productive

There are two kinds of programmers, generally speaking. There are programmers who care more about code, and there are programmers who care more about product. The former – I’ll call them “cod…

How you read should be dependent on what you read. In this article, Bruno explores the four reading levels and explains how different books should be read in different ways to do justice to them.

​ ​ ​ My book Four Thousand Weeks is published in the UK tomorrow, which means UK readers have until tonight to take advantage of the pre-order offer: my free five-part email co...

I love this time of year, because as new OSs and devices debut, people who never think about their processes look at what’s new and reconsider how they do…everything. This is where I live year-round. (I’m an overly-analytical person with ADHD, which means I’m extremely detailed about things I can’t

I recently asked my private creator community what topic they would love to learn more about. Their answer? Time management. More specifically, how do I organize my time to maximize my day with several different businesses? I use a system that has been talked about by time management gurus like

Here are a few tips to cope.

When I’m researching, speed is essential. Whether I’m planning a family trip or preparing to write a story like this one, the first step is research, which starts with collecting information. This stage is almost always a speed run for me, no matter the context. That’s because the goal is collecting. Reading, thinking, organizing, and

It's too painful to quickly get frequent notes into note taking and related platforms. Hypothes.is has an open API and a great UI that can be leveraged to simplify note taking processes.

I’ve found that writing inside Notion is quite pleasing due to the clean interface. The ability to organize narrative elements inside a database is one of many advantages for writers. In this template bundle I created a jumping off point for bloggers, freelancers, and book writers to start drafting

You’ll stay relevant and be happier.

Any time you’re planning, spend some time working backwards. Ask “what’s the key state I’m aiming for?”, then ask “what unlocks or enables that?”. And repeat.

These great apps will help you organize your digital life, avoid unwanted distractions, and more.

Focus on the root causes of why you’re so busy — not trying to schedule your way out of it.

One of the books I’m reading on vacation at the moment is John Gribbin’s magisterial tome, The Scientists. I’m only up to page 190 (which is to say, only up to Isaac Newton), but even early on I’ve become intrigued by a repeated observation: though the scientists profiled in Gribbin’s book are highly “productive” by any […]

I’ve spent a lot of time in my life trying to force myself to do things. Really good things. Things that are important to me. Things like meditating, journaling, going to the gym, and so on. I set schedules over and over. (I will rise at 5. Meditate, 530-630. Journal 630-730. Breakfast 8-9, and so... READ MORE

Color me geeky, but the feature I’ve been most excited for after Apple’s 2021 WWDC keynote has been Quick Notes. I’m not even a Notes user (or at least I wasn’t). Nor has the Notes feature-set ever been one that feels fulfilling to me.

What's the digital equivalent of sticky notes?

The psychological origins of waiting (... and waiting, and waiting) to work

Two hacks to get shit done Published Jul 08, 2021

Earlier this week, Caitlin Flanagan published a provocative essay in the Atlantic titled: “You Really Need to Quit Twitter.” In this instance, the label of “provocative” seems obligatory, even though an objective read of the piece reveals mainly common sense. Which serves to underline the whole point Flanagan is attempting to make. The article reports […]

That’s why some of this stuff is not a joke. We’re talking months of work—useful work—not busy work, not garbage work, but useful work done in days. At the beginning we asked the question, ‘Can you be productive to build the life you want?’ Imagine if you could move this quickly toward the thing you …

You can technically write an entire novel inside of Apple Notes or compose your blog posts in Notepad on your Windows computer. The basic concept of letting users type text into an app is not special, and yet writing apps are one of those things that everyone is very particular about. It’s all about the little things, and what feels right for each person.

No modern productivity guru would dare suggest it, but minimalist painter Agnes Martin got into creative flow by staring at the wall for a few hours.

A list of things you're allowed to do that you thought you couldn't, or didn't even know you could.

Time has a monetary value to you. That is, money and time can be traded for one another in lots of circumstances, and there are prices that you are willing to take and prices you are not. Hopefully…

Ryan writes to me: Consuming the different variety of media in which you publish ideas, I’ve noticed that you pose very high quality questions. For me, high quality questions have a Heideggerian quality insofar as they open a space for exploration, i.e. a concept, category, path of thought has specific affordances that were merely dormant […]