How to be more productive

aaronsw.com

184 points·zeynalov··3 comments

I can really relate to a lot of this. I'm a graduate student with ~10 distinct projects/ideas on my todo list and at any point in time I feel more or less inclined to work on each of them. And strangely, the most important ones are rarely on top, maybe because they are both assigned and daunting.

My work life comes down to a mental battle and trying to induce motivation in myself because I know that when I am in my motivated state working on something I can be significantly more efficient than when I'm not, perhaps even by an order of magnitude. I've sat down to work on a paper one day having decided it is fun after explaining it to a friend and did a weeks worth of work that evening until 2am.

I have to figure out what induces these mysterious states.

I think a lot of members of the community can relate to this. I know I can. I've been changing various things about my morning/evening routines, what I drink/eat, etc - and put some findings in place with fairly good results (over winter break, when many college students are unproductive).

On a good day, I find that I...

- Wake up and play a game of chess (I'm not very good) - Immediately after, make my bed/clean my room and hop in the shower - Read - "Start" my normal day.

I don't mean to go off on the "lifehack" tangent but I've found that this works for me - meaning I'm far more productive (willing to work, code, progress on projects) after this routine. I've also tried cutting out reddit completely and replacing that time with reading.

Just my $.02

Interested in this headline, I clicked the link, and found the article very insightful and resonated strongly with me. I was going to email the author and thank him for his writing, but only then did I realize the author. Aaron, wherever you are, thank you for what you did to make our world better off than you found it.

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