7 ms·

Things Highly Productive People Do

147 points by kirpekar 15y ago

countersixte 15y ago
This is why I'm such a big fan of the pomodoro technique: the majority of these 7 things are taken care of automatically. 1. Tasks are already broken down into manageable chunks 2. There is no multi-tasking during your pomodoro 3. No distractions either 4. Ok, so I actually check email at the end of every pomodoro and not 2-3 times a day, but close enough 5. This is the one that is not really handled by the pomodoro technique 6. I plan out all my pomodoros at the start of each day 7. I get up and walk around for a few minutes at the end of every pomodoro
- swah 15y ago
  OTOH, if one had the willpower to follow with the Pomodoro strictly, he wouldn't need it...
  - benjvi 15y ago
    I think one of the best things about using pomodoros is that they're fairly short. It isnt THAT bad to have to restart one, if you get distracted. I find it more motivating; you always have a short-term goal to work towards.
aChrisSmith 15y ago
Sadly, it's ironic to get advice which reads "AVOID DISTRACTIONS!" while participating in HN, the biggest distraction I have.
- dabent 15y ago
  PG has an interesting approach to this: http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html There's also the "noprocrast" setting in your HN profile which won't let you use for more than a certain amount of time. I haven't implemented either approach. I've found that plugging in my headphones and listening to music or even spoken word gets me into one of those 60-90 minute zones of one-task productivity.
dabent 15y ago
My take on these. I'm curious what others think. 1. Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks. I have no idea why more people don't do this. 2. Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop. See my response to #1 3. Be militant about eliminating distractions. I'm not militant enough. Hence this post. 4. Schedule your email. I need to try that. Setting a filter to only alert when my boss emails me has helped in the past. Other emails get answered between 60-90 minute tasks. 5. Use the phone. I despise the phone. Email conversations provide a written record of the exchange and allow me to cut/paste responses if it's something for work (like a URL or code snippet). That said, I will force myself to pick up the handset. 6. Work on your own agenda. My new job and situation allow for a lot more of this. It's life changing. 7. Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. I do try to do this. It works very well, although I usually don't make it to 90 minutes, just 60 minutes of just coding goes a long way. Do that a few times in a day (with meetings and such filling the balance of the day) and you're getting somewhere.
- pvarangot 15y ago
  > 5. Use the phone. I despise the phone. Email conversations provide > a written record of the exchange and allow me to cut/paste responses > if it's something for work (like a URL or code snippet). That said, > I will force myself to pick up the handset. My problem with e-mail, texting, and all other asynchronous means of communication, is that they encourage multitasking. If I'm discussing something on an asynchronous medium I'm always tempted to poll on the discussion while doing something else. When something gets important enough I usually try to force myself and the other party into a synchronous medium of communication, or if I can't, try to completely ignore the issue until all people involved have enough time to proactively solve it. That being said, sometimes the written record really helps, or the other party involved in a discussion or planing of something can't cope with their own anxiety, and the whole planning of something e-mails into hell... but well, I try hard enough to avoid it.
  - freehunter 15y ago
    My solution for that is a quick email saying "this is interesting... let me think about it and I'll reply a little later". It shows people that the discussion is not over yet, but has minimal impact on your task at hand. For things that are only sent to me, this is not required, but it works well for me when things are CC'd all around the department.
bluedevil2k 15y ago
Though not applicable to every job situation out there, I found the biggest leap in productivity for me was to crate a rule of "write down 3-5 things you must do today. When those are complete, you are done working for the day". I find myself completing the tasks around lunch, and aggregately accomplish 2-3x more than when I had fuzzy goals. Procrastination is limited, knowing I can (go to gym/eat with kids/play golf) when the work is complete.
- aaronf 15y ago
  This is exactly the philosophy behind LazyMeter. We help people focus on one day at a time and feel accomplished. It's all about working towards a clear goal. http://www.lazymeter.com http://www.lazymeter.com We automatically build your daily to-do list, and we provide the only workflow that lets you clear out your to-do list everyday. We also show you your progress add up. It's very satisfying. I was a chronic procrastinator before co-founding LazyMeter. Now, I get more done in less time, and enjoy my evenings without worrying I've forgotten something. We have over 12,000 users so far.
