Your best productivity tip?

A good night's sleep is the key to daytime success and productivity

Currently I'm using a pomodoro timer with 25-5-15 min setup, where I have long breaks each 4 focus time. Some tips:

• When you are in a break, do something relaxing/mindless like drawing(even if you aren't a drawing guy), playing some quick dumb game or something the bring more boredom to the moment like staring in the walls. Leave this frame time to do something NOT RELATED to your work.
• In your focus time, use this time to FOCUS in the product, not in clients or stakeholders.
• In your long break, use this time to answers e-mails, phone calls, planning with your team(updating cards in trello etc), communication in general etc.

I'm eating the frog first - doing my hardest, most important task first thing in the morning

waking up and not looking at my phone + journaling in the morning + writing out priorities for the week! or the night before lol

The answer for me is time blocking (blocking a fixed time in your calendar for certain tasks) with the added 'secret ingredient' of co-working (working with others).

When I work alone, time blocking isn't always effective for me.

1. I’d find myself pushing the time block later and later in my calendar for no reason (especially on days that my calendar was fairly open),
2. I’d get distracted during my blocked time and end up browsing through Reddit/Twitter/IH,
3. I’d work just to 'fill the time' as opposed to working to complete the task within the time.

But then I discovered adding co-working. By this, I specifically mean working 'live' with other people at the same time, which adds a layer of social accountability. For me, letting myself down is a lot easier than letting other people down.

Time blocking + co-working = those three problems solved.

When I added co-working...

1. I started working when I was supposed to start, because other people were expecting me to start then,
2. I’d not get distracted and look at my phone, because I didn’t want to look like I wasn't working,
3. I’d actually get my work done faster, because I knew I had to report on my progress to the others at the end of the session.

Now, if you’re someone with incredible self-discipline, time blocking alone might be enough for you. You might not need the added 'secret ingredient'.

But I’m not that disciplined and that extra ingredient has made my time blocking more effective. After each session, I've got a lot more done in less time and end up feeling more accomplished.

You can use a friend or 'co-working buddy' to improve your time blocking. I also started a virtual co-working community called FlowHuddle. We meet up every week (I'm hoping to increase the number of sessions each week) to get work done faster - whatever it is you’re working on. It’s completely free to join the sessions so, if you think it'll interest you, check it out here.

Exercise
👉 Exercise triggers a protein called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which also happens to boost your cognitive abilities.

👉 Exercise gives you more energy through mitochondria production, higher oxygen circulation & increased hormone levels.

Keeping my phone away during work

Maybe a bit of a meta-answer but the tip that worked best for me: Surround yourself with people who are productive, driven and ambitious. And ruthlessly cut ties with people who aren't.

Take responsibility of your time.

Money is not divided equally in this world, but time is.

Time is our most valuable resource.
Everyone got 168 hours a week.
You cannot change that.

What do I do personally?
For longer than a year, I take responsibility of my time.
I track everything in my calendar,
so that I have 1 single tool/program for both planning and reflection.

So far, I've created 6 startups in 1 year, by just taking responsibility of my time and how I use it.

I've even created a (free!) app to analyse my calendar, and give me insights when I want it.
(I even use it to automatically create my invoices for freelance work)
Link to app: https://segro.app

You can also use another app or time trackers or whatever.
I'm just trying to give you tools to improve yourself.

Take responsibility of your time.

Breakdown your goal/task into pieces!

Get an accountability partner.

Break up your project into small, digestible tasks and make a checklist out of them. You'll get a little endorphin boost when you check off one of your tasks that will motivate you to keep going.

Mine is being in a space with productive people around me. Because it’s not lonely but you are by yourself - does that make sense?

Take a break on a regular basis. Find your biological time by dividing your work hours by your tasks each day.

Here is what I do:

• I start doing my hardest tasks during the time I am most efficient.
• How do you find when you are most efficient in a day?
• You basically try doing your hardest tasks in different hours. The aim here is to find the time you feel most comfortable doing that particular task. Some people are more efficient in the daytime or some people like working in the evening.
• By doing that exercise you can find out how you can arrange your work and do the most important thing in that time zone.

