Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses Plus account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Well done!
You have completed Web Design Q&A with Nick!
You have completed Web Design Q&A with Nick!
Preview
Nick is asked if he has any tips for staying productive. Like many people, Nick utilizes email as the "universal to-do list" tool.
This video doesn't have any notes.
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up
[Treeouse Teacher Q & A]
0:00
Nick, do you have any tips for staying productive? >>Any tips for staying productive?
0:04
I'm actually probably one of the worst people you could ask about that.
0:09
I feel like I'm always busy and I'm super productive but I don't know how.
0:14
I don't actually use--I can't say like "Oh yeah, I use this app and then I use this calendar and thing."
0:20
I'm still in the phase of like sending e-mails to myself when I have To Do's
0:29
because I'm doing my inbox that has To Do list that basically anybody can write to.
0:35
So I write to that To Do list as well,
0:39
and then in Gmail, Ill go ahead and start stuff that I want to get done that day.
0:42
And I'll go ahead and try to clear out my star inbox.
0:48
I think it is super important to try and maintain a calendar certainly for work but also for yourself.
0:52
One thing that I have been doing, personally at home, is that I have this calendar on my frige
1:00
It's just like a dry-erase board and I go ahead and fill out for the week.
1:06
It's just a week calendar and I fill out things like I'm going to workout these days,
1:12
I have piano lesson on Friday
1:18
and then I go ahead and mark down a few goals that I have for that week that I can quantify
1:21
and then I go ahead and record those each day and that's really helpful.
1:27
First I thought it was kind of stupid.
1:31
It was actually my girlfriend's idea and I thought that--and I was like this is dumb.
1:32
I hope she's not watching. >>She knows this.
1:37
I thought it was kind of a stupid idea and I was like--
1:39
"Man, this is so helpful to have this visual reference right here."
1:42
So that's kept me super productive but that worked.
1:46
I feel like there is always just so much going on that--there's never time we're not productive.
1:49
So I don't have a problem staying productive.
1:56
I think for me it's more problem of prioritization
1:59
and figuring out how best to tackle the issues of the day.
2:02
So that's something I'm still working on.
2:06
I have a quick app tip for eliminating distractions as opposed to gaining productivity.
2:09
It's called "Concentrate." You can get it at concentrating.com.
2:16
The thing that's really useful about it is that you can block domains for a certain period of time
2:20
or they something called "The Pomodoro Technique"
2:25
where you worked really hard for 25 minutes and break for 5.
2:27
That's where you can get your distractions in.
2:30
Set up some timers and boom, you're done.
2:33
See, Im super weird.
2:35
So many people in the community of web designers
2:37
and web developers will have this productivity technique.
2:39
I actually just started using bookmarks here.
2:43
I never even used the bookmarks toolbar at all
2:45
and I tried using RSS for a little while
2:48
but it actually just ended up creating this huge inflicts of links that I never wanted to read
2:53
and so I stopped using RSS and realized that it's something that's important enough to check often.
3:00
I will remember to check it.
3:07
It will kind of be a pavlovian effect, so that's how I did that,
3:09
but--yup, nope.
3:13
I'm always productive but I'm not really sure how.
3:15
I haven't time actually just still that in detail.
3:19
[Question: Any tips for staying productive?]
3:23
[Treehouse Teacher Q & A]
3:25
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up