  - lusr 15y ago
    This looks like a bare-bones version of GTD. Which may be better than the more complicated versions e.g. doit.im.
- nikcub 15y ago
  you need to reward yourself, it is part of our makeup to need the pleasure part of the brain to fire after work and to activate the reward pathways (like dopamine being released post-exercise). If you aren't firing it is because you aren't interested in the work or the payoff. I motivate myself to do the mundane tasks by using some sort of reward. I do it with cigarettes, you should probably pick something else.
kellishaver 15y ago
Re: No. 5: I know some people hate taking on the phone, but when you are working remotely and are trying to work through a problem with someone, there's no substitute (at least for me) to getting on the phone (or voice chat via Skype, etc.) and talking through the things you're trying to figure out. IM works to a degree, and email is better for larger exchanges that you'll need to reference back to, but for brainstorming and group problem-solving, I still feel like an actual spoken conversation is still the most effective way to go.
danko 15y ago
What I've found for myself is that there's a certain part of my mind that just needs constant distraction, and if I can somehow parallelize that distraction with the continual work that the rest of my brain is capable of, I'd be in good shape. That's where music and podcasts come in. One steady IV drip of distraction to placate the rebels while the rest of my brain gets down to business and stays there.
rolleiflex 15y ago
>When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women). I would like to see a citation on this.
- groby_b 15y ago
  Women who occasionally paid attention at math would like to point out that assuming an average IQ (100), that means it drops 15% for men, 10% for women. The OP would be better of reading that as men being 50% worse than women, not 3 times. If there's any merit to it at all. As you said, [citation needed].
  - keithpeter 15y ago
    Should we be deriving the percentages from the IQ points that are left? e.g. 100 IQ becomes 90 for women and 85 for men, so men are 100 -85/90*100 less good than women as a result of multitasking?
    - groby_b 15y ago
      That would measure the overall usefulness of men[^1], not the capacity for multitasking, no? [^1]: Yes, I giggled ;)
toeknee123 15y ago
Number 7 is a favorite of mine. Sometimes you just need a nice long walk to clear your mind and reset your focus on the task at hand.
seanp2k2 15y ago
Former support tech here. Phone calls are not getting things done. Phone calls are usually telling someone else to do something. Information passed on phone calls is mostly lost as soon as the other side hangs up. I've had many 30-45 minute time wasters with clients when they called instead of thinking about what thy were trying to say and replying to their ticket. The phone kills the productivity of two or more people at once, so it's as bad as a meeting. Stop calling people and start finishing stuff.
- skore 15y ago
  Not exactly sure where I got this from, but I once read: "Call me - it's simpler" translates to you wanting to do your thinking inside my ear instead of your head. That being said, from my own experience, the only thing that phone calls get done like no other medium (apart from a direct conversation, of course) is build interpersonal trust. It can further be a good way to diffuse tension right away because instead of having a customer write pages of mounting tension, they get a reaction immediately and that alone is usually enough to make the first steps towards reconciliation.
  - cshesse 15y ago
    I've found that phone calls are good when people ignore or are bad at reading email (miss questions, fail to respond/read, don't read it completely, etc). For people who are good at email, phone calls are good (or the same as IM) when you need an in-depth back and forth conversation, for example, discussing some software bug.
rseymour 15y ago
Read articles on productivity? Is that one of them?
- parfe 15y ago
  I read two so far and have only managed to write this comment.
127001brewer 15y ago
I have found this list more valuable: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/nine_things_successful_people.html http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/nine_things_successful_peopl...
dpres 15y ago
8. drink caffeine
aaronf 15y ago
The thing that's always missing from these articles is the definition of productivity. Is it doing more? Is it working more hours? What most people don't realize is that productivity is not about how much you do - it's about how you feel at the end of the day. Don't forget why you're working in the first place. Effective productivity is simply doing what needs to be done, one day at a time. The key is turning your overwhelming to-do list into an actionable today list - so you're working towards an achievable goal each day. When you're working towards an end point, you'll get things done much more quickly, and you'll have no reason to procrastinate. Productivity doesn't need to be stressful or overwhelming; it can actually be very fulfilling if you look at it the right way. Stop focusing on "work" and focus on progress instead.
