Tell HN: My best productivity hack

[z3t4]

I bought a CO2 monitor. They are a bit expensive but very worth it ($100 DIY or more for a ready product). Even if you have ventilation, it might not be good enough. My office often goes up to 1000 ppm and I start to feel a bit drowsy. But there's a simple solution, just open a window.

[isaiahg]

The single thing that has had the largest impact for me has been simply making a list of things I need to do the next day on the night before. In the morning, often the hardest thing to do is just to get going. Having a ready made list takes out a lot of the factors that lead me to procrastinate.

[movedx]

I create two lists: needs and wants. I prioritise them as such:

1 = no harm if not done; 2 = annoying if not done; 3 = disappoint someone if not done; 4 = financial or emotional harm if not done; 5 = financial and emotional harm if not done.

This is applied to both sets of items on each type of list.

Now I know what I NEED to do above all else, and then I can get to what I WANT to do later.

[jefflombardjr]

Definitely a great one! You can't buy your way to productivity with fancy tech. Though a nice ergonomic keyboard, standing desk, and eye-level monitor certainly doesn't hurt.

For list making I've found Eisenhower matrixes[0] to be incredibly useful. That eventually morphed into me using a trello board with four columns that line up with the four quadrants, here's an example:

https://trello.com/b/pfcMyml7/eisenhower-matrix-inspired-tod...

[0]: http://www.eisenhower.me/eisenhower-matrix/

[gkya]

Whenever I pack my bag in the morning, even if I have 4-5 hours before I leave, I forget something. The phone, the wallet, the cash I plan to carry in the wallet, the keys, the pencil case, the books... I just have to make it the night before. And generalising this and what you say, simply preparing for the day ahead is a very very useful thing. Maybe for a certain type of people though, because I've known some of those people which just remember the things when they need to, without any effort nor any notes.

[makmanalp]

This, and also marking which one is the worst one, so I do that one first without slacking off and then the rest is easy.

The other thing is that I usually leave a context file (which says "you were adding X to function Y and then debugging Z") in whatever directory I'm working in so that I remember what I was doing if I was in the middle of something.

[ha-shine]

For me is the opposite. I make a list of things I have done for the day. You know you need to push harder if your list has less than 5 items by lunch time.

[tunesmith]

A while back I set a goal to have a happy, fulfilling life, and then asked what five elements were individually necessary and collectively sufficient to produce that. Then I went one level deeper, taking care to be strict with the boolean logic. I eventually got to actionable items.

The surprising part was the amount of priorities I had in my life that weren't in that life graph. Stuff that was urgent but not important, and counterintuitively unnecessary when subjected to first-principle analysis. As I started letting those things go, I started to feel more productive since I had more confidence that my actions were aligned with my purpose.

It was tedious and time-consuming, and the closer you get to the leaves, the easier it is for the graph to feel "out of date" as your priorities and circumstances change. But the root of the graph (or the top... for me the actionable stuff was at the bottom) has hardly changed at all since those were my core principles. So I'm still not sure it is worth the time to keep it "accurate", but it was a good exercise to do at least once.

[aditij]

Any chance you'd be willing to share more details on what your life graph ended up including?

[jasonpeacock]

Don't multitask.

I work a task until blocked, then switch. Work the next one until blocked, then switch again.

You'll be surprised at how much you can deliver when you focus on delivering one thing at a time!

[fairpx]

This. I've been a multitasker most of my life, but the moment you organise task one after the other, and keep your focus, you'll just get so much more done. Uni-tasking gets you more done than multi-tasking, no matter how counterintuitive that may sound.

[client4]

Coffee in the morning, hike in the afternoon, beer in the evening.

[kgwxd]

That's great for you, but the rest of us have to put "work" somewhere in that list :)

[gilesvangruisen]

ditto!

[mrmondo]

> I bought a CO2 monitor.

We did the same, it's very noticeable, what we sometimes do is cover it and if people are feeling drowsy only then reveal it so we could be sure it wasn't a placebo (it wasn't).

I hacked up (I'm not a programmer!) some code to log the data to CSV, which I then presented to the business as a case to change our aircon system: https://github.com/sammcj/airqualitylogger

[tortasaur]

In both the OP and your comment I initially interpreted "CO2 monitor" as a computer display that emits CO2. I was wondering how this would boost your productivity for a confusing 10 seconds.

[joshschreuder]

Did your business change its aircon off the back of your research?

