For work I do mostly project / product management

(1) Summarize everything important yesterday. Personal and work.

(2) Check my email 3-4xs a day, once in morning, once later on, fire off emails if it can be done in <5 minutes following GTD from david allen.

(3) Have junk mail, automatically go to junk. Important emails, go to important folders. Less important things / things that don't fit anywhere, general inbox.

(4) Respond to important things that have higher priority

(5) Throughout day, checkup on other projects in pipeline to see who needs to be reminded of what to do (less urgent)

(6) Document, document, document. For things I need to automate processes. Keep paper trails everywhere, so people are held accountable, including myself. For things that are more complicated / may hurt me if I leave a paper trail b/c of complex lose-lose situations, use a phone call instead.

(7) Delegate, delegate, delegate. Keep low expectations of everyone else until they prove otherwise. Objective is to not touch anything technical, everything needs to be agnostic and scalable and being able to passed down to another person. Try out new freelancers every so often for small mini-jobs so I build network of programmers / designers I can rely on for different tasks.

(8) Scale, scale, scale. Don't bother with unscalable things. Go all in or not at all. The end goal is you don't have to do anything

(9) Explore, explore, explore. Constantly try out new methods and tools, via alternativeto.net or producthunt. Chrome extensions. Git repos

(10) Aggregate, aggregate, aggregate. I have standard operating procedures for how I aggregate ideas, notes, git repos. Make the internet your own, google is just a search engine with all my littered notes everywhere

(11) analyze, analyze, analyze. Check through how often I am repeating myself. Check my progress from daily notes made every week. See if I am going under a prolonged sprint with no results. Fire people when necessary if they are underperforming. Deliver bad news fast and get it over with. Set clear goal-lines and deliverables. Automate consistently, mini changes at a time

(12) Learn, learn, learn. When dealing other people smarter than you, be humble and keep an open mind. Do not say more than necessary else you skew opinions towards your own. For instance, if you outsource a task, simply explain the problem not the idealistic solution in mind.

(13) Invest, invest, invest. Not just time and skills. Constantly look into new tools to automate processes. New printers. New monitors. New mechanical keyboards. Better PC's. Standing desks. Better machinery for manufacturing. New software for pipeline processes.

(14) Put a website blocker on my computer for hackernews / social sites so I don't go on them longer than I have too

(15) Write down things I have to do tomorrow

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For personal hobby projects / personal life

(1) Waking up at 6 AM every morning to workout

(2) Occasionally blogging and/or doing technical presentations at meetups (sets a clear objective)

(3) Learning to delete. Deleting bad code routinely, deleting terrible writing, deleting bad habits, putting your best foot forward wherever you are. Strictly avoiding repetitive code when possible, this forces me to employ design patterns.

(4) Not wasting time on pomodoro / productivity hacks, - discipline, patience, and work ethic

(5) Putting pleasant music on right when I get home. I use this at the moment, https://www.youtube.com/freecodecamp/live. Makes me productive right away, so I don't play video games much anymore (this is assuming I don't have other commitments to make that night with meetups / friends)

(6) When I get stuck on a problem, post it 3xs in 3 different locations (my city's dev channel, stackoverflow, reddit). I don't have hand-holding when it comes to development unfortunately, learned everything the hard way.

(7) Segregating different times of days for different things. Morning time is dedicated for coursework / tutorials. Evening is for hobby projects / music.

(8) Setting a bedtime alarm warning at 9 PM. I go to sleep at 10 PM, so I need to wind down for an hour