
Ask HN: What are your productivity hacks? - ashishk
I've been trying to be more productive by taking small, concrete steps. What systems have you set up for yourself?<p>Here's what I have.<p>1. Whiteboard tasks for the week, w. daily assignments<p>2. Check emails once an hour<p>3. Set default page in FF as a blank page(as opposed to Gmail, Reader, etc.)<p>4. Tea, not coffee. Cup of water on hand at all times.<p>5. 7 pull ups each time I use the bathroom.<p>Equipment-wise, multiple screens tend to help. A good chair too.
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edw519
I like to keep it simple. My list has 1 item on it. I work on that until
either it's done (often) or I struggle so much with it that I decide to change
plans (rarely).

For the last 2 days, I've been writing a model configurator that explodes
input parameters into individual objects. I probably have 8 or 9 things
dependent on this (not really sure yet), so I plug away until done. Then I'll
figure out the new only thing on my list.

I've tried every conceivable "productivity hack" and nothing has worked as
well as this. I have scratch pads, paper on the wall, 20 colors of markers,
and all kinds of automated tools for scheduling and planning. I've varied my
diet, my exercise routine, my daily routine, and almost anything else I could
vary, and none of it really mattered. All it ever really did was take focus
away from the real task at hand.

Just identify your critical path, remove it, and repeat forever.

I started with this and fine tuned what worked for me:

<http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html>

Other inspiriation:

"I see only one move ahead, but it is always the correct one." chess master
Jose R. Capablanca

~~~
revorad
_Just identify your critical path, remove it, and repeat forever._

Remove it? I don't understand; could you please explain?

~~~
skorgu
I parsed it as "resolve", or remove it from the plan because it's done.

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maxklein
A friend of mine was working in a lab, writing his thesis with 4 people who
were either professors or doctors in electronics. He asked once - what is the
most important thing you did for your success.

They all discussed it and agreed on this rule:

If you have 10 things to do, and you do them all in parallel, you will be done
slower with ALL of them, than if you do them one after the other.

That's the biggest productivity hack - do things one after the other, and not
all at once.

~~~
niels_olson
this should be at the top of the comments.

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ankeshk
1.

Prioritization. Spending 10 minutes every end-of-day planning the next day.

2.

Scheduling chaos time. Leave spare time every day and every week which is like
extra time to get the tasks done. So there is no backlog.

3.

Using leechblock firefox plugin to make sure I don't read google reader, HN
etc before lunch.

4.

Making plans public. I used to have an accountability partner where we both
used to tell each other what we'll achieve for that day. And then check up on
each other at the end of the day.

5.

Scheduling meetings at the end of the day. While there are exceptions because
of time conflicts, most of my meetings happen at the end of the day. And
sometimes during lunch.

~~~
sh1mmer
_4\. Making plans public. I used to have an accountability partner where we
both used to tell each other what we'll achieve for that day. And then check
up on each other at the end of the day._

That is a genius idea. Nothing like peer pressure to help you achieve stuff.

~~~
cschep
I really like the idea of no wasted time before lunch. Trying to remove
reader/hn for the entire day sucks, but maybe knowing "only" after lunch would
help increase my rate on my already more productive morning time.

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terrellm
My wife and I own two small software companies (similar product, different
niches) and have a small cattle ranch. We work from our house and also have a
14 month old son. Being productive is essential for us to manage our work/life
balance.

A few things that have worked for us:

1) Hire someone to be on the "front lines" so you can queue your tasks while
your business still has timely responses

2) Minimize switching hats throughout the day (marketer to programmer to
customer service)

3) Avoid computer distractions \- Remove programs from dock (use QuickSilver
instead) \- Remove notifications (menu bar items icons, widgets, growl
notifications) \- Remove bookmarks bar from Safari and FireFox \- Remove email
notifier and only check 1-2x a day and when you are ready to answer them

4) Plan ahead by creating tomorrow's ToDo list today

5) Separate Google Reader feeds by subject and only read specific subjects
when wearing that hat

6) Stop bookmarking URLs and saving code snippets - it will probably be out of
date by the time you need it (assuming you can remember where you saved it)

~~~
jcapote
So true about number 6, I must have thousands of bookmarks and URLs saved that
I've _never_ referred to.

