I asked my Postman colleagues what their secrets to an efficient and productive day are. Here’s their tips on how to increase your productivity. Not everyone is the same, so some things may work for you while others won’t. That’s ok. You do yours.

The Shultz Hour - Reserving one hour per week to zone out in a controlled manner.

Morning Pages - Habit of writing down your stream of consciousness first thing in the morning.

Calendar blockers for catching up with Slack, email. But also for lunch. And more.

Focus time playlists - using specific music to get into the flow. Many music streaming platforms have them under the name of e.g. Deep Focus (Spotify), Pure Focus (Apple Music), White Noise (different noise colors work for different kinds of people) or similar.

Calendar Bot/AI - look into reclaim.io Geekbot - an assistant on Slack to manage your day and keep track of what you do. Can integrate with your calendar.

Geekbot - an assistant on Slack to manage your day and keep track of what you do. Can integrate with your calendar.

Physical barriers - One colleague mentioned uninstalling Slack from the laptop and only have it on their iPad that is on another table. Other barriers can include: No meetings on the laptop. Chatting and doing calls happen on a separate place. What a bold move!

Work equipment - A good keyboard and mouse (or trackpad, graphic tablet, other pointer device) can enhance your productivity quite a bit. So does a good ergonomic chair. Also habits: Coding, writing, or any focus work happen with a proper chair and table.

Habits - Another colleague mentioned that a morning routine only gets them started. And for them that even includes a game of chess.

Running - Lots of folks mentioned that integrating running into their weekly (or daily) schedule improved their stress level and helped them balance.

Peripatetic meetings - Take a walk while you meet. This doesn’t require the physical presence of your meeting partner(s). But it helps making it clear to them that you do this.

Self-awareness - Finding out how often you pick up your phone during the hours that you thought you’d be focused helps you learn about yourself. Same is true for screen time and received notifications. For me it was 41 pickups, 1h 46m screen time and 116 notifications. Today, at 11:30am.

Try out what works for you and let us know here. Or share your own productivity hacks in the comments.