[marikio]

Step 1: sudo nano /etc/hosts

Step 2: Type at bottom:

127.0.0.1 facebook.com

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

127.0.0.1 twitter.com

127.0.0.1 instagram.com

Step 3: ctrl+"O"

[jakobegger]

You forgot:

127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com

[ci5er]

I see this kind of thing from time-to-time, and it baffles me. Surely, I know how to restore access. Why not ... just not go there? And if it's a problem (again, this baffles me, but no judgement - I binge drink on weekends which is surely worse), delete your accounts there?

[ekr]

This can be improved a bit:

Step 1: sudo vim /etc/hosts

Step 2: Go

127.0.0.1 facebook.com

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

127.0.0.1 twitter.com

127.0.0.1 instagram.com

Step 3: ZZ

[deadcoder0904]

Get Focus - https://heyfocus.com

[wxuan]

What is this supposed to do, is it like a blocking thing?

[Kluny]

I wonder if that was the problem at my old office. I felt drowsy all the time there. Just figured I wasn't sleeping right or something. Two-three cups of coffee every day. Right now I'm working remotely from my parent's living room. Most days I'm the only one here and it's a decently big, drafty house. There are many things I don't like about it, but I'm always wide awake.

[jamestimmins]

Mind explaining what the significance of CO2 is? I'm unclear how this relates to drowsiness.

[tlarkworthy]

https://www.treehugger.com/interior-design/who-knew-excess-c...

[z3t4]

It doesn't actually have to be the CO2 per see. It can be used to measure overall air and ventilation. Or how many humans there are in a house/room, and if they are asleep or awake. The drowsiness is probably due to both low oxygen levels and high CO2 levels, and more.

[sova]

Come on, haven't you heard of photosynthesis, oxygen, and pollution before? Higher than average ambient CO2 levels is basically like sitting in an oxygen deprived chamber. Also, there is a recreational drug called Carbogen that is a mixture of Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen that, although actually fine for breathing biophysically, has a reduced level of oxygen and increased level of CO2 that makes your body believe it's dying. Very interesting. So, even if it's not a lethal difference in composition, higher CO2 levels will definitely affect one's mood adversely.

[welder]

This is similar to a post back from 2013 titled "Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most?"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6851384

I'll repeat my answer from back then:

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

2. I know a guy who swears he is more productive by starting his mornings with: coffee, restroom, have something ready to work on

[arx1422]

I stopped reading productivity p*rn, optimizing task managers, finessing my setup, and just did the work.

[reubenswartz]

Changed my eating habits to something I never, ever thought I'd do-- - black coffee for breakfast. - no simple carbs for lunch. I feel great and get more done in the morning, and then I also feel great and don't want to fall asleep in the afternoon.

[rajacombinator]

Can you share some more info about your office? Small space, old building, what kind of heating, etc? Hard to know if there’s anything to your hack without more info.

[inthewoods]

Schedule your todo list on your calendar. Identify the tasks you want to complete for the day or week, and block out time on your calendar for each task.

[jefflombardjr]

Getting consistent, good quality sleep.

[gkya]

I'm finding out that using Org mode's clocking combined with recurring tasks for long running tasks that should be done in bits helps me progress on them. I've only recently started using it, and seeing since how many days I haven't read some pages from that 2500 page book which I was supposed to have finished reading a year ago, and how little time I've spent on it than I'd otherwise believe I had, definitely has a positive impact. No revolution, at least in my case, but certainly an improving transformation.

[KirinDave]

My personal best hack is giving a damn about what I'm working on.

[wxuan]

Pomodoro, for sure. Work and play do not mix but are both important.

[czottmann]

For me it was taking a very long and very hard look at all the different notifications I was getting, and then cutting them down as much as possible. It sounds like a minor thing to do, but in effect I became more focused, as I spend almost no mental energy on useless distractions. I have only so much mental juice per day to begin with, and not wasting it on unimportant notices allows me to allocate more of it on stuff that actually matters.

[beilabs]

Installed a chrome plugin that restricts my access to all social media, Reddit and some news sites between 8am-6pm only allowing a total of ten minutes access through out the day. Massive time sink.

Also, got a whiteboard which I mark out the important tasks for the day. It's a bit messy at the moment though. If everything is important then nothing is important.

[ArcticUnicorn]

I've recently started using http://www.beeminder.com

I'm finding it very helpful for sticking to my goals. Their blog is a wonderland of productivity research and knowledge, as well. I highly recommend checking it out.