| Comment I posted on this article: Great post, Scott. Here are some things I do to build off your main points: Stop Checking Email in the Morning - Batch email checking into something you do two or three times per day at certain times. Don't make Guilt Piles - If you do make them, keep them out of site and accumulate them for a long plane ride, car trip, or vacation. If it's important, Schedule It. - Again, I schedule my email and my browsing .I actually roughly schedule my whole day. Happy to send to anyone just email me at wu at skim dot me. Let go of Psychic Weight - This is a hard one but the key to overcoming digital overconsumption and information overload is to recognize you'll never be able to get through it all. Schedule Work Sprints - I have two one and a half to two hour slots of real productivity per day. Sometimes I get to three. Stop Beating Yourself Up - Constant struggle I'm somewhat new to this productivity thing but got into it after recognizing that my web browsing was becoming addictive and unproductive. It was producing "the guilt and self-loathing" you mentioned if I couldn't keep up with it. It ultimately led me to build Skim.Me. We're making your daily online browsing routines more productive. Not just tools or a platform but really an entire user experience that wants to move content consumption away from addictive page views and time spent towards a disciplined approach to building better, sustainable habits. We automatically onboard you using our plugin, aggregate from your favorite sites/apps (not just news & social) across devices, and help you browse in timed batches through the day without showing you how many unread or unchecked you have. Hope some people check it out when we launch (http://skim.me). v1 in three weeks. |
I'm relieved I'm not the only one who only really gets 3-4 hours of productive work on an average day.