Ask HN: What’s a productivity tip you can share?

When I need to be productive, I have a script that blocks all social media and news sites with /etc/hosts. It helps preventing distraction in those times when my fingers move faster than my brain and start typing yco when the browser opens instead of whatever I should be looking for.

atoav's comment about using paper also strikes me as being helpful. I often find writing longhand to be more mentally stimulating than typing, and the lack of light shining in my face seems to improve my attention span. Might just be fooling myself, but it seems to work.

Paper, pen, that's it.

Find times where you completely tune out of email, slack, or whatever communication software you use. For emergencies, set up a mechanism where you can still be reached.

Don’t worry about immediately responding to every ping.

Reduce the number of items on your plate or delegate them to others.

Don’t always immediately jump to helping someone when they ask for help. Figure out the balance between “is this person actually blocked or are they not applying themselves on this problem?”

My main point is this — there are too many distractions. If you are eager to help everyone else and take on every little thing people throw your way, you’ll never get your work done. The constant context switching will slowly chip away at your soul, in my case leaving me with feelings of disdain towards certain colleagues. And that also isn’t fair to them.

It’s up to you how to manage and set expectations, but prioritize your well being first and then many things will fit nicely in place