Stop Pushing me Around

I’ve been thinking a lot about productivity as of late. How do I get the most out of my days? How do I make every minute well-spent? How do I accomplish what I set out to do in the beginning of the day.

I was having coffee in NYC with Ryan Holiday and this particular subject came up. He told me about how he gets a tremendous amount of work done on planes. He never opt-ins to buying wifi, because that’s just a distraction.

It then occurred to me what the enemy of productivity is. The enemy is push. Push notifications in all it’s forms, SMS, twitter mentions, path updates, emails and it goes on and on and on.

We’ve been trained that it’s okay to be interrupted by these notifications. We are supposed to have our fingers on these digital triggers or else we are deemed rude or douchey. And hey, most of us are cool with it because it only takes a few seconds to respond.

These notifications although disguised as harmless little things ruins the key to getting good work done. The key is flow. To be most effective and efficient, you need to be distraction-free and focus on that task at-hand. Interruptions get you out of the zone. 

The solution is simple. Don’t let push notifications push you around. Block off your day into slots for doing different tasks. 1 hour to give feedback on your friend’s project, 1 hour to code that feature, 1 hour to spend quality time with your mom etc… Then schedule some time in to answer your notifications in bulk. 30 minutes in the beginning, middle and end of day for email, social media responses can occur all at the end of the day etc… Whatever works for you.

One caveat, this requires a ton of obedience. It’s so easy to just mess up and go check Twitter or Facebook. But remember  if you stick with this, it will deeply improve the quality of your business and personal life. With less time wasted, better work done and more time to spend with friends and family, you’ll be happy you’ve given up getting pushed around.

What are some ways that you combat the push? Do you use any tools? I’ve heard good things about AwayFind. 

5 Life Hacks That Will Make You More Successful

I’m an anomaly  By the age of 24, I’ve had the opportunity to brush shoulders with billionaires, impact millions of people via the internet and build fortune 500 internet strategies. Plus, I did it all from Montreal, Canada, with no Harvard degree (frankly, no degree, I’m a comp sci dropout) and with no capital. It’s thanks to these life hacks like these that have help these opportunities present itself. Below I’ve shared a few:

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1. Be memorable with people you want to know better. A few months ago, I saw Daniel Eckler’s investor presentation on TechCrunch. I knew I wanted to invest. But he was getting bombarded by the Dave McClure’s of the world, and it was a tough deal to get into. So when I heard that he was flying into Montreal for 2 days, I asked him if I could pick him up from the airport to save him some bucks. At first, he thought it was kinda stalker-ish, but hey, I had 23k followers on twitter so how crazy could I be. I picked him up and then showed him around Montreal. He’ll never forget me. 

2. Do 3 things a day. The night before you go to sleep, write down the 3 major things you want to get accomplished the next day. The next day, you will wake up with focus and make sure you accomplish those things the next day. 

3. Don’t check email in the morning. If you were anything like me, you wake up and the first thing you’d do would be grab your phone and check your email. Forget email. Remember, you have 3 major things to do. The world will wait for you. Early AM is the best for tackling key problems.

4. Bring smart people together. When my friends at Dwolla were eager for some marketing ideas, I brought together a conference call of some of the smartest internet minds on the planet. The call included stars like Andy Ellwood (Gowalla sold to Facebook), Dario Meli (Hootsuite/Invoke and now Quietly), Rory Olson (4 exits, 2 IPOs) and viral marketing genius & growth hacker extraordinaire, Andrew Sider (now at Bunch).

5. Take life notes. Document what your key learnings and key insights. You’ll forget about the journey and the process if you don’t and it will help you when you make key decisions. Guys like Shane Mac have written books like Stop With the BS in 24 hours based on life notes. 

What are some of your favorite life hacks?  Comment below.

For more life hacks, follow me on twitter.