The 1-Step Plan for Super-Productivity

A study of students, who basically have to get up early isn't exactly that applicable to all walks of life. It's also a very broad categorization. For students, does it mean that you spend a longer period of time before studying/lectures begin? Which would also work if you get up at noon, but don't start work until two or three…

Also, is the total amount of preparation the same for all those students? Let's say you're prone to partying, and thus it isn't just that you get up late, it's also quite likely that you didn't spend too much time on your studies in the evening.

Never mind that this might just be a correlation, and being proactive/productive and getting up early follow from the same disposition, not that one is the cause of the other.

Quoting Hemingway and an "energy management guru" doesn't exactly make this much better.

Why are we so prone to self-help advice articles here? Fear of failure with startups? Age?

All these productivity gimmicks and schemes are self-defeating. I used to pay attention to every latest one, until I realized the issue was me, not how I organize.

I do use many lightweight facets of GTD, but really my productivity mantra has fallen back to a simple 1980s marketing blurb from a shoe company: "Just Do It".

Alternatively, if I'm feeling particularly whiny and lazy: "Just F-ing Do it!".

For most people on HN I suspect this would be more like:

1. Close your IM, email and browser

So many ways people come up with to boost productivity! yet they all forget the point. If you want to be more productive, you have to produce more. Granted tiredness, and other distractions can reduce focus, but lets be honest if properly motivated these shouldn't be huge issues. I'd like to think that getting work done is similar to being a boulder on the edge of a cliff. while its staying on top work is getting done (work with me here) but if its tumbling down... thats distraction, and that means no work is getting done. I can only speak for myself, but what I've noticed is that when these distractions interrupt my productivity, its because I was barely on the edge anyways. If you really want to boost your productivity, you have to find what motivates you about doing your work.

Recently I found myself in a low productivity spiral, I tried everything, changing my sleep schedule, disconnecting from the internet, EVERYTHING. I found even with distractions gone, my productivity didn't boost. So I quit my job. The work i'm doing now interests me again. Productivity is at all time highs almost to the point I was at when I first started my career, and did the 16 hour work day (i'm doing 8 hour days now though... i now know about "burnout")