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16 Simple Tips to Boost Your Productivity x10

These easy-to-follow tips will improve your output dramatically.


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Maximiliano Contieri

3 years ago | 3 min read

1. Remove Notifications 🔔

  • Check your phone after a couple of hours.
  • Keep an eye on the app with the most notifications.
  • Block them.
  • Don't fear FOMO.
  • Choose your shots.
  • You are going to lose some content around.
  • Deal with it.
  • Watch The Social Dilemma.

2. Slice your time 🍕

  • Use blocks of time without interruptions (timeboxing).
  • My favorite is Pomodoro Technique.
  • If you come across new tasks write them down.
  • Don't multitask.
  • You cannot switch until time is up.
  • 20 minutes it's a good slice.

3. Inbox0 📥

  • Keep your inbox ALWAYS empty.
  • Unsubscribe to all irrelevant mails (most of the time is a just-one-click).
  • Create filtering rules - out of the inbox.
  • If you need to action on mails: (keep the list out, create a special folder).
  • Inbox is not a To-do list.

4. Find your Flow 🕯️

  • Creative work happens on flow state.
  • Takes some time to enter flow (about 15 mins).
  • Takes one second to leave it and go to the queue again.
  • Remove all external flow interruptions, notifications, noise
  • Control all internal stimulus.

5. Use Zenware 💭

  • Use simple software.
  • Minimalistic tasks editors like writemonkey and simple managing software like Trello
  • If you blog on @hashnode you will find its markup editor very convenient.
  • Don't procrastinate gold plating your articles.

6. Close Your Browser Tabs 🔓

  • Manage to-do lists and items.
  • Do not open multiple tabs.
  • No operating system or web browser handles them very well. Neither you.
  • Don't multitask.
  • If something takes less than two minutes do it. Else add it to To-Do list.
  • Web tabs are not to-do lists.

7. Find Homes for everything 🏠

  • Every object (real or virtual) should have a home.
  • We can keep inboxes (or incoming places) for things a couple of days.
  • We need brief processes to empty those inboxes.
  • When emptying those inboxes we should define new 'homes' if necessary.

8. Keep a Daily Agenda 📅

  • Start each day with a short daily agenda.
  • You can mix personal and work items or keep them in two separate lists.
  • Plan for unplanned work.
  • Revisit hourly to keep up.
  • And close it at night.
  • Never reuse it for the next day. Start from scratch.

9. Automate Repetitive Tasks 🤖

  • Find repeatable shortcuts.
  • Automate repetitive tasks.
  • It is a two sharp blade. Never automate when DOING a task.
  • Automating is more enjoyable than doing (Procrastination).
  • Automate only tasks made on daily basis.
  • Don't automate infrequent things.

10. Avoid Unproductive Meetings 🤝

  • Schedule meetings for 25 or 50 minutes.
  • So you can have time to switch.
  • Meetings without agenda are useless.
  • Avoid meetings with more than three people.
  • The outcome of the meeting should be action items.

Commitments must include:

  • who / what / when

11. Avoid Multitasking 👨‍💼

  • Don’t multitask.
  • Work on one task at a time.
  • Multitasking is a myth, and trying to do it only splits your focus.
  • Human Brain is monotask.
  • Context Switching for neurons is too expensive, so you are thrashing most of the time.

Focus -> Flow.

12. Avoid Voice Calls 📞

  • Voice Calls are interruptions.
  • Interruptions are our worst enemy.
  • Avoid unscheduled voice calls.
  • If it is not urgent you can talk via messaging in an asynchronous way.
  • If it is urgent, double check it is urgent.
  • If you wanna talk, schedule!

13. Eat the Frog Early in the Morning 🌤️

  • Do the annoying tasks early in the morning.
  • You will be happy the rest of the day
  • Avoid procrastination and gain self-confidence.
  • It is the moment with more energy and freshness.
  • Plan for the rest of the day.
  • Review everything accomplished the day before.

14. Don't reuse daily to-do lists ✔️

  • Start each day with a different one.
  • With this method there's no carry over.
  • Daily check yesterday's unfinished goals and evaluate if they deserve being on the new list.
  • It is YOUR list. Be honest with yourself.

15. Measure Objectives 📈

  • Set long term, middle term and short term goals.
  • They should not be fuzzy.
  • Set a realistic and measurable metric.
  • If it is not measurable with exit condition it is not a goal.
  • Keep track on them on a weekly basis.
  • Change it if need it.

16. Don't Save for Later 🍓

  • Save for later is a myth.
  • There are excellent apps like Pocket, Inoreader, Evernote or even Hashnode Bookmark like in this article.
  • But unless you consume the list often this will grow forever.
  • Don't save content, consume it.
  • Have you bookmarked this article for later?
  • Don't Hoard.


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Created by

Maximiliano Contieri

🎓Learn something new every day.📆 💻CS software engineer 👷coding👨🏽‍🏫teaching ✍🏾writing 🎨Software Design 🏢SOLID 🌉TDD 👴Legacy 💩Code Smells


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