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Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

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Re: Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

#11

Post by jonnathanson »

untog wrote: post #4
_xhok wrote: post #2

I tried out the trick Jack Dorsey recommended during Startup School 2013: keep a two daily lists of things to do and things not to do. Read it when you wake up, throughout the day, and before you sleep. Here's what's on my list: Do: take a cold shower; meditate; throw yourself in; work on hard problems. Don't: be annoyed or upset; lie down unless to rest without computer. It's working for me pretty well so far. For m…

I don't mean to sound rude, but does "Don't: be annoyed or upset" really make a difference? I mean, who objectively and dispassionately decides to be annoyed or upset?

Emotions aren't a choice, but emotional awareness and control can be. When annoyed or upset, stopping to ask yourself why you're annoyed or upset can be very beneficial. The old "stop, take a deep breath, and count to 10" advice from grade school has some merit. (You don't literally have to stop, take a deep breath, and count to ten. But making a conscious effort to be aware of one's emotions is a worthwhile exercise.)

Re: Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

#12

Post by dev1n »

subpixel wrote: post #7

If you don't track your time, I suggest you do. Knowing there's a record of what I'm _really_ doing each day pushes/inspires me to make that record a good one. I started out using Harvest, but since I'm less interested in 'what project(s) did I work on today' and more interested in 'how productive was I today?', I've switched to RescueTime. RescueTime isn't new (YC 08) but they do have an updated interface, so it fee…

This. Except I like to carry a marble notebook around in my backpack to track my time. It feels less restrictive IMO.

Re: Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

#13

Post by welder »

subpixel wrote: post #7

If you don't track your time, I suggest you do. Knowing there's a record of what I'm _really_ doing each day pushes/inspires me to make that record a good one. I started out using Harvest, but since I'm less interested in 'what project(s) did I work on today' and more interested in 'how productive was I today?', I've switched to RescueTime. RescueTime isn't new (YC 08) but they do have an updated interface, so it fee…

If you're a programmer I recommend looking at http://wakatime.com

Re: Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

#14

Post by staunch »

Absolutely nothing compares with sleep. Having about a full week of 8 hour sleep days behind me is when I'm at my absolute peak productivity. I spent years being sleep deprived (~6 hours/day). When I finally came to appreciate just how important being well rested is it absolutely changed my life.

Re: Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

#16

Post by migrantgeek »

Allow yourself to be less productive at times.

I used to try and force it. If I was just not feeling it, I would suck down caffeine and charge ahead. Work generated from those blitzes always sucked.

I'm not advocating being lazy but sometimes just take some time to goof off and you'll be ready to go again.

I typically go for a run or hit the heavy bag in my garage for an hour or so and after a shower I'm much more productive than if I stayed in front of the monitor.

Re: Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

#17

Post by mkramlich »

sleep enough/well, eat enough/well, exercise enough/well, manage stress & emotional state, stay focused, don't try to do too many things (you must say No to a lot of things in order to preserve time/energy/focus/money to say Yes to the things that are more important for you, give you a higher ROI, etc.)

Re: Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

#19

Post by chatmasta »

rodrigocoelho wrote: post #15

I started doing Pomodoros [1] recently and I noticed a leap in my productivity. It also helps me to refresh my mind regularly and to stay focused on my tasks more easily. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

Have you found a good mac app for this? I've tried a few but haven't gotten a good one yet.

Re: Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?

#20

Post by zuccs »

chatmasta wrote: post #19
rodrigocoelho wrote: post #15

I started doing Pomodoros [1] recently and I noticed a leap in my productivity. It also helps me to refresh my mind regularly and to stay focused on my tasks more easily. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

Have you found a good mac app for this? I've tried a few but haven't gotten a good one yet.

There's some decent Chrome apps for it.
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