The hottest Productivity Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Making some Headway

My Home Office Hacks • 2 implied HN points • 13 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Apps Productivity AI Tools Self-help Remote work
  1. The Headway app offers useful book summaries that help you learn key points quickly. It’s a great way to stay informed without having to read full books.
  2. Using tools like TinyWow's FAQ Generator can simplify content creation for websites. It helps you answer common questions easily, even if you're not a professional writer.
  3. Listening to book summaries can be a good alternative to traditional media. It can fill the time you would spend on the news and provide valuable insights instead.

You should probably start using Zoxide

The Schematic • 19 implied HN points • 05 May 24
🕹 Technology Tools Programming Software Productivity
  1. Zoxide is a tool that improves the 'cd' command in the terminal by offering additional features to simplify repetitive tasks.
  2. Zoxide uses 'z' instead of 'cd' to help users navigate directly to specific folders that are frequently accessed, making the process more efficient and convenient.
  3. While Zoxide may not dramatically increase productivity, it can enhance convenience by reducing the need to type repetitive commands and making navigation easier.

Finding the right attention span : A constant battle

Uneasy’s Substack • 19 implied HN points • 03 May 24
🕹 Technology Social media Procrastination Productivity Mental health
  1. It's tough to focus in today's world filled with distractions. We often choose short-term pleasures over long-term goals.
  2. Setting up routines and limiting phone use can really help improve focus and productivity. Trying to get things done without your phone can be a game changer.
  3. Boredom isn't bad; it's actually important for growth. Embracing boredom can lead to greater achievements down the line.
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The Rule Of Five : The All In One Guide For Productivity and Profitability.

Day One • 878 implied HN points • 30 Jul 20
💼 Business Productivity Time management Entrepreneurship Income Strategies
  1. Focus on maximizing your days by adopting a system like the Rule of Five for productivity.
  2. Distinguish between being busy and being productive - don't just go through motions without achieving anything.
  3. Using the Rule of Five can lead to significant increases in productivity, profitability, and achieving goals.

Engineering Efficiency vs. Engineering Experience - Problem #5

Fish Food for Thought • 6 implied HN points • 04 Dec 24
💼 Business Management Strategy Productivity Human Resources Technology
  1. Businesses should focus on creating a positive Developer Experience (DevEx) instead of just looking at productivity numbers like lines of code. This helps developers thrive and leads to better products.
  2. Supporting a good DevEx can help keep talented developers at a company, reducing turnover and recruitment costs. Happy developers are more likely to stay and work effectively.
  3. Finding a balance between engineering efficiency and the overall experience of developers is key. When companies prioritize both, they can deliver higher-quality products and encourage long-term innovation.

AI for Education, Freelancing, Boosting Personal Productivity, and more

What's AI Newsletter by Louis-François Bouchard • 39 implied HN points • 06 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Education Freelancing Productivity
  1. The podcast episode shares insights on leveraging AI for education and boosting personal productivity.
  2. The episode features Tina Huang, who discusses freelancing in the tech industry and strategies for enhancing personal productivity.
  3. The content is geared towards anyone interested in technology, AI, and practical tips for working in the field or leveraging AI effectively.

Switching to nvim as an early career developer in 2024

The Schematic • 19 implied HN points • 27 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Software Development Productivity Tools
  1. Switching to neovim offered a more close-to-the-computer experience for the developer and helped in understanding what's going on under-the-hood.
  2. Choosing a stable neovim package manager like LazyVim and customizing the setup helped in a smoother transition and better understanding of the tool.
  3. Using neovim increased efficiency in coding tasks like text editing, search and replace, and improved typing speed by focusing on keyboard-centric usage.

RDEL #28: What type of interruptions impact developer productivity most?

Research-Driven Engineering Leadership • 39 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Productivity Software Engineering Research Developer Tools
  1. Self-interruptions (voluntary task-switching) are more disruptive for developers than external interruptions.
  2. Contextual factors like interruption type (self vs external) and time of day have a stronger impact on disruption than task-specific factors like priority.
  3. Developers are more vulnerable to task-switching and interruptions when switching between programming and testing tasks compared to other development tasks.

Why Teams Will Break This Year (and How to Fix Them) | Battery Venture’s Dharmesh Thakker

Dev Interrupted • 14 implied HN points • 11 Feb 25
🕹 Technology AI Tools Software Development Engineering Teams Tech industry Productivity
  1. AI could greatly help developers by automating routine tasks and improving productivity. It's important for teams to embrace these changes to stay effective.
  2. Communication is crucial in engineering teams. It's vital to allow junior developers to learn from their mistakes and for everyone to share insights openly.
  3. Good management practices are often lacking but very valuable. Establishing clear goals and regular check-ins can help teams perform better.