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dpcan
My best productivity hack has to be the "million dollar idea list" that is
SEPARATE from my daily to-do list.

Every time I have an idea now, I force myself to put it on that list, and if
I'm still thinking about it in 2-5 days, then I'll allow myself some time to
explore it further.

It has saved me hours a week. I used to explore an idea immediately for up to
an hour, sometimes more, and all that time is lost because several of the
ideas shouldn't have been allowed even 2-seconds.

~~~
codeodor
Just this morning I've set up a wiki for myself to help with this problem.

As ideas come in, I'll post them to the front page under "free floaters"
(working on quicksilver action for that right now), then as they start to form
or as I do research, I'll start fleshing out the pages for each idea.

I'm hoping the wiki aspect will also force me to look at how individual ideas
might be related. I'm thinking of it conceptually as a mind map that changes
with time.

I'm not sure if MediaWiki has the ability to view those relationships at a
high level, but if not, I'll write something that does.

~~~
niels_olson
very similar idea here. I also run a mediawiki wiki on my laptop, and my pile
of ideas is in a template I call the idea garden. The front page of the wiki
is a pile of templates: to do list, idea garden, and a subject-matter-specific
meta template that has two levels of links into all the other areas. Been
using it for over a year now, swear by it. SVN and PHP are not cool, but it
works, and that counts. BTW, what plugins are you using? I'm using

* SpamBlacklist (just in case) * ConfirmEdit (just in case) * Cite * Parser Functions * FCKEditor * Quiz

I'm getting mediawiki and plugins through mediawiki svn, and apache, php,
postgres, etc, from macports. You?

~~~
codeodor
I haven't yet looked into the plugin's available, but I'll check out the ones
you mentioned.

I've installed PHP, MySQL, and MediaWiki from zips/installers on a Windows
server I have access to so I could hit it from any of my computers or
(eventually) phone.

I guess I could have set it up at home, but I don't like keeping my computers
on 24/7. I'm considering getting an Asus EEE box that supposedly only needs
20W, so I may revisit that in the future.

------
djm
I've tried every productivity trick under the sun but very few things ever
work for me, or at least not for very long.

The system that has worked best when I can bring myself to stick to it is:

1) Write a small paper list before going to bed of what I want to do tomorrow.

2) Tidy my room and get any work materials that I will need (which for me
normally just means relevant books etc) ready on my desk.

3) Try to start work the moment I get up.

4) Record what work I do on a simple paper based schedule in 30m blocks during
the day. I'm somehow less likely to procrastinate if I know that I am going to
have to write down that I've done it.

Thats about it. Getting up at the same time every day and avoiding too much
coffee helps too.

I seem to be able to stick to this system fairly well most of the time but
when something happens that causes me to stop, then it often takes me weeks to
get back on track.

Whatever system you use, just make sure it is as simple as possible. You don't
want maintaining your time management/productivity system to become your full-
time job!

Hope this helps ashishk

~~~
boggles
I like your record keeping idea. I'm going to try to that to make myself more
accountable to myself.

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patio11
Once a week, take something you're doing ad hoc and systematize it, or take
something you've systemized and measure it, or take something you've measured
and improve it, or take something you've improved and automate it.

Note that the above suggestion is self-referential.

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spaghetti
Positive thinking. Every hour of every day. My productivity increases greatly
when I take a break and imagine beautiful things, funny things, myself and
others enjoying success etc rather than reading news online or playing
negative video games (for example).

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jwecker
In addition to other suggestions, I would suggest the pomodoro technique if
you're in an environment where you deal with reactive/disruptive work mixed in
with focused work. <http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/>

Depending also on the variance of your work- if there is work that requires
lots of contexts (phone-work vs. appointments vs. programming vs. design...)
there's always Getting Things Done (GTD). I would also recommend GTD if you
deal with lots of incoming data-streams, paperwork, or if you are generally
unorganized.

