Personally the biggest productivity win was to a) more regularly do some fun sport (bouldering for me). Not doing any conscious work related thinking a couple

Personally the biggest productivity win was to a) more regularly do some fun sport (bouldering for me). Not doing any conscious work related thinking a couple times a week helps to be effective, being healthier as well. b) Separate private and work (including technical hobbies) helps me a lot. It's something I struggle doing well, because I like working lots. But everytime I let things slip more than a few days I do notice getting less productive. That does include taking holidays often enough, best without a computer and a phone. c) Managing interruptions. I.e. try to keep meetings to a specific time of the day, with most of the rest being uninterrupted. Personally I put them in the evening because I collaborate with west coast people, from Europe. Don't read emails while working on other things, instead process them when you're interrupted anyways; in the morning, after lunch, before stopping the day. d) Try to keep a significant portion of your work day on fun stuff. I know, thats not technical. But I think a lot of us are prone to overestimating the effect minor tooling differences have, and underestimate the rest.