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Tech Productivity

Issue #236  (Best Practices for Working Remotely) 08/21/23


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Sunsama is the daily planner for busy professionals — it helps you organize your tasks, meetings and emails all in one place. Our focus bar helps you keep track of your tasks and timer even outside of Sunsama. Try it and you don’t have to pay if you don’t save an hour every day.

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I just discovered a website called Blind that allows users to anonymously interact with people across their industry or in some cases in their own company. I'm not entirely sure of the ethics of it all (does it go against company policies in some cases?) but there was one interesting discussion about how much focused work people do each day.
 
Focused work poll on Blind

The thread starts with a poll that's been answered by more 9,200 users. The results (which you have to sign up to view) are somewhat interesting. The top answer is currently 4 hours per day but coming in a close 2nd is the answer "more than 8 hours".

To be honest, it seems like many didn't understand the poll question. The user who posted it explains it in the text portion of the post, but the question itself is just asking about 'how much you work' not specifically about 'focused work'.

It would be nice to see this posted more with a more clear question, but there's a thread with a discussion on the topic below the poll if you want to read up on people's thoughts on the subject.

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

 

Tools & Apps

Smash — A file transfer service suited for enterprise users but that's simple to use and secure, while allowing enabling custom branding for paid plans.

WiFi Mouse — iOS or Android app that transforms your phone into a wireless mouse, keyboard, remote desktop, trackpad and more.

This Productivity App Promises Balance — Sunsama is the daily planner for busy professionals — it helps you organize your tasks, meetings and emails all in one place. Our focus bar helps you keep track of your tasks and timer even outside of Sunsama. Try it and you don’t have to pay if you don’t save an hour every day.    sponsor  

Strateamic — An app to improve 1:1 meetings and thus build stronger relationships with team members, with features including scheduling, agendas, and prep time.

Frontdoor — An AI-based knowledge assistant for Chrome to capture anything on the web, have it automatically organized, and resurfaced right when you need it.

Rainy Mood — Rain sounds for sleep, study, relaxation, and focus, for web, iOS, Android, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Task Paw — An app that allows you to 'gamify' your tasks list to help you get more things done, a proven method that uses game-like incentives to help boost productivity.
 

Articles & Resources

In Praise of Memorization — Cool story in the intro about an engineering team that was forced to memorize stuff, followed by some reasons why memorization should be part of our routine.

Use Focus on your iPhone or iPad — Not exactly an article, but a help resource on the Apple docs on using the 'Focus' feature on iOS 15 and up.

Bytes: Your Favourite JavaScript Newsletter — I subscribe to a lot of newsletters, but this is definitely one I look forward to. Entertaining with lots of cool and useful coding tidbits and tools.    sponsor  

How Your Brain Reacts to Mistakes Depends on Your Mindset — A new study finds that people who think they can learn from their mistakes have a different brain reaction to mistakes than people who think intelligence is fixed.

A Better Argument for Working Less — Promotes the idea that working less allows us to be better and more satisfied people, rather than using the extra time to pursue a side hustle.

This Former CEO Cut Her 70-Hour Workweek Down to 30 with 3 Productivity Hacks—Start with ‘Tossing Your To-Do List’ — She refutes the usefulness of the Pomodoro technique and encourages measuring productivity via tasks rather than hours worked.

11 Best Practices for Working Remotely — Not just a simple list, but lots of discussion on each point that I'm sure many will benefit from on their remote teams.
 

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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