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byoung2
1\. Outsourcing tasks that don't require my specific involvement to my
offshore team. 2\. Dining out instead of cooking. It is not much more
expensive to dine out, but it saves me time (grocery shopping, cooking time,
cleaning time). 3\. Roomba. I will never vacuum again. Ever.

~~~
caffeine
It's unhealthy, though, isn't it? I have a hard time finding places that are
healthy, fast, tasty and cheap all the same time. Whereas I can quickly cook
healthy cheap and tasty meals.

~~~
byoung2
Not at all. Living in California makes it easy...there are a lot of health-
conscious options for dining out in LA (my favorites are Japanese, Vietnamese,
and Thai food), and all chain restaurants are now required to provide
nutritional content for the whole menu.

~~~
deltaqueue
Definitely not the case in Texas (yet); although, Austin is better than most
cities over here.

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mmc
1\. set noprocrast on HN

2\. use a separate browser for Gmail

3\. don't check emails automatically. Only if I think of it.

4\. only read online news once during the day, at lunch, and use
instapaper.com to defer articles that might take more than a few minutes to
read.

5\. the null default browser page is a great idea - but in the past I've taken
it further, with a message asking if I'm browsing for work. I've also thought
that a script displaying my current todo list or bug count, etc. would be a
good default page.

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swombat
When working at home, where other people (e.g. your parents) live:

A closed door.

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teuobk
1\. Focus on one task at a time, and make a clean break when switching to
another task. No multitasking.

2\. Make lots of tea in the morning and put it in a thermos. The tea stays hot
all day, and I don't have to go through the entire brewing process every time
I want another cup.

3\. Use software that tracks time spent on tasks. (I use a bug tracker with
that feature.) I find it very motivating when I know I'm on the clock.

Actually, it seems like there's a entrepreneurial opportunity here. Maybe a
service where a representative checks in on the client from time to time to
make sure that the client is staying on task. Kind of like a for-profit
"accountabilibuddy."

~~~
mmc
Nice name - I once had an idea for an accountability buddy web site for grad
students, called 'e-advisor'. Basically you sign up and it sends you an email
every so often asking about your progress. If you don't reply fast enough, it
notifies your actual advisor that you're slacking.

~~~
pavs
I think the word "accountabilibuddy" was taken from an episode of south park.

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__david__
My number one rule is to reduce the code, compile, test iteration cycle.

If your compiles are too slow then get a faster computer.

Writing a hardware driver or developing embedded code? Make sure your test
hardware is sitting on your desk. You can have it somewhere else if it's ssh-
able and has a remote reboot button that's accessible from the command line.
Because if those are true then your build is scriptable.

Always make sure that you have to run only 1 command to compile and load your
new code to the test hardware (IE, up-arrow return does it all). If you have
to do more than one thing to get your code running then you are wasting
precious brain cycles on your build process which can be as big an
interruption as a phone call or email, especially if the things you have to
type aren't even the same every time.

At the moment I'm violating this principle by having to drive 15 minutes to
get access to my test machine. I can program there too, but it's kind of a
hassle. Needless to say this project has dragged on for weeks longer than it
should have. Sigh.

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mburney
I batch my tasks for greater efficiency. If I have to do 3 meetings in a week,
I try my best to schedule them all in the same day. I check email only once a
day. Check and go through regular mail only once a week. Do all my shopping,
groceries, errands all in the same day once a week. Also I try to never do any
work after dinner.

------
Randai
A proper amount of sleep, say 8 hours is usually creamy for myself, your
mileage may vary. For myself at least, I find that if I don't get proper sleep
that the performance lost over the awake time just isn't worth skimping on
sleep. That and I feel like shit.

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yanowitz
Modified GTD.

1\. Instead of a weekly review, I assign _every_ task a date -- that's the
date I want to next think about it (either to do it, decide it's no longer
important or to set a next time I want to think about it).

2\. Every morning, without fail, process my inbox (Todo and email), assign
dates to things, review that set of things I wanted to review that day (and
act according to step(1) above) and then get on with my day. Usually, this is
a ~10-15 minutes task.. This amortizes the weekly review over every day.

3\. Capture any and every actionable idea I have in the same system. (at the
moment, I use Things and email todos into it when I'm on the go)

I put everything in this system -- not just work items. It's all stuff-I-have-
to-do-in-my-life.

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jamesbritt
I've been gradually building an app to help me do a form of time-boxing. Plus
have about 5 different ways to set reminders for myself.

One thing I got from the the Getting Things Done universe is that having a
reliable way to offload notes, thoughts, plans, etc. is essentially, because
it means you can safely forget about stuff. That allows for better focus on
whatever it is you decide to do right now.

I wrote about some of my CLI todo/tasks/bugs hacks here:
[http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/posts/jamesbritt/James_wil...](http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/posts/jamesbritt/James_will_be_right_back_after_these_interruptions.html)

------
kiba
Mine is pure-ironcald discipline. That, and you love to do the things that
you're doing.

Everything else, work only in short term. Plus you don't need discipline to do
what you love to do.

So, just make something a daily task and stick to it for at least 30 days.

------
kristiandupont
I run pomodoros:
[http://www.bestbrains.dk/Blog/2009/02/21/CanATomatoChangeYou...](http://www.bestbrains.dk/Blog/2009/02/21/CanATomatoChangeYourLifeThePomodoroTechnique.aspx)

