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Tech Productivity

Issue #218  (The Anti-Productivity Manifesto) 04/17/23


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There's already lots of discussion happening around how different tech workers and others are using ChatGPT to help their productivity. You might be interested in a recent Hacker News thread on this subject where the user asks: How are you using GPT to be productive?

The answers range from getting coding help, to treating it like a therapist, to not using it at all out of concern for data privacy.
 
Codie Sanchez Tweet thread on Running Multiple Companies
 
The top comment brings up a good point about getting coding advice, using the example of a Python library called Pandas:
 
"For example, I might start out by asking it a question about a problem with Pandas like "How do I select rows of a dataframe where a column of lists of strings contains a string?". After that, GPT realizes I'm talking about Pandas, and I'm allowed to ask lazy prompts like "how delete column" and still get replies about Pandas."

This is a great point and applies to whatever you're researching. Traditionally we might use an online forum to get a direct response. But it takes much longer to get meaningful follow-up responses on subsequent related questions. ChatGPT makes it easy to keep a running theme going without having to remind it what you're discussing or wait a long time for an answer.

Maybe you've found similar benefits when using it yourself.

Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!


 

Tools & Apps

AI Cover Letter Generator — Paste your resume or LinkedIn profile along with the job post you'll be applying to and this tool will generate a personalized cover letter.

ChatGPT for Google — Open-source Chrome and Firefox extension that adds ChatGPT responses alongside search engine results, with support for Google, Baidu, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Yahoo, Yandex, and others.

Think Better with Reflect Notes — Reflect is a note-taking tool that mirrors the way your brain works. It's powerful, secure and easy to use. It even has an integrated AI assistant that uses GPT-4 that lets you save your own custom prompts. It feels like using ChatGPT in Apple Notes.   sponsor  

Anori — Browser extension that lets you create a customized new tab page that includes 9 built-in widgets like tasks, notes, weather, recently closed pages, bookmarks, etc.

Superlist — A to-do list built for teams, to help teams manage the day, work together, plan vacations, and collaborate in real time with group assignments, reactions, and app integrations (Slack, GitHub, Google, etc).

ScreenshotX — A lightweight, freeware, ad-free screenshot app for Windows that lets you easily create attractive screenshots and product shots with a redaction/blur feature.

Ready — A modern calendar app that instantly transforms your events into collaborative meeting spaces and includes templates, tasks, and meeting tools to improve your team meetings.

 

Articles & Resources

How to be a -10x Engineer — Notice, that's minus 10x. My favourite line: "Write scripts that only one person understands. If the script does something important, avoid documentation." A humorous but valuable set of anti-suggestions.

Brainstorm Questions Not Ideas — The author believes, based on evidence-based research, that brainstorming ideas is a waste of time and suggests this instead.

The Anti-Productivity Manifesto — This one is worth it for the Brazilian parable about the fisherman and businessman along with the line, "The lesson is that a life chasing efficiency is actually internally inconsistent."

Free One-Pager Project Management Template — Over 16,000 downloads. Use this template (available in Notion, Obsidian, Word, OneNote, and Google Docs formats) to organize all your small and medium sized projects. Business or Personal. Free course included shows you how to use it.   sponsor  

Life is a Game. This is Your Strategy Guide — A 2014 article that reinterprets the typical life span and activity of the average person today into the context of a video game.

10 Strange, But Proven, Tricks To Help You Focus When Working From Home — Some common suggestions here, but many of them are somewhat unorthodox, so you might find something here that helps you that you haven't tried yet.

100-Year-Old Sisters Share 4 Tips for Staying Mentally Sharp as You Age — This is the first I've ever heard of siblings both over the age of 100! I think these suggestions can work no matter what age we are.
 

Suggestions?

Have a suggestion for a productivity-related tool, article, or other resource? Send me a direct message via X (@LouisLazaris) and I’ll consider including it in a future issue.

Stay productive!

Louis
techproductivity.co
@LouisLazaris

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