How I Built This In Public: Khe Hy

Build In Public Newsletter • 78 implied HN points • 14 Apr 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Personal Development Productivity Public Relations
  1. Start building in public early in your startup journey to share your progress and attract a community.
  2. Building in public can lead to personal and professional benefits like creating a supportive community and demonstrating your work.
  3. Overcome hesitations about building in public by adding transparency and sharing both successes and challenges.

Creativity Is An Underrated Performance Booster

The Modern World Builder ✧Tips For Collective Lorecraft • 78 implied HN points • 25 Jun 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Creativity Innovation Productivity Crypto
  1. Creativity leads to innovation, which creates value and helps you stand out in your field.
  2. In competitive environments like twitter or in entrepreneurship, trying to outdo others with productivity alone may not work. Being creative sets you apart.
  3. In industries like crypto and entrepreneurship, where problems are novel and solutions need imagination, developing creative skills is more valuable than just being productive.

Practical Advice for a Better You

Anima Mundi • 20 implied HN points • 28 Dec 24
🚌 Education Personal Growth Decision-making Productivity Leadership Learning Strategies
  1. When making a decision, find one strong reason for it. If you can’t identify a solid reason, reconsider your choice.
  2. Focusing on one task at a time leads to better results than multitasking. It reduces stress and improves the quality of your work.
  3. Look for people who show potential and the ability to learn quickly rather than just those with experience. They can surprise you with their growth.

How a culture fail ruined Boeing

Make Work Better • 114 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
💼 Business Leadership Employment Corporate culture Productivity Economic Growth
  1. Boeing failed multiple safety tests, leading to accidents and loss of lives, due to a shift towards prioritizing stock price over quality
  2. A strong corporate culture requires aligning stated values with actual behaviors, empowering employees to make decisions based on those values
  3. Businesses that lose sight of their purpose and focus solely on chasing money risk facing significant organizational failures

SuperHuman: How To Manage Your Time, Attention and Energy Daily For Growth.

Day One • 738 implied HN points • 01 Sep 20
🏥 Health & Wellness Time management Productivity Personal Growth Self-Improvement Mental health
  1. Controlling your time is crucial for success. It's the one resource we have a lot of but can't make more of. Time management sets apart the top achievers from the rest.
  2. Identify what's draining your time. Social media is a major time thief. Focus on tasks that truly impact your life, and learn to make social media work for you, not against you.
  3. Use technology wisely. Apps can help with time management, but a solid strategy is essential for success. Choose apps that align with your goals and priorities.

The "Macros" for healthy engineering teams - part 3: Fats

The Healthy Engineering Leader • 19 implied HN points • 17 Apr 24
💼 Business Management Leadership Team Dynamics Strategic Planning Productivity
  1. Strategic thinking is like 'good fat' for engineering teams, helping them store energy and prepare for future challenges. It keeps teams motivated and focused on long-term success.
  2. Technical debt is considered 'bad fat' that can lead to inefficiencies and low morale. Just like bad fats in the diet, if ignored, it can cause serious problems down the line.
  3. Engineering leaders should encourage their teams to develop strategies that address technical debt, ensuring ongoing productivity and health for the team and the software they produce.

AI and Knowledge Work

Tanay’s Newsletter • 119 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Software Engineering Customer Support Consulting Productivity
  1. AI is enhancing productivity and quality in knowledge work like software engineering and customer support.
  2. AI benefits are not uniform; it tends to help lower performers more, but can also assist top performers by reducing menial tasks.
  3. AI is not a cure-all; it has limitations and understanding when to use it is crucial for optimal results.

The Case For An AI Productivity Suite

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 19 implied HN points • 12 Apr 24
🕹 Technology AI Tools Automation Productivity Data Management Business Processes
  1. An AI productivity suite helps people and businesses work more efficiently by combining tools for tasks like data analysis and automation.
  2. It allows users to automate regular tasks, freeing them to focus on more important work, and offers easy customization through no-code options.
  3. These suites also promote teamwork by improving communication and sharing among team members, leading to better project outcomes.

