4 ms·

Ask HN: Share your productivity tips/hacks that worked for you

14 points by pavs 14y ago

chandru89new 14y ago
1. Mono-tasking. Really, this can't be emphasized at all. Right now I'm on HN, The Verge, Reader, my blog etc.. but when I work, everything (including email, funny remarks from the guy next to me) is muted. Oh, I work in chunks and that's why it's okay to mute everything else for that brief time.. 2. Work Editorial: As a writer, a content editorial has helped AMAZINGLY. You can apply that elsewhere too.. start with a set of 3 tasks with 3 chunks of time and 2 breaks between them. Work editorial is like planning. Nothing new.. but it's a hack I desperately need. I guess many will do too.
drean 14y ago
A simple way to increase your productivity is to listen to music while working. Especially ambient, downtempo and cinematic soundtracks helping me to keep focus. Great musicians and bands: Explosions In The Sky, Apparat, Amon Tobin, Tycho, Hecq.
- OafTobark 14y ago
  I'm the exact opposite. Prefer silence or computer lab like noise (keyboards tapping).
  - jwdunne 14y ago
    In an open-plan office, which is shared with sales and support staff, this is almost impossible to experience, except on the weekends (I am, however, way more productive over the weekend). For weekdays, I've tried the following alternatives with varied amounts of success: Rain track - this is like a 4 hour rain sound loop and worked really well. I think the noise from rain effectively blocks a wide range of frequencies, but I could be mistaken. Baroque music - I had a range of results with this. It seemed pieces with harsh sounding instruments, ones with a sharp attack, tended to do more harm than good, where as pieces using mostly just softer sounding instruments. Dance music - this works best for me, but I must vary the playlist and dub tracks, ones without vocals, work better than ones with vocals. The sub-genres range from trance to dubstep. During hectic times, I also ask a colleague to take my calls and I'll get back to them later. This works tremendously well.
manishsharan 14y ago
A good night's sleep ! I have found that if I wake up refreshed and rested, I can do more work in less time. On days when I wake up after a fitful sleep, my brain wanders off from work at the slightest distraction.
- onlyup 14y ago
  Yep, an old one but a good one.
ScottWhigham 14y ago
Never put off any task that will take < 30 seconds. It's a small enough chore that you should just go ahead and deal with rather than letting 100+ of these chores pile up and trying to do it all at the end of the week.
- bbissoon 14y ago
  EXACTLY! I had to fight with this one. Especially when I started working on forms.
orangethirty 14y ago
Having a real notebook open next to the keyboard. It allows me to work out problems with more ease without having to use the computer itself. As I write this, the notebook has a specific problem I'm working out. Every few minutes I look at it, make notes, and keep browsing. In less than half an hour I can break it down with ease. Without feeling guilty for browsing the web, and without being less productive. Either way, I was going to spend a lot of time solving the problem. When I can get my mind off it, the solutions come by quicker. Then its just back to gedit or vim (or *emacs if Lisp), and the code just flows. That's how I've shipped around 6 MVPs last year without much drama. Try it out.
zeynalov 14y ago
When I was in my early 20s I was very interested in self-development books. I've read dozens of them. Maybe more than hundred. In one of them I saw a sentence and it changed my life. Whenever I'm bored what I do, I don't work anymore or not productive I remember this sentence: Whatever you do, please complete it. Stick it in your mind; if you will not end up what you are doing now, it'll have no value. Just complete what you've started.

14 points by pavs 14y ago

1. Mono-tasking. Really, this can't be emphasized at all. Right now I'm on HN, The Verge, Reader, my blog etc.. but when I work, everything (including email, funny remarks from the guy next to me) is muted. Oh, I work in chunks and that's why it's okay to mute everything else for that brief time.. 2. Work Editorial: As a writer, a content editorial has helped AMAZINGLY. You can apply that elsewhere too.. start with a set of 3 tasks with 3 chunks of time and 2 breaks between them. Work editorial is like planning. Nothing new.. but it's a hack I desperately need. I guess many will do too.

drean 14y ago

A simple way to increase your productivity is to listen to music while working. Especially ambient, downtempo and cinematic soundtracks helping me to keep focus. Great musicians and bands: Explosions In The Sky, Apparat, Amon Tobin, Tycho, Hecq.

OafTobark 14y ago
I'm the exact opposite. Prefer silence or computer lab like noise (keyboards tapping).
- jwdunne 14y ago
  In an open-plan office, which is shared with sales and support staff, this is almost impossible to experience, except on the weekends (I am, however, way more productive over the weekend). For weekdays, I've tried the following alternatives with varied amounts of success: Rain track - this is like a 4 hour rain sound loop and worked really well. I think the noise from rain effectively blocks a wide range of frequencies, but I could be mistaken. Baroque music - I had a range of results with this. It seemed pieces with harsh sounding instruments, ones with a sharp attack, tended to do more harm than good, where as pieces using mostly just softer sounding instruments. Dance music - this works best for me, but I must vary the playlist and dub tracks, ones without vocals, work better than ones with vocals. The sub-genres range from trance to dubstep. During hectic times, I also ask a colleague to take my calls and I'll get back to them later. This works tremendously well.

manishsharan 14y ago

A good night's sleep ! I have found that if I wake up refreshed and rested, I can do more work in less time. On days when I wake up after a fitful sleep, my brain wanders off from work at the slightest distraction.

onlyup 14y ago
Yep, an old one but a good one.

ScottWhigham 14y ago

Never put off any task that will take < 30 seconds. It's a small enough chore that you should just go ahead and deal with rather than letting 100+ of these chores pile up and trying to do it all at the end of the week.

bbissoon 14y ago
EXACTLY! I had to fight with this one. Especially when I started working on forms.

orangethirty 14y ago

Having a real notebook open next to the keyboard. It allows me to work out problems with more ease without having to use the computer itself. As I write this, the notebook has a specific problem I'm working out. Every few minutes I look at it, make notes, and keep browsing. In less than half an hour I can break it down with ease. Without feeling guilty for browsing the web, and without being less productive. Either way, I was going to spend a lot of time solving the problem. When I can get my mind off it, the solutions come by quicker. Then its just back to gedit or vim (or *emacs if Lisp), and the code just flows. That's how I've shipped around 6 MVPs last year without much drama. Try it out.

zeynalov 14y ago

When I was in my early 20s I was very interested in self-development books. I've read dozens of them. Maybe more than hundred. In one of them I saw a sentence and it changed my life. Whenever I'm bored what I do, I don't work anymore or not productive I remember this sentence: Whatever you do, please complete it. Stick it in your mind; if you will not end up what you are doing now, it'll have no value. Just complete what you've started.