~~~
belitsky
Same here, really simple and powerful technique. Just focus on what you need
for 25 min, than pause for 3-5 minutes. Repeat as needed.

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defied
When writing code, think about the best solution for the problem while not
sitting behind a computer. Then start coding without testing/refreshing your
browser after every single line of code you've written. Once you feel
confident the code should be ok, then start testing. You'll definitely be more
productive this way, I know I am.

------
rokhayakebe
Power Naps.

EDIT: And if you can, cook only twice a week, making enough for a few days.
Setup coffee machine before going to sleep.

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mahmud
1) ifconfig wlan0 down

2) No matter what, I always sit down at my desk at 10AM and fire up Emacs
first. Even if I don't know what I am doing, as soon as the project builds and
I scan the first few lines of code, yesterday's hacking session comes back to
me and I resume work.

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Mongoose
1\. Remove Facebook from my bookmarks toolbar 2\. Restrict myself to one time-
leeching website (HN, Stack Overflow, Google Reader) open at any given time
3\. Keep IM, IRC, and Twitter in a separate space so that I have control of
when I see updates.

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dejv
I wrote some kind of todo/task list management sw for myself: it is just task
prioritized by some factor, one task displayed one time, with some browsing
functionality.

It works for me, I am using this system for more then one year and love it.

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sireat
1\. I check e-mail once a day(could probably move to a weekly schedule
although I don't think I could ever attain Knuth like batching prowess).

2\. I turn off cell phone when working on something important.

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mdemare
1\. Turn off sound/visual notifications for email. 2\. End long running
compilations/tests scripts with 'say "compilation done"' as a cue to stop
browsing the web.

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msie
While playing Daft Punk's 'Veridis Quo': 1\. Read about Lisp. 2\. Open XCode.
3\. Code in Objective-C. :P

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simanyay
How (7) is a productivity hack?

~~~
ashishk
pretty indirect, the idea is to do something physically active to increase
blood flow, awareness, etc.

might be more effective to wash ones face with cold water though.

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4buot
1\. Work on problems I care about.

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iterationx
control your thoughts. no daydreaming.

turn off the music.

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erlanger
1\. Vim

2\. Efficient shell usage

3\. Alternating coffee and ganja

I think only the last one's a hack but it's a damn good one.

~~~
caffeine
I second (1) and (2) - but for me (3) has a periodicity of roughly 4 years (I
can't remember which one college was ... and I've become insomniac in grad
school).