Superhuman Powers for Superhero Developers

Ben’s Newsletter • 3 HN points • 06 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Software AI Engineering Productivity Development
  1. Developers face a lot of challenges with technical debt which slows down projects. It's important to address this debt by improving code and reducing dependencies.
  2. AI tools are really helping developers work faster and more efficiently. Many developers are now using AI to help write and debug their code.
  3. Reproducibility and effective tooling are key to a smooth software development process. Using the right tools can save time and make it easier for teams to work together.

Developer Productivity Will Decline in 2025 | Predictions from LinearB’s Ori Keren

Dev Interrupted • 23 implied HN points • 10 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Software AI Productivity Cybersecurity Engineering
  1. Developer productivity may decrease in 2025 due to an influx of AI tools. Short-term challenges might arise before these tools bring long-term benefits.
  2. In 2025, engineering leaders need to embrace data-driven decision-making. It's important to measure performance to optimize team productivity effectively.
  3. Cybersecurity will be a big focus in 2025, with AI-driven threats and new vulnerabilities. Teams will need to improve their security measures and collaborate better to stay safe.

Big firms have different incentives

New Things Under the Sun • 192 implied HN points • 24 Aug 23
💼 Business Innovation R&D Incentives Productivity
  1. Large firms conduct R&D at the same rate as small firms, but they may focus more on process innovations rather than product innovations.
  2. The cost spreading advantage incentivizes larger firms to focus on process innovation, spreading costs over multiple products.
  3. Larger firms may be less inclined to engage in product innovation due to the replacement effect, potentially competing against their own existing products.

New Month, New Quarter

Day One • 778 implied HN points • 01 Apr 20
🏥 Health & Wellness Self-Improvement Productivity
  1. Welcome to a new month and a new quarter, where there will be changes in the newsletter and a shift to a weekly schedule on Substack.
  2. Achieving success isn't just about putting in 10,000 hours but rather focusing on taking action and letting it consume you for mastery in a skill.
  3. Having a million ideas is great, but taking action is what truly matters in achieving your goals.

"I don't want to do our cheat way of getting 12 objectives by bundling everything under three things"

Ruben Ugarte's Growth Needle™ • 4 HN points • 23 Jul 24
💼 Business Strategy Management Leadership Team Dynamics Productivity
  1. It's really hard to focus on just three priorities because teams often want to tackle too many things at once. Picking fewer goals helps you actually get more done.
  2. Organizations keep adding new projects and ideas without removing old ones, which creates overload. It's important to occasionally remove tasks or projects to avoid burnout.
  3. Having too many ideas can slow down progress, so it’s essential to have a way to filter them. Voting or aligning them with key priorities helps decide which ideas to pursue.

The Need for Speed | 2025 Engineering Benchmarks

Dev Interrupted • 14 implied HN points • 21 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Software Development Engineering Productivity Data Privacy Artificial Intelligence
  1. Smaller pull requests can increase both speed and quality of software development. This helps teams work faster without compromising standards.
  2. Longer cycle times often lead to more errors and project failures. It's essential to keep cycle times short to maintain software quality.
  3. Investing in developer experience (DevEx) is important for a team's productivity. If you don't invest enough, unexpected work and issues can slow down progress.

AI Isn’t Good Enough

Irregular Ideas with Paul Kedrosky & Eric Norlin of SKV • 172 HN points • 23 Aug 23
🕹 Technology AI Automation Productivity Tools Data
  1. There is a significant shortage of workers in the U.S. across various industries, leading to the need for automation.
  2. Current AI technology has limitations and is not yet capable of addressing the workforce shortage effectively.
  3. To avoid economic disruptions, future automation needs to focus on delivering high productivity gains that outweigh worker displacement.

Must Learn AI Security Compendium 5: The Rise of AI in the IT Sector

Rod’s Blog • 59 implied HN points • 20 Sep 23
🕹 Technology AI IT Security Productivity Ethics
  1. Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the IT sector, with the rise of models like ChatGPT expanding its potential applications.
  2. AI enhances productivity by speeding up tasks that would otherwise take hours, like code generation using PowerShell scripting with generative AI.
  3. AI fosters creativity and innovation, such as in content creation and marketing, and requires ethical considerations for responsible development.

How to make your teams more independent[Storytime Saturdays]

Technology Made Simple • 59 implied HN points • 30 Apr 23
💼 Business Leadership Autonomy Productivity Professional development
  1. Leaders often find dealing with people the most challenging part of their work, including the urge to micromanage their employees.
  2. Creating autonomy in teams has multiple benefits: happier employees, more time for leaders to focus on important tasks, and opportunities for growth and skill development.
  3. Encouraging autonomy in employees can lead to increased satisfaction, fulfillment, and better performance at work.