Lately, I’ve been marking each task on my to-do list as a high attention task or a low attention task, and through out the day, I will alternate and work only on the things that match my energy level. I’ve noticed that these “energy audits” have enabled me to power through bunches of tasks that I tend to avoid because they seem tedious or time-consuming. (Source: 6 tools that are more powerful than to-do lists for productivity). — CD

One of the benefits of working from home is that you potentially have more autonomy in your work. As Dan Pink explains in this brief, but densely animated talk entitled: “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us,” autonomy is one of the three main drivers of getting stuff done (money is not). Use this reset time to optimize these three factors in what you do. — KK

This blog post served as a nudge to remind me that my computer is a tool, not a distraction device, and had some good strategies for making the most of my screen time. Like, “Full Screen is your Friend,” and you don’t need time tracking software to help you focus on a task, just use a sticky note. Write down what you need to focus on and put it on your monitor where you can see it, and only use your computer with that specific purpose in mind. It’s fool-proof. — CD

One of the most useful bits of advice I ever got, came from the writer Anne Herbert who said that whenever she got an invitation to do something months away or even a week away, she asked herself whether she would accept the gig/meeting/task if it was tomorrow. The answer was often no. I use that immediacy trick all the time, and it has served me very well. — KK

I work from home four days a week and what helps me be most productive is having a separate work space (not in a bedroom) with lots of natural light, getting dressed as if I’m going to the office, sticking to a 9-5 schedule, and giving myself short breaks every hour to walk around or cuddle with my dog. This article on How to Work From Home and Actually Get Stuff Done has a lot more suggestions for productivity. Eating lunch away from my desk is something I have to get better at, and one thing I hadn’t considered is to do some work before breakfast: “The usual recommendation is to start with a healthy breakfast, to fuel you for your busy day ahead. However, when you’re home all day, breakfast can be a drawn-out luxury, with reading, checking social media, and other distractions preventing you from getting started. Try diving into a quick work task, checking it off the list, and then sitting down to breakfast.” — CD

Here is a helpful minimal website with short and sweet canned emails for things like needing advice, asking to be paid back, rescheduling appointments, unsubscribing aggressively and more. — CD

I often need a quick way to find the best time for meetings with people in other time zones, and I find World Time Buddy is the best time converter visually. All of the overlapping business hours between two time zones are highlighted yellow, so I can easily decide the best hours to suggest. — CD

This is not like those cheesy, motivational posters you’ve seen. This is a collection of effective action plans to defeat procrastination. Every tip feels new and helpful and mind-opening. You can download your own poster to print out here. — CD

I’m a notebook hoarder/collecter and regularly use 2-3 different notebooks a day for work, journaling, lists, brain dumps, etc. Sometimes I need to flag pages to revisit and instead of post-it notes, I’ve been using these Redi-Tag Divider Sticky Notes ($5). These are so useful for indexing your notebooks and annotating pages. I’m still spread out all over the place, but this helps me keep track of what’s important. — CD

After months of using different email addresses to access free sessions of Brain.fm, I have finally signed up as a paying customer. I’ve tried classical music, brown noise and other ambient sounds when I need to focus, but Brain.fm’s Focus music works best for me. I can put on a two-hour loop and forget to get up from my desk to stretch. They have different genres of focus music, like atmospheric, chimes & bowls, nightsounds, as well as Relax and Sleep stations that I have yet to explore. But now that I am a paying customer, I can listen to all their music on both my laptop and phone. They offer five free sessions, then it’s $7 a month or $50 per year. — CD

I get signed up to a lot of email lists without my knowledge. I started using a service called Leave Me Alone to quickly unsubscribe to hundreds of them. Unlike other unsubscribe services this one makes money by charging a small fee instead of selling your data to advertisers. You can unsubscribe to 10 email lists for free to see how it works. — MF

The only habit tracker that I have consistently used and enjoy using is Tally: The Anything Tracker (iOS only). You can color code and group habits by type, set targets, track by day, week, month or year and have them reset whenever you want. You can track 3 habits with the free version and upgrade for more. There are a lot of other features too, but what I like the most about it is the cool, colored grid view and that I am able to add notes for the tallies I make. I am trying to read at least 20 books per year and I use the notes to track titles. I’ve been using this app for almost a year now and I like being able to see the historical data — like of my miles hiked per month — because it motivates me to outdo myself. — CD

This podcast episode of NPR’s Hidden Brain with Cal Newport, author of “Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World,” reminded me how important it is to protect your brain from distractions and to create flows of deeply focused work. I find that on days when I schedule 4-5 hours of uninterrupted work, I accomplish a lot more within a short time span, and can use the rest of the time to respond to emails and get ahead of the week’s tasks. To combat interruptions, I find using a Pomodoro timer, and turning off email notifications in 30 minute batches works for me. I used to feel guilty for scheduling out every hour of my work day, like a robot, but ultimately scheduling in both deep work and time for distractions allows me to feel “finished” at the end of the workday, and to quickly unwind right when 5 o'clock hits. Cal Newport suggests having a shut-down phrase for when you’ve completed your schedule, something he was previously embarrassed of, but now embraces, like “Schedule shut-down complete.” I am totally stealing this and adding it to my workflow. — CD

I bought this Sortkwik fingertip moisturizer so I could do card tricks better, but it turns out to be excellent for separating sheets of paper and turning book pages, too. If you have dry fingers, give this stuff a try. It’s not greasy or sticky, it just adds a little extra grip. — MF

I like this free tool created by Erik Rood that calculates all the free time you have left in your life. Just input your age and the hours per week you spend on things like sleep, work, commuting, eating, etc. Apparently I have 34 free hours per week. It really makes me rethink what I want to do with it. — CD

I have multiple Gmail accounts that I use throughout the day and I developed a bad habit of keeping them open and constantly clicking through tabs to check the status of my inbox even though I know nothing’s changed. Checker Plus is a chrome extension that lets you preview, delete, star and archive email without opening up Gmail or leaving your current window, and it works with multiple accounts. Since I’ve been using it, I have definitely been more productive. — CD

I came across this checklist and immediately bookmarked it. It’s a list of what to do after a death occurs. I compared it to other lists floating around online and liked this one best because of it’s practical reminders to take care of unpaid bills, contact the post office, etc. May be a bit morbid, but I like to be prepared. — CD

Two things have kept my to-do list on track lately. The first is this notebook previously recommended by Mark in issue 80. I bought 4 to stock up for the year. And the second is committing to the habit of asking myself the four questions from this Ted article. The most effectual being, “What’s the most important thing I can do today that would make tomorrow better?” and “Should I do this task now or can I do it later?” — CD

If you use Dropbox, installing the Dropbox Chrome extension is a timesaver. I no longer have to search for files in subfolders to copy and paste share links. With the extension, I can access all my folders and recent files and attach them in a message without having to leave Gmail. If someone sends me a dropbox link, I can download it directly to my computer without being redirected to another window — all these saved clicks add up! — CD

I discovered a number of years ago that playing one track of music in an endless loop helped me write the difficult first draft. Some writers and coders use white noise, but another group (I am one) prefer a single musical track in a loop. The kind of music varies by person (I use one specific Russian choir hymn); after a dozen loops the music disappears and what I get is a feeling of comfort, which helps me focus for hours while it repeats. Try it with your song. — KK