How to Be Productive

Here’s a collection of things that have helped me be more productive.

Capture as a separate place to write down a task with as little friction as possible at any time. I do this ~20 times per day as things come up. The key is to get into the habit so you no longer spend your time constantly trying to remember what you need to do.
Inbox zero as often as you can. It’s not just email, it’s any inbox or queue that you interact with like Slack, HubSpot, Notion, iMessage, etc. If you treat your inbox as a todo list, don’t. If you can answer it in a few minutes, do that. If not, see Capture.
Be more decisive. Decision making speed is often my bottleneck and it’s too easy to deliberate on items that aren’t that important. This pairs well with Inbox Zero and Capture because if you can decide more quickly you can usually resolve more things in a few minutes.
“Hell yeah” or “no”. If you have trouble saying no to things (personal or professional), try reducing it down to a simpler decision.
Just try getting started with the first thing to overcome the activation energy to get a large thing done and you’ll naturally keep going.