
Ask HN: Time management strategies that made the greatest impact on productivity - HiroshiSan
What time management strategies have you implemented that have made the greatest impact on your productivity?<p>I find it very difficult to stick to time management strategies, I’m looking for simple hacks that go a long way.
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fab1an
No app / software / system, and this is very subjective, but I've found that
for myself the following principles work well:

1\. Every hour of sleep before midnight is 'worth' 2 hours in terms of good
sleep. Going to bed at 11pm already provides huge improvements in morning mood
and productivity. See -->3.

2\. In the evening, write down the 3 most important things you wish to achieve
on the next day.

3\. Early mornings work hours (even in your pyjama) are vastly more productive
than any other time of the day.

~~~
maltalex
Points 1 and 3 depend heavily on your biological clock. Not everyone is a
morning person.

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neofrommatrix
RescueTime. It gives you a breakdown of every time sink, and does it using an
efficiency metric. You can also set limits to specific websites; for example,
I've set a time limit of 10 minutes per day for social networking websites.
After 10 minutes, access to those sites are blocked for 24 hours.

~~~
HiroshiSan
Thanks for the suggestion. I used to use RescueTime but never with limits. I
will try it out!! Any other ways you use it that have made you more
productive?

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itamarst
I tend to undervalue time management when it comes to productivity. The
fundamental premise is that you can get more out of limited amount of time,
which is true, but there's limit to how much extra productivity you can get
that way. 30% saving? 50% saving? Eventually you're stuck.

In contrast, you can get order of magnitude productivity improvements by
avoiding unnecessary work - a task that might take junior programmer weeks can
often be done by an experienced programmer in a couple of days, and done
better too. And it's not because of time management. More here -
[https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/)
\- and here - [https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/10/04/technical-skills-
pro...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/10/04/technical-skills-productive/)

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aaavl2821
I've been using the pomodoro method to fairly good effect. Basically set a
timer for 2-355 minutes, and just work on something. Then take a 5-10 minute
break and repeat. Every four sessions, take a longer break

I often get into a trap of thinking about the best thing I should be working
on rather than actually working on anything. This helps with that. I usually
reserve the first two sessions of the day for checking emails and getting
organized for the day, then the rest of the day is executing on the plan

Also I document the main things I worked on each period and the time worked
each period (in theory it's 25 minutes / session but often more like 35-1
hour+)

After a year of doing this i find ~65% of my time is spent working rather than
breaks (including lunch and gym) and I work about 10 hours / day. Should
mention I work from home

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davewasthere
Dave Allen's Getting Things Done worked well for me. Although I don't see it
as a time management strategy, more of a task management system.

I don't really use the location-context lists. What I found handy was the task
workflow and getting to inbox-zero (no un-handled emails in the inbox).

When I first implemented it at work, I spent three days going through some 2k+
emails. I found about 6 or 7 emails in that lot that probably needed some
action, or was sparking some idea that actually was quite valuable.

But the bulk of emails you can either delete (you'll never need it again) or
store for retrieval. And the few that require an action, either do it
immediately (if it's less than two minutes) or defer/delegate.

Another life-hack is to be ruthless and unsubscribe from as much as
possible... almost none of it is necessary.

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cimmanom
If you get distracted frequently by email, turn off notifications (or even
unread counts) for it and make a habit of checking it only on a fixed schedule
- such as first thing in the morning, at lunchtime, and last thing before
leaving.

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addcn
I find that measuring has a huge impact. Download the Hours app for iOS and
make timers for work, family, working out, food, etc.

~~~
HiroshiSan
Is there anything Android related?

