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collection: personal productivity strategies

~ if you can't find 10 people who love your product, you need a new product

Repeat. If they don’t love it, you need a new product or more insight about the ten people you choose. Begin again.

— This is Strategy

brand-new day

Brand-new day: If you’re having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day, get back into bed, pull the covers up, and close your eyes for one minute—then [...]

— 📖 SuperBetter

token economy strategy

  • idea by Newel of Knowledge
  1. assign value (like "watch a Netflix episode") to something that you have a lot of, e.g. poker chip
  2. give yourself a chip whenever you complete a desired behavior

assembly-line method

increase output by automating the automateable parts of your process

  • an idea from 📖 Get Better At Anything

ten-minute rule

“ten-minute rule.” If I find myself wanting to check my phone as a pacification device when I can’t think of anything better to do, I tell myself it’s fine to give in, but not right now. I have to wait just ten minutes.

— 📖 Indistractable

~ if you don't want to do a (learning) task, do something related in the field

— idea from A simple trick for doing math when you don't want to

paperclip glass

  1. define a core activity (e.g. do a sales call, write a page)
  2. every time you do the thing, put one paperclip (or coin, or...) in a glass on your desk

progressive pomodoro

  1. pick a pomo length that's fitting to your moti level, may be 5 minutes
  2. after the pomo block, rate your focus
  3. ..break or extend
  4. (but adapt the block length)

source

block method

  1. Choose a task from list
  2. (briefly) picture reaching the finish line
  3. make a block (25 minutes focused, timed, uninterrupted work)
  4. mark on scoresheet
  5. consider break
  6. repeat & improve

— 📖 How to Do Things

> People don't pay for solutions to problems they don't mind having

— Embedded Entrepreneur

~ say "What if I do ＿＿" instead of "I HAVE to do ＿＿"

— comment section of 📀 9 (lesser known) ADHD life hacks

red carpeting

Clear your workspace and lay out any tools you'll need. Make a clean list of the steps you're going to take, and put it in the center of your desk [...] Remove as much psychological resistance to the task as possible [...] I call this "red-carpeting" the task. You arrange the environment so that it feels like there's a red carpet leading right to the doing of the task

— 📖 How to Do Things