What's one productivity hack that you want to gatekeep?
I'll start, I can't believe I didn't know this -
A friend taught me earlier today regarding the "plus trick", also known as "plus addressing", for Gmail addresses.
You simply type in + after the prefix of your email address along with any text, and any email sent to this will still arrive in your inbox.
For example: If my email is sean@gmail.com, any emails sent to sean+business@gmail.com, sean+product@gmail.com, will still arrive in the inbox of sean@gmail.com.
It works because Gmail internally ignores + and any text that comes after it. Try it out.
Since I've shared mine, now I'm going to peer pressure you into sharing yours. Go!
Replies
@rodrigo_soviero Waking up at 3:30 AM, overdosing on caffeine, and locking your phone in a drawer? That’s commitment. ;)
I used to have a similar setup — 2:00 AM alarms, five solid hours of distraction-free focus, and by 7:00 AM, college projects magically done. Honestly, it’s the closest I’ve ever come to time travel. But the locked phone thing? That’s a boss move. I’d try it, but LinkedIn notifications have this sixth sense — the moment I focus, they pop up like, “Hey, wanna connect with someone you barely remember?”
But seriously, is this your daily life, or just for crunch time?
@ambika_vaish @rodrigo_soviero Waking up early definitely feels like a superpower at times and it makes the day feel so much longer than the usual 24 hours. Although 3:30 AM is a bit too early for me 😂. Personally I find 4:30-5:30 to be the "golden hour" to wake up.
@seanphwang I’m with you on the 4:30-5:30 slot. It’s like the world’s quiet, the distractions are still asleep, and you get this magical head start. Are you an everyday early riser, or do you save it for days when you’ve got big plans?
@rodrigo_soviero I feel this so much. It’s wild how one insanely productive day can convince you that you’ve cracked the code — until you’re three days in, jittery from caffeine, and trying to remember how to HUMAN.
Honestly, coming from someone slightly older (no ancient wisdom here, just a few extra “I’m too old for this” moments) — sleeping early is a "cheat code". I used to be all about those 2:00 AM focus sprints, but once I started going to bed on time, my brain stopped turning into mashed potatoes by noon.
Not saying I don’t slip back into the chaos sometimes, but now it’s a choice, not a survival tactic.
Ever thought of swapping caffeine for something lighter?
Mine is honestly silly but powerful: writing a to-do list the night before. Like, brain-dumping everything before bed. It clears my head so I sleep better and when I wake up. I already know what my day looks like. I don't waste energy figuring things out in the morning.
@james_chappel Not silly at all - I think the effectiveness can actually be explained by science. Not that much research out there at the moment, but in a few of them that exist, the results supported that studying before bedtime yielded better information retention. Still, relatively mixed results and of course, gotta account for a ton of factors. Nevertheless, I think we'll have confirmation about that in the near future as we advance in our understanding of sleep and the role of dreams.
Anecdotally, I've had multiple moments where I was playing chess before bed and I continued or replayed those matches in my dream. Our current understanding of dreams are so lacking, and I'm incredibly excited to see developments in this area.
An oldie but a goodie is that you can make quick Google Docs and Google Sheets by going to docs.new and sheets.new
related: go to github.new or repo.new to create a new repository — via @maxprilutskiy
@maxprilutskiy @fmerian These are all new to me! Have I been living under a rock 😂? I wonder if these domains are owned by the companies and it's customary to do this with .new domains.
Product Hunt
If you use @Cal.com for scheduling, you can do cal.com/<yourname>+<othername> to get times when you’re both free.
@rajiv_ayyangar Oh that's a good one!
If you ever need a quick focus boost, just switch your phone to grayscale mode. It’s like instant social media repellent. Everything looks so dull, even doomscrolling feels like a chore.
@ambika_vaish Oh yea I gotta try that out sometime!
Gmail filter:
Anything that contains the word 'unsubscribe'
Mark it as read
Put it in a custom label
Product Hunt Dark Screen
i saw it on Instagram reels, my brother sent it but have not tried it yet.