#productivity

talk by David Sparks

“My home screen is intentionally very simple. I do this to minimize distractions. The distractions are all tucked several screen swipes away. It is a simple reminder to me to keep things simple. The act of intentionally finding an app helps me become conscious to what I am doing and why.”

“At the end of every day, I open up my Day One journal and write down the highlights of what I accomplished that day. […]

By recognizing and rewarding these small wins each day, it builds up an intrinsic motivation that makes me want to keep doing the important work.

Celebrating progress strengthens our emotional and motivated state. Which means we are happier and more motivated at work and are therefore more likely to be productive and creative. It keeps the cycle going.”

I have set up a smart mailbox called “EMPTY” on my Mac, which is always … empty. I open it every time I don’t want to look at my inbox, to avoid jumping right into answering mode or getting stressed about something I took a glimpse of there. So I start Mail, switch to “EMPTY” with Alt-1 immediately, and keep doing what I was about to do […]

I hate to go through my inbox only to realize that for every two emails I’ve processed, five new ones have just arrived. So the key benefit of having a YESTERDAY smart mailbox is that this list of messages never grows, and you can actually get to the bottom of it.