You’ve probably heard of The Pomodoro Technique. But for those who haven’t: The Pomodoro Technique is a productivity method where you set a timer to 25 minutes and then focus on work for those 25 minutes, avoiding distractions. I tried it a few times before, but my timer was just a browser extension that displayed…
[Continue Reading]Productivity
Create designs faster
The process for creating a design is: Have an idea. Sketch it. Draw it properly. Clean up the lines. Polish. Add text if needed. Export to a PNG file. Sometimes you need a few variants. Submit to your online store. Add tags and a description. Share on social media. That’s a lot of different kinds…
[Continue Reading]Roam Research – Templates
I make notes about all the books and articles that I read, about anything useful that I learn. I note down all my ideas, I plan my future projects, I write down notes from courses I take. And while I work I chronicle the process. For all that I use Roam Research. It’s kind of…
[Continue Reading]What gets measured, gets managed
I don’t remember when I’ve first heard or read the words: “What gets measured, gets managed”. I thought it was something Ray Dalio said, but I just checked, and it seems the words are attributed to Peter Drucker (I don’t know who that is). Nevertheless — I like the principle. I just checked how many…
[Continue Reading]10 time management tips (not mine)
I’ve been trying to get better at managing my time because I can see how bad I am at it: I am busy all day, but nothing substantial gets done. I don’t prioritize, and so I complete minor tasks and I leave the most important thing for last. I keep putting off doing things I…
[Continue Reading]Overwhelming to-do list
My to-do list is always a few hundred items long. I am overwhelmed by it on a daily basis and constantly try to make it more manageable. Thomas Frank has just released a video “5 steps to tame your overwhelming to-do list” which, I think, drove the point across that I can’t do it all….
[Continue Reading]ReMarkable Productivity Boost
I’ve been using a reMarkable tablet nonstop for the past week. I moved all my to-do lists there. All notes on reMarkable are organized into notebooks so I now have a notebook just for my to-do lists. I created separate notebooks for all my projects that I am working on. One more notebook with weird…
[Continue Reading]Make your first 100 mistakes
Quality doesn’t matter, quantity does. It’s better to do 100 drawings than spend all that time on a single drawing. Starting a blog is scary, but I knew I would only get better if I wrote a lot. The first 100 designs are going to be awful, get them out of the way as soon…
[Continue Reading]Complete small tasks right away
Do you know the 2-minute productivity rule? It goes like this: If a task takes 2 minutes or less to complete, then do it now. I first read it in Getting Things Done by David Allen which is a very useful book and I recommend it to everyone. I like all the productivity rules and…
[Continue Reading]One thing at a time
I try various methods to fight off distractions and to stop switching between tasks. My recent tactic is to write each item from my to-do list on its own piece of paper. I get to work only on the one that is on top of the stack. It’s easier to concentrate on the task at…
[Continue Reading]Eisenhower Matrix
If you don’t know what an Eisenhower Matrix is, it’s a tactic to decide what to work on next. You can put each task into the correct category based on whether the task is urgent or not, and important or not. So for me writing a blog post is urgent and important each day. And…
[Continue Reading]Best way to take notes
There is one app that I use every day, many times a day — Roam Research. And I can’t overstate how vital this tool is for me. Roam is a note-taking tool but on their website, they advertise it as “a tool for thought” and they might be right. It certainly feels that the way…
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