Productivity

Suggestions for increasing productivity and maintaining a low distraction environment.

Ashwin Jayaprakash

CC-BY-SA-4.0

Computer setup

Email with simple prioritization

Gmail with Multiple inboxes enabled:

1. Inbox (Only certain important unclassified emails stay in Inbox
   1. The other emails have filters such as this: Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "gerrit_or_build" )
2. JIRA/Wiki (label:jira-wiki (mentioned OR "P1" OR label:starred) -in:trash)
3. Code reviews
   1. BitBucket (from:bitbucket@company.com is:unread {"Fred Flintstone" "Homer Simpson" "Mickey Mouse"} )
   2. Github (repo:openjdk/jdk type:pr state:open author:def author:abc author:xyz)
4. Misc (-in:trash AND label:misc)

Stress free IM (Slack etc)

1. No pop-up notifications

Distraction free computer

• Only 1 big physical monitor with medium brightness and contrast, generous font size
• Solarized or Gruvbox themes for everything that can be skinned (IDE, Atom, Terminal, Slack etc) and screen dimmers (Mac Night Shift) to avoid eye strain and reduce distraction
• Only one virtual desktop visible at any time to avoid distractions and unnecessary/frequent context switching and SizeUp to manage them using the keyboard
  1. Virtual desktop 1
     1. Calendar
     2. Email
     3. IM
     4. Wiki
     5. Code reviews
     6. Issue tracker
  2. Virtual desktop 2
     1. IDE
     2. Terminal with tabs
  3. Virtual desktop 3
     • Browser for Google search, StackOverflow, personal email etc
• I would also highly recommend my own Marker tab utility with a built-in to-do list to organize your browser tabs
• Automatically hiding dock/task bar to prevent visual distractions such as “unread counters” from IM or Email
• No pop up notifications from any application/Calendar/IM

Misc tools

• TaskPaper note taker and outliner
• Typora to write specs or documents or long notes using distraction free Markdown before moving them to internal wiki or email
• Google Chrome
  • Organize your tabs with tab groups in Google Chrome
  • Tabman Tabs Manager - Chrome Web Store
  • JIRA quick search
  • File tree to GitHub’s Pull Request
  • Jira subtask sortable - Change the order of JIRA sub-tasks via drag and drop
  • JSON Editor - Chrome Web Store
  • callumlocke/json-formatter: Makes JSON/JSONP easy to read
  • TabCopy - Chrome Web Store
  • Grammarly

Other devices (Phone / tablet)

• No sound notifications
• No popups
• Only ringing and mild notifications from
• Phone
• Messages from immediate family for emergencies

Bed time

• All devices with connectivity put away and outside the bedroom 40 minutes before bed time
• E-reader with low brightness and airplane mode for bed time reading (or a printed book!)
• Sepia or Solarized theme to avoid eye strain

Interesting reading

• Actually, Slack really sucks
• Is group chat making you sweat?
• Pomodoro Technique
• The Eisenhower Matrix Productivity Method
• The Beauty of Blank Space on Your Calendar
• The Invisible Problem Wrecking Your Productivity And How To Stop It
• The Distracted Mind
• How Technology is Hijacking Your Mind — from a Magician and Google Design Ethicist