Disclaimer - I wrote this
https://betterself.io to help me out here. It's helped me get much better, but certainly isn't perfect. It's open-sourced at
https://github.com/jeffshek/betterself/.
Someone posted this quote a while back, and it stuck with me. "Think of your mind every morning as a clean desk, and every time you get distracted via social, game, etc, you put something on it. It then gets progressively harder to do work with a messier desk. The best way is to just always have a clean desk."
I logged habits and supplements for over a year. Things that were effective were having a lot of strong routines that pull you in the right direction.
So things that helped were
X) Have some type of metric you are measuring to. For me it was RescueTime and WakaTime. How productive was I for this week compared to last?
1A) Have your phone on DnD or Airplane Mode.
1) Start the day off with SelfControl app. Add the timer to lock out all disractions until X PM every day.
2) Use a cold shower to wake up
3) Meditate
4) Eat the same foods that won't make you groggy / crap. This sounds masochastic in some way, but it's much easier than it sounds once you get used to it. For instance, the same oatmeal for breakfast is a great way to set a routine.
5) Track what supplements and food you were taking that improved productivity.
6) Inversely, see what supplements or diets you might be taking that does the opposite.
7) Set up a sleep routine. Melatonin at 3mg is a sweet spot. Getting six hours of sleep every night is the perfect amount for me. Everyone varies. The point is don't take "one size fits all advice" for something so crucial to your life. Less than 5 and I was easily distracted. More than 7 and I was groggy. There's a lot of information about how to sleep better. The point is to find a way to maximize sleep quality ... six hours in a city is going to be very different from six hours of sleep in a quiet area.
8) I've tried a lot of supplements. The most effective ones on productivity were ones that helped me with anxiety (so the opposite of caffeine). I eliminated a lot that didn't do anything.
9) Have a track / music that you listen to that starts you in a groove. For instance, I have a EDM Mixtape that I've probably listened to over a thousand times this year. You'll find that a lot of high throughout writers do something similar. The music helps build a habit of "okay, it's time to do work now"
10) Find the right setting / environment that makes you productive. Face a wall. Accept the fact if you can't work from home, then don't.
11) Go for walks when you're bored. Admit to yourself when you're not being productive and you're just spinning your wheels.
12) Exercise. Missing gym workouts (even though it was like 1-2 hours) was a sharp drop in total productivity.
13) Pomodoros. Start with 25 minutes and keep on going up (I average hour long Pomodoros now). When you get distracted in a Pomodoro, have a note card called "Distractions" and write what you want to to do there. That way your mind can stop obsessing about "New Avengers Trailer" if it knows it's going to get there after the break.
When you first start with Pomodoros, have a notebook of how many Pomodoros you did. Make it a goal to do just five pomodoros a day. You'll be impressed how hard that is initially.
14) No lying to yourself. Everytime I've said "this time is different for a YouTube video about anything mildy interesting", I've regretted it.
15) Plan for a social night at least once a week. You do need some rest. Self flagellation about not having earned it is almost a recipe of more anxiety and procrastination. (I'm not great at following this yet)
16) Have a deadline to finish something.
To give some backdrop, this has made me really productive throughout the last year without burning out. I've worked 60+ hours before at startups and just BURNED out, whereas now I can definitely push that easily without hitting that same wall. I integrated all these habits one by one when I was certain through quantitive evidence it was working.
Can't say much about helping social life though. This definitely takes a hit when you try to maximize productivity and flow at the expense of social life.