steve-howard 15y ago
"if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours." No. If this is actually effective nobody will expect you to be there longer than 8 hours. Either way, there are more important things in the world than being productive.
billpatrianakos 15y ago
This is such fluff, guys. These things have been vomited up by writers with nothing to say for forever. Basically, stop getting distracted. Multitasking is impossible. Okay, we get it. The real question should be "why is this same old, same old advice not working despite being common knowledge"? I know not to do this stuff. I try to follow the rules. I end up screwing up eventually. How come? Is there a way to cut that out? What we really need is an advice article about how to make sure we stick to the advice of other advice articles. I'm not trying to be sarcastic so please don't take it that way. I'm really just so frustrated with the same old advice that just doesn't add anything new or special. It's easy to tell me not to get distracted and offer up a few half-hearted ways to follow through but what about pointing us to the root of the problem. I think this generic advice is best left for the trash. What we really need is something each of us will have to work out on our own.
- aaronf 15y ago
  Being in the productivity space, I read many articles like this each day, and you're right - it's the same advice. With LazyMeter, we sought to build not just a new philosophy, but also a tool that helps you adopt it. Our goal is to motivate you by making your to-do list achievable and showing you how much you've done. We also show you how much you procrastinate - it's amazing how powerful a little awareness can be. Would love to hear what you think. http://www.LazyMeter.com http://www.LazyMeter.com
  - billpatrianakos 15y ago
    Haha that shameless plug almost sounded natural. In all seriousness though, I get what you're saying and I actually have used LazyMeter! I think I even sent you guys an email on what I thought about it (I promise I didn't say anything mean). I stopped using it. It's a great idea but it only works if you work it. I haven't checked it out lately but back then the lack of a mobile app was a real barrier to usage. Without one you limit people to only checking up on themselves when they're at work or basically stationary. That's just not enough. But I hate to criticize so much without letting you know it's a cool app and I think it's really cool how you built it in AWS
w1ntermute 15y ago
Another good one is sleep. Optimally, you'll go to sleep at the same time every day and wake up without an alarm. You might lose some waking hours, but you'll more than make up for it in the productivity.
- wpietri 15y ago
  Absolutely. I used to think I had a problem waking up on time. Instead, it was a problem with going to sleep early enough. Now that I've sorted it out, a regular sleep schedule has been fantastic for me. One thing that has really helped has been taking seriously the influence light has on my biological clock. Dim evening light, bright morning light, and extra effort to get plenty of sunlight in the winter. And for coding, I really like f.lux, which changes the color temperature of my screen in time with outdoor light: http://stereopsis.com/flux/ http://stereopsis.com/flux/
nekojima 15y ago
"Work on your own agenda." This is the only point that matters, though the explanation after is idiotic and should be ignored. But just by following this list, or even this one point, you won't become highly productive. Perhaps more productive, as its a drive inside you that makes a person highly productive. That can't be taught, it has to be unleashed by a passion and a dream (which this list misses). I was business assistant (at VP level) to a Very Highly Productive Person who worked on what he wanted, when he wanted, much to his staff's detriment. Which was likely the point, he was more than able to afford staff and could delegate what he didn't want to do to us. His focus was on doing what was best for himself and privately owned his company. The compulsion for achieving goals, be they deals, launching a new product or company, can have significant impact if there isn't a good work-life balance, and as his staff, we had to force him, and his wife, to take breaks to avoid burn out. This is often a hidden problem that can manifest other issues and bring the downfall or public embarrassment of highly productive people.
- demigod 15y ago
  Get your agenda right and the rest will fall into place, you wont have to work at being productive
stuaxo 15y ago
#1 Don't read articles like this. I must be on the way to being cured I didn't even click this one, now if I can just wean off hacker news and reddit I might be half way to becoming highly productive.

