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Ask HN: What are your productivity hacks?
58 points by ashishk on Sept 7, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 61 comments
I've been trying to be more productive by taking small, concrete steps. What systems have you set up for yourself?

Here's what I have.

1. Whiteboard tasks for the week, w. daily assignments

2. Check emails once an hour

3. Set default page in FF as a blank page(as opposed to Gmail, Reader, etc.)

4. Tea, not coffee. Cup of water on hand at all times.

5. 7 pull ups each time I use the bathroom.

Equipment-wise, multiple screens tend to help. A good chair too.




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


I phrase this as "solve the first problem" whenever I explain my functionally identical method to others. Google tells me I have stolen Tilton's Law[1], the origin of which I will endeavor to remember in future.

[1] http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/03/tiltons-law-solve-...

Edit: grammar.


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

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


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


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.


this should be at the top of the comments.


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.


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.


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.


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)


So true about number 6, I must have thousands of bookmarks and URLs saved that I've never referred to.


Very good tips. I have to say that bookmarking things saves me hours. I bookmark maybe five things a week and retrieve about 2-4 bookmarks a week. I only bookmark things that would be difficult to search for so it certainly saves me time.


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.


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.


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?


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.


I operate basically the same except I sit on an idea for 2 weeks. I cleverly named this rule "The two week rule".


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


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


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.


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).


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


New York City banned trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils) in restaurants.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/hscout/2009/07/20/hscout629180.h...


You're exactly right. Dining out is an insignificant cost increase unless you're eating healthy (at which point the gap widens). Granted, this is entirely a function of how much your time is worth...


Remember when you calculate the cost of cooking that you have to add in the time spent grocery shopping, cooking, washing dishes, the cost of the electricity, gas, and water consumed, the time and cost of disposing of the trash, wear and tear on appliances, etc.

Dining out is essentially outsourcing these tasks.


Time spent on grocery shopping, washing dishes, etc. are only opportunity costs, they only cost money if you were to otherwise use that specific time generating income.


For someone working on a startup in his free time, there are only opportunity costs! If it costs $10 extra per day to dine out, that's $3650 a year. If it saves an hour a day which can be used for working on the startup, that's 365 hours, or the equivalent of 45 business days at a full time job.


Is cooking really such a hateful activity? I kind of enjoy it, sometimes. It can be relaxing .. sort of like programming with edible code. And chicks dig guys who can cook (not to mention that guys obviously dig girls who can cook).

Which means: cooking is probably the most effective way to use programming skills for romance :)


I would love to hear a few of your recipes for healthy cheap and tasty meals that can be prepared quickly.


Below are some vague, probably bizarre ideas, mixed in with terrible CS metaphores. I apologize in advance:

I think it's mainly about amortization. So you can prepare rice, a big vegetable curry, and a roast turkey on the weekend. These are time consuming but set-and-forget items (code and curry mix well).

You can then add JIT customization during the week - get last-day shrimp and make a stir fry (use a decent vegetable oil, it doesn't need much) with your rice.

This one sounds strange but is delicious - If you're feeling vegetarian, curry makes a great burrito filling (if you like cheese, melt a little on top).

I've got a market nearby where I can get lots of cheap tomatoes (most are slightly squishy because they're almost old. These are the best kind). Throw 'em in a blender with an onion, garlic clove, lemon juice, and chili, and you've got delicious fresh salsa. Takes 5 minutes, and it's delicious next to fish (like cod) which can be seared quite rapidly.

Get a chicken breast, just saute lightly. Then sear the sides - with oyster sauce for an asian theme, raisins and cinnamon for a moroccan one. Heat your salsa up and stew it with your rice to make a lovely spicy goulash (don't try this with canned salsa though, it's horrible).

Nothing is more decadent than a hot turkey sandwich with gravy and cranberry sauce when it's nowhere near thanksgiving, and turkey can be a good deal off-season.

Money-saving: spend a bit of money on: good breads (a sandwich is gourmet if served on sufficiently high quality bread), good sauces and toppings. Save money on veggies (buy last-day), drinks (drink water), starch (buy in huge bags).

What works well for speed is parallelism (clean while you cook, cook everything at the same time), amortization, and JIT compilation of add-ons :) Spend time on your amortized foods to get them right (so do soak your rice in cold water etc.. this pays off in delicious flavor, and the time cost per meal is tiny).


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.


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

A closed door.


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."


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.


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


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.


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.


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.


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.


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...


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.


I run pomodoros: http://www.bestbrains.dk/Blog/2009/02/21/CanATomatoChangeYou...


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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


How (7) is a productivity hack?


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.


1. Work on problems I care about.


control your thoughts. no daydreaming.

turn off the music.


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.


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).




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