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Matthew Passmore

Website strategy & development

Links // productivity

28th May 2019

Prioritizing | CSS-Tricks

A nice change of pace to read a general productivity article from someone working in development.

How many of us are guilty of sacrificing quality time elsewhere for the sake of work, especially easy as an freelancer:

what you work on informs your values. You may think it’s no big thing to work overtime for a little while, but something will be sacrificed with this decision.

where you invest your time is not just about what you value, but also what you don’t value.

Countering the view that a productive session stems from tackling the biggest/hardest/most valuable task first:

Part of the reason we do the small things first is that morale is important. I feel more incensed to get my other work done because being productive feels good — there's a small dopamine rush associated with every check.

I use Bullet Journaling for similar sense of accomplishment:

Alice Goldfuss: "I have a kanban board for my personal life todo list and a cron job that empties my Done column and texts it to me every week, so I feel accomplished"

Knowing yourself is the crucial factor in any personal productivity system:

Most of these systems work for me because I know my strengths and weaknesses and I play to them: I work more efficiently when things are broken down into steps. I work best when my work has the most meaning, and I remove the cruft. I work best when I work along with, not against, my energy levels, where possible.

And for days like today:

There’s one more thing I haven't addressed yet: forgiveness. You’ll be more productive on some days (or hell, even years!) than you will be on others, and that's OK. Life is full of ebbs and flows.