147 points by kirpekar 15y ago

This is why I'm such a big fan of the pomodoro technique: the majority of these 7 things are taken care of automatically. 1. Tasks are already broken down into manageable chunks 2. There is no multi-tasking during your pomodoro 3. No distractions either 4. Ok, so I actually check email at the end of every pomodoro and not 2-3 times a day, but close enough 5. This is the one that is not really handled by the pomodoro technique 6. I plan out all my pomodoros at the start of each day 7. I get up and walk around for a few minutes at the end of every pomodoro

swah 15y ago
OTOH, if one had the willpower to follow with the Pomodoro strictly, he wouldn't need it...
- benjvi 15y ago
  I think one of the best things about using pomodoros is that they're fairly short. It isnt THAT bad to have to restart one, if you get distracted. I find it more motivating; you always have a short-term goal to work towards.

aChrisSmith 15y ago

Sadly, it's ironic to get advice which reads "AVOID DISTRACTIONS!" while participating in HN, the biggest distraction I have.

dabent 15y ago
PG has an interesting approach to this: http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html There's also the "noprocrast" setting in your HN profile which won't let you use for more than a certain amount of time. I haven't implemented either approach. I've found that plugging in my headphones and listening to music or even spoken word gets me into one of those 60-90 minute zones of one-task productivity.

dabent 15y ago

My take on these. I'm curious what others think. 1. Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks. I have no idea why more people don't do this. 2. Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop. See my response to #1 3. Be militant about eliminating distractions. I'm not militant enough. Hence this post. 4. Schedule your email. I need to try that. Setting a filter to only alert when my boss emails me has helped in the past. Other emails get answered between 60-90 minute tasks. 5. Use the phone. I despise the phone. Email conversations provide a written record of the exchange and allow me to cut/paste responses if it's something for work (like a URL or code snippet). That said, I will force myself to pick up the handset. 6. Work on your own agenda. My new job and situation allow for a lot more of this. It's life changing. 7. Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. I do try to do this. It works very well, although I usually don't make it to 90 minutes, just 60 minutes of just coding goes a long way. Do that a few times in a day (with meetings and such filling the balance of the day) and you're getting somewhere.

pvarangot 15y ago
> 5. Use the phone. I despise the phone. Email conversations provide > a written record of the exchange and allow me to cut/paste responses > if it's something for work (like a URL or code snippet). That said, > I will force myself to pick up the handset. My problem with e-mail, texting, and all other asynchronous means of communication, is that they encourage multitasking. If I'm discussing something on an asynchronous medium I'm always tempted to poll on the discussion while doing something else. When something gets important enough I usually try to force myself and the other party into a synchronous medium of communication, or if I can't, try to completely ignore the issue until all people involved have enough time to proactively solve it. That being said, sometimes the written record really helps, or the other party involved in a discussion or planing of something can't cope with their own anxiety, and the whole planning of something e-mails into hell... but well, I try hard enough to avoid it.
- freehunter 15y ago
  My solution for that is a quick email saying "this is interesting... let me think about it and I'll reply a little later". It shows people that the discussion is not over yet, but has minimal impact on your task at hand. For things that are only sent to me, this is not required, but it works well for me when things are CC'd all around the department.

bluedevil2k 15y ago

Though not applicable to every job situation out there, I found the biggest leap in productivity for me was to crate a rule of "write down 3-5 things you must do today. When those are complete, you are done working for the day". I find myself completing the tasks around lunch, and aggregately accomplish 2-3x more than when I had fuzzy goals. Procrastination is limited, knowing I can (go to gym/eat with kids/play golf) when the work is complete.