You can not believe how much you can do just in an hour when you are at your peak level.

Drink water, do exercise, we all do like to work and our jobs are like our children but take care of yourself because you are more important than your job.

Passive productivity:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/passive-productivity-getting-more-done-by-default-7d27b648dc

No tool worked for me without motivation. So my biggest tip is to ensure that you are motivated.
I get motivation with two techniques: Write in the morning my goals (could be 10 years, 1 year, 1 month or 1 week). But have always a clear focus on the why I am doing the things I do.

And fear. Visualize what will happen if I don't do what I want to do (not wanting to go back to a 9to5 work, not having economic independence, not have freedom of execution).

The day it works, the techniques, and tools are no longer relevant.

Writing.

No seriously, writing has been an absolute game changer for me.

The problem I used to face was task overwhelm.

I started waking up in the morning and just dumping everything I could think of into my journal.

Then I identified 2-3 "goal tasks" and made it a priority to finish them.

There was an interesting pattern that emerged - about 70% of all tasks can be deferred or delegated, of which half of them can be disregarded.

In terms of the writing method I use the bullet journal.

My personal format is -> Rapid log tasks + quick journal about my thoughts and feelings.

Start by setting realistic goals for what you hope to accomplish. Make a list of tasks and priorities each day, and try to stick to it as best you can

We actually tackle productivity at https://wellnessentially.com.

One the things we offer is the Pomodoro technique which others have also described. Alongside this tool that forces you to stay focused and at the same time take the required breaks, we offer a variety of tools that will make you feel better, more relaxed and more capable of staying/going into focused mode such as destress, hydration, fitness, vision relax, posture exercises, gratitude and more

• I set deadlines for myself in my consulting deliverables and I don't get paid until their done. Extrinsic motivation hack is great to get stuff done and keep clients very happy.

• Having trouble starting work? The first five minutes are the hardest, do something small to 'get into' it, and let the flow take over.

I struggle with productivity and focus a lot, but what helps me is:

• Anything time sensitive goes into the calendar
• Pomodoro timer for forcing focus and rest time. During breaks I just walk around the house or gaze into the distance to ease the strain on the eyes.
• Strictly turning off all distracting notifications on my phone & laptop
• Todo list to prioritise and plan work
• Breaking big tasks down into smaller chunks to avoid procrastinating on the more challenging tasks

My pomodoro app of choice is https://flowapp.info/

Hope this helps anyone!

Long stretches of focused work! It really helps a ton. And don't check your phone that morning or email. Get straight into the deep work. Hope it helps :)

Deep work and no food till 11 am.

My routine consists of planning & strict execution. Sounds boring and has to be, so you just focus on getting things done in a broader context, rather thinking of what do to next.

Every Sunday: plan your week - what results do you expect at the end of this week.
Every day evening: plan your next day - block time per topic.
During a day: Timekeeping on topics. If you don't manage to accomplish the task - stop.

Yes, sometimes on topic depends on another. Yes, unexpected things come up. And over time you get on how to incorporate it into your routine of planning ahead.

Hi, I do work till 6PM every day, except Weekends. :)

Oh, the best way for me and quite a few people in our team is to have a to-do list. I know, it sounds like the most basic option, but it's been super effective. I try to do the most complicated jobs first and the work I enjoy at the end of the day. That way, I still have motivation for the next day, too.

Don't focus on how many hours you work, focus on the results.
I fell into this trap so many times, where I don't feel good about myself if I work less than X amount of time. In reality, if you focus on the results you will be motivated to go above and beyond to achieve them.

Pair program.

You can do stuff like smartphones apps, alarms, and whatnot. But at the end of the day, it’s up to YOU, and you alone.

In my experience, the best productivity tip is to get off of your butt, and get it done. Come hell or high rain. No distractions. Put your blinders on.

Just do it.

Interesting, in the WBE Space we are actually going to have an event where each one of us will be sharing our productivity tips.