What's your #1 productivity hack?

I built a system called PEP based on the OKR system. It stands for Purpose Energy Priorities. If you're looking for a quick fix hack though, the Pomodoro timer ranks high for me.

For meetings: Divide meetings into: 1. Informational 2. Must Attend 3. Can do without Attend all "Must Attend" Meetings, don't attend "Can do without" Meetings at all, if you have the free time then attend "Informational" Meetings. You'll start noticing that your productivity goes up by 30-40%

*Design your environment for productivity* = The right environment has a huge impact on productivity levels. If your phone is visible, your brain wastes energy on whether you should check it or not. Replace phone with any form of distraction, online and offline. Therefore, spend 5 minutes making sure: 1) social media websites are blocked 2) phone is out of the way 3) work area has all the necessary tools for each of your tasks 4) energy sources nearby. The fourth point is absolutely important -- a reason a lot of us procrastinate is due to the fact we're dehydrated during the day!

8-9 hours of sleep :)

Mine is to work with intent i.e. working on each task to give it a meaningful outcome. I schedule at least 2 two-hour-sessions each day for work that stretches my cognitive limits (writing, research, learning a skill, planning a strategy etc.). Also, I batch tasks that don't demand much mind space together. For instance I schedule all my phone calls, quick email responses, and logistical work for the times when I'm exhausted from my deep work sessions. This means that the number of tasks I complete each day are less, I make meaningful progress at each of them. You can read more about how batching increases productivity here: https://hbr.org/cover-story/2017...

Block daily 2hours without phone. Put 3 most important tasks everyday. Prioritize tasks with one metric that matters(OMTM was taught in my 500Startups batch)

Putting a plan in the calendar previous day works amazing. + The points mentioned by others.

Since I am working from home now, I have been taking a few showers a day. Time in the shower gives me lots of creativity and this change is enabling me to come up with more diverse ideas

Being 100% in-tune with my priorities. A day's theme/tasks are dictated by what's most important. Tracking: A daily todo list with 1 TOP priority item, and 3 general/supporting items. Timing: Using a Pomodoro timer + largely eliminating distractions is the key for me.

8 hours of sleep.

the get focused extension for mac (basically pomodoro technique) with a 25 min timer and 5 min break timer :)

Turning on "do not disturb" on my mac and phone so I don't get any notifications, and putting on noise cancelling headphones and one peppy song on repeat.

i mark my calendar with no meetings block and snooze all notifications

Avoiding online polls and questions.

Redirect websites to 127.0.0.1 in my host file lol https://peterthaleikis.com/posts...

Mine is an extension to yours. Its picking the right thing to work and time framing it. Whenever I pick up a task I time frame it. Otherwise the schedule goes haywire.

Coffee

I write a todo list everyday. I also try to focus on the items I am most passionate about and tick them off the list first.

Currently, I'm trying something I call the Daily Sitdown. It's like the daily standup meeting, but it's close to the end of the day. It really helps people clarify, in their minds, how productive they were that day. I find that it helps me to be mindful about what I'm working on, and it lets the rest of my team know they can count on each other to deliver.

A cup of coffee, and some sound around. Nighttime really helps since the rest of the world is off.