Productivity tools

17 Jul 2024

Tools and ideas that have helped me be more productive. This is largely a reminder to myself, and a log of what has worked.

• Distraction is a huge issue for me, even when I’m not noticing that that’s the problem. I ended up deleting all my personal projects and information off my work computer, which has helped immensely with staying focused. When I’m at work, I’ve started using the forest app on my phone to prevent myself from fiddling with it.
• Keeping a clear desk at home, even if the rest of the room is a mess, is vital.
• freedom.to is an app made by an early facebook CMO who was also the founder of pinterest, who later realized his error and began developing tools to prevent sites like facebook and pinterest from stealing your attention and time. it’s a little complicated to set up, but it’s the best cross-device app-and-website service i’ve found. you can set permablocks and blocks for periods of time on desktop and mobile apps and websites.
• David’s substack post on how to manage executive function, especially his idea of the Day Plan, has been very useful for me as well. i genuinely think one of the reasons we aren’t as productive as we’d like to be is we don’t reward ourselves emotionally for success, and being able to add anything i think of that i’ve accomplished to my todo list, already crossed out, feels really nice. i’d like to think i was independently arriving at the same idea, but either way, his formalization is fantastic, and the other ideas in his post are very useful too. my original contribution to the concept is that it helps me to think of the crossed items in my todo list as a list of things i can brag about to friends, boss, etc. that way, it feels like i’m amassing a list of accomplishments instead a list of chores with no reward. that orienting move fundamentally changes how i think about my upcoming work