7 rules for being more productive

I’m design-hacking my life (Part 1)

At some point in the last three years, I decided to stop fighting myself. As a designer, I wouldn’t expect users to change deep-seated habits and psychological tendencies in order to use my product—at least not without a lot of hand-holding, guideposts, and forgiveness along the way. So instead of relying on sheer willpower to get myself to do things that went against my body, habits, and preferences, I’ve set up some rules that have forced—or rather, forcibly encouraged—me to be more productive.

I thought I would share some of them.

Part 1 of a series on life hacks. See part 2 on being more focused and disciplined, part 3 on being healthier, and part 4 on what I know about being happy.

1—I don’t (let myself) install games on my phone.

This is what designers call a forcing function: a behavior-shaping constraint, a means of preventing undesirable user action. So when I am on the train or waiting on a line and I take out my phone to look for something mindless to waste time with, I only have productive options (at least after I’ve exhausted Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, email…): Pocket, Kindle, TED.

Use forcing functions widely.