aaronf 15y ago
This is exactly the philosophy behind LazyMeter. We help people focus on one day at a time and feel accomplished. It's all about working towards a clear goal. http://www.lazymeter.com http://www.lazymeter.com We automatically build your daily to-do list, and we provide the only workflow that lets you clear out your to-do list everyday. We also show you your progress add up. It's very satisfying. I was a chronic procrastinator before co-founding LazyMeter. Now, I get more done in less time, and enjoy my evenings without worrying I've forgotten something. We have over 12,000 users so far.
- lusr 15y ago
  This looks like a bare-bones version of GTD. Which may be better than the more complicated versions e.g. doit.im.
nikcub 15y ago
you need to reward yourself, it is part of our makeup to need the pleasure part of the brain to fire after work and to activate the reward pathways (like dopamine being released post-exercise). If you aren't firing it is because you aren't interested in the work or the payoff. I motivate myself to do the mundane tasks by using some sort of reward. I do it with cigarettes, you should probably pick something else.

kellishaver 15y ago

Re: No. 5: I know some people hate taking on the phone, but when you are working remotely and are trying to work through a problem with someone, there's no substitute (at least for me) to getting on the phone (or voice chat via Skype, etc.) and talking through the things you're trying to figure out. IM works to a degree, and email is better for larger exchanges that you'll need to reference back to, but for brainstorming and group problem-solving, I still feel like an actual spoken conversation is still the most effective way to go.

danko 15y ago

What I've found for myself is that there's a certain part of my mind that just needs constant distraction, and if I can somehow parallelize that distraction with the continual work that the rest of my brain is capable of, I'd be in good shape. That's where music and podcasts come in. One steady IV drip of distraction to placate the rebels while the rest of my brain gets down to business and stays there.

rolleiflex 15y ago

>When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women). I would like to see a citation on this.

groby_b 15y ago
Women who occasionally paid attention at math would like to point out that assuming an average IQ (100), that means it drops 15% for men, 10% for women. The OP would be better of reading that as men being 50% worse than women, not 3 times. If there's any merit to it at all. As you said, [citation needed].
- keithpeter 15y ago
  Should we be deriving the percentages from the IQ points that are left? e.g. 100 IQ becomes 90 for women and 85 for men, so men are 100 -85/90*100 less good than women as a result of multitasking?
  - groby_b 15y ago
    That would measure the overall usefulness of men[^1], not the capacity for multitasking, no? [^1]: Yes, I giggled ;)

toeknee123 15y ago

Number 7 is a favorite of mine. Sometimes you just need a nice long walk to clear your mind and reset your focus on the task at hand.

seanp2k2 15y ago

Former support tech here. Phone calls are not getting things done. Phone calls are usually telling someone else to do something. Information passed on phone calls is mostly lost as soon as the other side hangs up. I've had many 30-45 minute time wasters with clients when they called instead of thinking about what thy were trying to say and replying to their ticket. The phone kills the productivity of two or more people at once, so it's as bad as a meeting. Stop calling people and start finishing stuff.

skore 15y ago
Not exactly sure where I got this from, but I once read: "Call me - it's simpler" translates to you wanting to do your thinking inside my ear instead of your head. That being said, from my own experience, the only thing that phone calls get done like no other medium (apart from a direct conversation, of course) is build interpersonal trust. It can further be a good way to diffuse tension right away because instead of having a customer write pages of mounting tension, they get a reaction immediately and that alone is usually enough to make the first steps towards reconciliation.
- cshesse 15y ago
  I've found that phone calls are good when people ignore or are bad at reading email (miss questions, fail to respond/read, don't read it completely, etc). For people who are good at email, phone calls are good (or the same as IM) when you need an in-depth back and forth conversation, for example, discussing some software bug.

rseymour 15y ago

Read articles on productivity? Is that one of them?

parfe 15y ago
I read two so far and have only managed to write this comment.

