HN Explorer

Ask HN: What tools have most helped your day-to-day productivity?

119 points by cadeljwatson ↗ HN
I'm looking to find out what tools people use (software, apps, or otherwise) to increase productivity. It could be things like task management systems or more specific development tools (like a certain CI provider).

106 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 155 ms ] thread
bamboozled
I use this every minute of the day :) https://tomato-timer.com/
dominotw
Came here to say pomodoro technique. I use a physical kitcten timer at home but use this website when I am working out of a coffee shop.
tonyztan
Workflowy: https://workflowy.com

Dynalist: https://dynalist.io

Either one works great for productivity.

phirschybar
I used Workflowy for a couple years and loved it. But I craved something a _little_ more robust and found https://checkvist.com. It is similar to WF in terms of concept and UI but it has a lot of handy extras.
cheunste
Huh, this even exposes an Open API. I'm going to have to check this out.
maxkir
Hi, thanks for mentioning. I'm a Checkvist developer, if you have any questions - please ask.
severine
Wow, has this really existed for seven years? Congratulations, smooth as silk, impressive!
maxkir
Well, a bit more, actually. It will be 10 soon :)
priyadarshy
I use Sunsama daily (https://sunsama.com) to navigate my time + tasks. Disclaimer: I also work on making it.

I also built a really fast rig recently. It saves me a lot of time since I’m spending less time waiting for projects to build and can’t lose focus.

markshead
I have a 7-minute sand timer I picked up for a few dollars. Whenever there is a task I keep putting off, I'll commit to doing the task at least until the timer runs out. It probably sounds silly, but it really helps me get things done that I'd avoid otherwise.
harrisi
How often do you find yourself either keeping to that seven minute limit or going past it? Also, do you flip it over at the end if you go past the seven minutes? How do you decide when to start it?
markshead
I don't flip it over. Usually I'll go beyond the timer for some period of time because once I get some momentum on a task, I'll want to finish it up. I also use it to timebox activities that can consume the entire day. For example, if my office starts getting messy I may decide I want to spend 7 minutes a day just straightening things and organizing. In that situation, it becomes more of a notification of when to stop and get back to other work.
mixmastamyk
Yes, getting started is the hardest part.
NicoJuicy
You should try pomodoro ;)
markshead
I have. It is interesting but didn't really stick for me when I tried it. I've found some techniques that didn't work well in one period of my life work incredibly well in a different period when I'm working on different types of tasks, so I should try it again sometime.
dgudkov
>Whenever there is a task I keep putting off, I'll commit to doing the task at least until the timer runs out.

This does work. I noticed that when I force myself to spend only a few minutes to get an overall idea how I would solve a task I keep putting off -- after a few minutes of contemplating I suddenly get inspiration to have it finally done.

grizzles
rm -f gulpfile.js

I recently made a decision to try hard to avoid a build step in my scripting projects. Happy with it.

kody
The timer on my watch for Pomodoro. The tactile alarm is less jarring than audio.

Also Vim.

alaq
I also use Workflowy for my notes/todos/journal. I connect it with complice.co where I set my intentions for the day every morning.
BrianOD
Netsso.com, bookmarker which holds all my links to places I might wish to revisit, behind one single sign on, from any PC/ Android. Very fast re-find search. Also loads my Dropbox while encrypting the files if i wish to, and they decrypt on any other machine, with no software required. Takes Notes, too,
Dejital
C# Developer:

- Vi-key bindings in Visual Studio (and VSCode) for editor navigation

- Resharper for code generation and file navigation

- A password manager for maintaining secure passwords

- Todoist to for task management

- Evernote (premium) for notes management

itamarst
Tools really only can help you so much. Productivity is a lot more about attitude and skills. The necessary attitude is that you are trying to avoid unnecessary work, instead of the more typical of attitude of trying to do all the work more efficiently.

More here: https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/

meaydinli
I use Pocket to save articles to read later, Todoist for my to-do list, and OneTab chrome extension to keep my Chrome tabs clean.
over_score
Wallabag is a great open source alternative that you can host yourself. Anything interesting that I stumble across on hacker news (or elsewhere), I add to Wallabag, then when I fly I have a huge collection of articles to read.
davidcuddeback
A door that closes.
loco5niner
I wish
davidcuddeback
Being able to work out of a home office helps with this. And moving out of San Francisco helps with being able to afford a home office. This wasn't my primary motivation for moving out of SF, but it's been a nice benefit.
Tenobrus
Emacs, Org mode, magit, Alfred.
na85
Bullet journaling.

If you scrape off the layer of Tumblr or pinterest types who spend their time on calligraphy and washi tape, underneath is a really great system for productivity and dumping your brain to an analog medium.

Bonus: it's just a book and a pen, so it's "cross platform", and I never have to worry about XaaS providers going under, or Google killing a project and losing all my notes.

pvb
vim,tmux,i3,taskwarrior and redmine
phirschybar
The clipboard manager in Alfred
Voyiatzis
Ditto, indispensable utility within a must-have mac OS utility. I look forward to one day having the option to increase the font size of the clipboard.
matt2000
I use a bunch of IDEs from https://www.jetbrains.com/ (mainly Idea) and it is hands down the most important thing for my productivity. Been using them for over 10 years, super worth it.
chris_st
Seconded. I've used RubyMine for years (at home and at work), just getting into Go, and finding GoLand by them is fantastic.

Also tmux.

slipwalker
me too. After i got used to the shortcuts and tuned the JVM, never looked back ( to eclipse ) again.
zeroxfe
Evernote and VSCode have both been gigantic productivity boosts for me.
redindian75
Figma.com (a browser based Sketch) for me.

I am able to quickly prototype out ideas. I used to use Slides or OneNote for jotting down ideas, now I just sketch them out and wire them up as a quick prototype. Now I have all of my quick sparks sketched and drawn out without getting lost.

jacques_chester
I have ADHD-PI (previously called ADD).

The two things that have helped me most are (1) ritalin and (2) pair programming. Between the two of them I can stay mostly on task. I am able to use less ritalin when I am pairing, which I like, because at higher doses I get uncomfortable muscle tension.

Coming third, a fair way back, is a calendar program. Any one of them will do, so long as I can program multiple reminders.

Everything else is negotiable. I'd scribble code by hand before giving up ritalin.