
– When you sleep well, your brain "cleans house" overnight and saves everything important you learned during the day. You wake up with a clear head and real energy.
– When you go for a walk (ideally outside in fresh air), your blood starts flowing better, more oxygen reaches your brain, and suddenly great ideas or solutions just pop into your head, things you’d never think of at your screen.
Replies
This one comes from @nireyal.
He has developed a model that splits professional time across four areas:
Management
Meetings
Calls
Presentations
Email processing
Team and people management
Creation
Writing
Coding
Building
Preparing
Consumption
Reading or listening to articles, podcasts, and books
Studying
Attending a class, workshop, or industry conference
Ideation
Brainstorming
Journaling
Walking
Self-reflecting
You can use these four areas to reclaim your day, be creative and make progress on the things that matter most.
minimalist phone: creating folders
@nireyal @rohanrecommends The thing is that sometimes those first 5 in management will take 6 hours and boom, only 2 left and your shift is over :D
Nir and Far
@rohanrecommends @busmark_w_nika All the more reason to timebox your schedule to decide how you will spend your time before others do!
@busmark_w_nika @nireyal Oh yes, how did I forget time boxing?! Thanks so much Nir for chiming in. Love reading your blog posts on being indistractable. :)
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@rohanrecommends @nireyal In that case, I need to start waking up at 5 am again. 😅
(I just wanna complete as many things as possible, but I am too perfectionist, so that's paralysing and takes me so much time to get things done, because "It must be perfect" :D)
MultiDrive
I have one productivity tip: I forget where my phone is - it helps 😄
MultiDrive
But frankly speaking, apart from that, I make a plan for each day. Sometimes I use notes to track what I need to do and what I want to accomplish by a certain time. I like discipline, it helps me feel like I’m doing the right thing.
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@tetianai So So So true. Phone and the internet / social media – keep us entertained, and we are totally pushed away from our work :D
MultiDrive
@busmark_w_nika Agree :D
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@tetianai 🙏 :D
Our CTO is one of the best organized people I have ever met! Around 6 months back, we switched to kanban boards to keep track of our tasks and it made a lot of impact.
Personally, one of the quirkiest productivity hack is to remove my shoes and sit cross-legged. I know this sounds crazy but it really works because I don't get tempted to get up and roam around :D
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@purva_guptaa Let's guess what is my sitting position at the moment? :D
IXORD
I know one technique that helps some people. The idea is that if you are stuck on a task and have been working on it for a long time without coming up with anything, you should step away for five to ten minutes and distract yourself. After that, your brain resets and looks at things from a different perspective. This can sometimes help because new ideas come naturally
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@ixord You look at things from a different perspective, sure, but I would give it more time than just 5 minutes. Maybe day or so :)
IXORD
@busmark_w_nika Haha, unfortunately, taking such breaks at work to gather your thoughts is an extraordinary luxury)
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@ixord Yeah, I see it as a privillege :)
IXORD
@busmark_w_nika xd
For me, it's definitely locking away my phone; I don't think it's talked about enough how much it affects one's productivity.
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@bekjon_ibragimov Smartphones are an addiction.
I think scheduling emails is a super underrated hack.
Like for myself, after I attend a networking event I might be full of contacts who can provide me with opportunities for my business like pilots , mentorship or even warm introductions to people like investors, partnership companies etc. And it's best to capitalize on this connect when the steam is till intact. But due to the many gazillion things my mind has to deal with, I used to often forget to reply and delay it too long which automatically used to create more cognitive friction..
So now I practice scheduling emails as soon as an event is over so that it automatically creates that thread of communication and is less of a cognitive load on myself.
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@avhijit_nair Is scheduling better during the weekend? (like you have more time for that, I assume) :)
@busmark_w_nika Yes I think so.
Real Favicon Generator
A TODO list and and methodology about how to use it.
Some 20 years ago when I switched from developer to manager, my workdays suddenly went went from "just do the thing" to dozens of small items I had to address, plus a lot of mid- and long-term ones I had to handle, too.
I read and applied Getting Things Done. It absolutely changed my capacity to handle daily tasks and long term planning, both professionally and personally.
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@ph_bernard So what is the main ingredient of using that todo list? :D How to treat those tasks? :D
Sleep was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw your headline. It's going to be really hard to beat sleep and exercise for the short and longterm impact it'll have on your life (physical health, mental health, productivity, etc).
One thing I just learned about is @znaz 's @Brick which is a physical "brick" you touch your phone to and then whatever apps you've selected won't open anymore until the next time you touch your phone to the brick again. You can leave the brick in your car while you're at work, in another room during family dinners, or whatever works for your life.
It acts as a commitment device to keep you from using your phone at times when you know you want to be productive, but also know what you'll actually do is scroll for a few more minutes. I missed it when they launched here, but a few of my friends got one this year, and they have been legitimately impressed by how much more productive they are when they brick their phone.
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@znaz @kilpatrick Good you mentioned that thing with the phone. Did you know that just having a phone within your field of view can reduce focus capacity by ~10–20%, compared to when the phone is in another room? Imagine how kids have phones on their desks in school... They are unfocused and unable to learn new things.
I didn't know that. I very often have my phone sitting on the table next to me in kickstand mode while I work. I should probably switch to sticking it somewhere I can't see it during work hours.
It's not exactly "productivity" related, but even when just hanging out with friends at dinner, I do feel like we're all more present in the moment if our phones are not sitting on the table while we eat. Makes sense that a similar thing would be true for work.
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@kilpatrick yeah, maybe it would help to leave your phone elsewhere. I saw an accur8 graphic design – study: Here is the original: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRsXm2ZiX3X/?img_index=5&igsh=MWxscTA3YzJlMXY2eA%3D%3D
For me, I'll make a plan for tomorrow before I sleep so I know what's ahead and be on track of what's to achieved.
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@zakiah_hashim Do you do this every day, or do you plan a bigger time frame? e.g. Sunday evenings to plan ahead the whole week?