127001brewer 15y ago

I have found this list more valuable: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/nine_things_successful_people.html http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/nine_things_successful_peopl...

dpres 15y ago

8. drink caffeine

aaronf 15y ago

The thing that's always missing from these articles is the definition of productivity. Is it doing more? Is it working more hours? What most people don't realize is that productivity is not about how much you do - it's about how you feel at the end of the day. Don't forget why you're working in the first place. Effective productivity is simply doing what needs to be done, one day at a time. The key is turning your overwhelming to-do list into an actionable today list - so you're working towards an achievable goal each day. When you're working towards an end point, you'll get things done much more quickly, and you'll have no reason to procrastinate. Productivity doesn't need to be stressful or overwhelming; it can actually be very fulfilling if you look at it the right way. Stop focusing on "work" and focus on progress instead.

steve-howard 15y ago

"if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours." No. If this is actually effective nobody will expect you to be there longer than 8 hours. Either way, there are more important things in the world than being productive.

billpatrianakos 15y ago

This is such fluff, guys. These things have been vomited up by writers with nothing to say for forever. Basically, stop getting distracted. Multitasking is impossible. Okay, we get it. The real question should be "why is this same old, same old advice not working despite being common knowledge"? I know not to do this stuff. I try to follow the rules. I end up screwing up eventually. How come? Is there a way to cut that out? What we really need is an advice article about how to make sure we stick to the advice of other advice articles. I'm not trying to be sarcastic so please don't take it that way. I'm really just so frustrated with the same old advice that just doesn't add anything new or special. It's easy to tell me not to get distracted and offer up a few half-hearted ways to follow through but what about pointing us to the root of the problem. I think this generic advice is best left for the trash. What we really need is something each of us will have to work out on our own.

aaronf 15y ago
Being in the productivity space, I read many articles like this each day, and you're right - it's the same advice. With LazyMeter, we sought to build not just a new philosophy, but also a tool that helps you adopt it. Our goal is to motivate you by making your to-do list achievable and showing you how much you've done. We also show you how much you procrastinate - it's amazing how powerful a little awareness can be. Would love to hear what you think. http://www.LazyMeter.com http://www.LazyMeter.com
- billpatrianakos 15y ago
  Haha that shameless plug almost sounded natural. In all seriousness though, I get what you're saying and I actually have used LazyMeter! I think I even sent you guys an email on what I thought about it (I promise I didn't say anything mean). I stopped using it. It's a great idea but it only works if you work it. I haven't checked it out lately but back then the lack of a mobile app was a real barrier to usage. Without one you limit people to only checking up on themselves when they're at work or basically stationary. That's just not enough. But I hate to criticize so much without letting you know it's a cool app and I think it's really cool how you built it in AWS

w1ntermute 15y ago

Another good one is sleep. Optimally, you'll go to sleep at the same time every day and wake up without an alarm. You might lose some waking hours, but you'll more than make up for it in the productivity.

wpietri 15y ago
Absolutely. I used to think I had a problem waking up on time. Instead, it was a problem with going to sleep early enough. Now that I've sorted it out, a regular sleep schedule has been fantastic for me. One thing that has really helped has been taking seriously the influence light has on my biological clock. Dim evening light, bright morning light, and extra effort to get plenty of sunlight in the winter. And for coding, I really like f.lux, which changes the color temperature of my screen in time with outdoor light: http://stereopsis.com/flux/ http://stereopsis.com/flux/

nekojima 15y ago

"Work on your own agenda." This is the only point that matters, though the explanation after is idiotic and should be ignored. But just by following this list, or even this one point, you won't become highly productive. Perhaps more productive, as its a drive inside you that makes a person highly productive. That can't be taught, it has to be unleashed by a passion and a dream (which this list misses). I was business assistant (at VP level) to a Very Highly Productive Person who worked on what he wanted, when he wanted, much to his staff's detriment. Which was likely the point, he was more than able to afford staff and could delegate what he didn't want to do to us. His focus was on doing what was best for himself and privately owned his company. The compulsion for achieving goals, be they deals, launching a new product or company, can have significant impact if there isn't a good work-life balance, and as his staff, we had to force him, and his wife, to take breaks to avoid burn out. This is often a hidden problem that can manifest other issues and bring the downfall or public embarrassment of highly productive people.

demigod 15y ago
Get your agenda right and the rest will fall into place, you wont have to work at being productive

stuaxo 15y ago

#1 Don't read articles like this. I must be on the way to being cured I didn't even click this one, now if I can just wean off hacker news and reddit I might be half way to becoming highly productive.