5 Tech Hacks to Boost Your Productivity

Productivity comes and goes at any time since it’s powered by consistency and motivation.

Technology can be a double-edged sword for this. It can help you get things done fast but also distract you from work. So, how can you keep yourself motivated with so many things out there to distract you?

Well, only you can motivate yourself to stay productive at all times. However, you can also use the technology around you to motivate yourself. In this article, we’ll take a look at some tech hacks that you can use to keep yourself productive throughout the day.

Use the Pomodoro Technique to Beat Procrastination

Let’s be honest, we all can be a bunch of procrastinating Earthlings at times. Should we blame ourselves? Yes. Should we stop doom scrolling for hours on end? Yes. Will we ever do that? Probably not.

There are distractions all around us, and we can’t do a lot to get rid of them. However, we can find ways to work around them.

This is why we recommend using the Pomodoro Technique to get work done in short bursts. It’s essentially a time management technique that encourages you to work with the time you have, rather than working against it.

Essentially, you are going to choose one task to fully focus on. Set a 25-minute timer and work on the selected task during that time. After 25 minutes, take a break for five minutes. This is one Pomodoro.

After every 2-3 Pomodoros, you can take a longer 30-minute break.

In conjunction with the Pomodoro technique, we also recommend using the Eisenhower Matrix. With this technique, you can categorize your tasks at the beginning of the day or week. Divide them into four categories and identify the tasks you need to complete as soon as possible and ones that you can do later.

With the tasks divided, you can allocate specific Pomodoro sessions to get them done.

We recommend using Pomodoro apps which are available on both iOS and Android. However, it’s a better idea to always put your phone face down after starting a Pomodoro, so you don’t get distracted by any notifications.

Make Your Devices Distraction-Free

Your phone can be your best friend or your worst enemy in terms of productivity. It’s all about how you use it. To keep your workflow steady, you need to block out any distractions that stop you from working properly.

Thankfully, there are a lot of ways to do this.

The easiest way to stop unwanted distractions is to simply turn off WiFi or cellular data on your phone, or change the phone’s mode to Do Not Disturb. This will keep the social media notifications and other distractions away but allow calls to come in. However, this will also stop work-related emails from coming in, which can be a bad thing if you are expecting anything important.

Download an App

Another way to stop any unwanted distractions is to set up a focus mode. This can help you block out notifications on a lot of apps but still allow them to come in for apps you need. You can also set up iOS shortcuts that allow you to start a Pomodoro timer as well as the focus mode with the tap of a button.

Other apps help you block out distractions on your phone. Some of the apps we recommend checking out are:

• Freedom: This paid application allows you to block any distractions and your devices by creating multiple blocks.
• LeechBlock NG: This completely free browser extension allows you to create a list of sites you wish to block and restrict them. You can block them out entirely or specify a time for them.
• Cold Turkey Blocker: As the name suggests, the app allows you to create lists of apps or websites to block them entirely for a specific time.
• RescueTime: This app is a time-tracking app that allows you to create a list of apps for categories like work, focus, and personal.
• SelfControl: It is a macOS app that allows you to block specific URLs as a nuclear option since you can’t disable blocking unless you reinstall the entire operating system.
• Session: This is a great app for doing the things we mentioned above. It’s a macOS and iOS app that allows you to have a Pomodoro timer that blocks specific apps and sites during a session.
• One sec: This app and extension adds a little friction when you access a site or app by adding a pause period before you can access it.
• PawBlock: Do you love animals? If the answer is yes then this app is a perfect option for you. It shows you a picture of a disappointed animal if you decide to open a distracting website.

Block Apps From Your Router

This method won’t work for everyone. However, it’s one of the best ways to block distracting websites from being opened on any device you have.

A lot of internet routers allow you to blacklist specific URLs from being accessed, using parental controls.

One great example of this is the gateway you get with your Xfinity Internet. The xFi Gateway allows you to set up website-blocking from the admin tool using the parental controls option. If you want, call the Xfinity customer service number to talk to a representative on setting up these controls right away.

Use Speech-To-Text to Your Advantage

We all find ourselves in a sticky situation where we have to send out a quick email or text, but can’t type it out. In that case, speech-to-text can be a great tool to use.

Although typing out a message is always going to be more precise, nowadays speech recognition is accurate for the most part on mobile devices.

Google Docs has a built-in voice-typing feature you can use and Microsoft Office has an add-in called Dictate that allows you to use speech-to-text.

iOS has dictation built-in. You can press the mic icon anytime you open the keyboard to write using your voice. Gboard has a similar feature. By pressing the mic button, you can simply speak to type.

Change the Way You Take Notes

We find ourselves taking notes all the time. Whether it’s for work or noting down personal things, everyone has their way of writing down notes. Some do it on paper and some use the default or designated note-taking app on their phones.

In our experience, Notion is one of the best apps you can use for taking notes. Not only is it great for notes, but it also has great AI integration and a lot of features for collaboration. The part we love about using Notion is that you can customize it endlessly. This means that everyone can build their Notion for their needs.

However, Notion can sometimes be a little too complicated. This can end up being more of a distraction than a productivity tool. If you want to keep things simple, Apple Notes and Google Keep are great note-taking apps.

Conquer Your Email Inbox

Checking emails is something that almost all of us do as part of our work. However, not everyone makes the best of their email client.

There are a lot of things you can do to boost your productivity. The first thing you can do is to use the feature that allows you to send out emails at specific times. The feature comes built-in with email clients like Outlook and Gmail.

If you’re sending out emails but want to keep them confidential, you can use the confidential lock in Gmail that restricts recipients from copying, printing, forwarding, or downloading the email. With this feature, you can also set an expiration date for the email, which deletes it after the time has passed.

When you sign up for an app or a service, they often send out promotional emails, which you sometimes can’t unsubscribe from. Rather than marking them as spam, you can block the sender entirely to prevent them from ever sending you an email.

We’ve all experienced the panic of hitting the send button and regretting it. To save yourself from the awkwardness, you can enable the undo send feature which adds a buffer time before the email is sent out. During this time, you can click the undo button, which prevents the email from being sent.

Lastly, we recommend organizing your inbox to prevent the awful clutter that most inboxes have. To do this, you can add labels or folders to your inbox. By doing this, not only can you move the emails you already have in your inbox, but also add a sender to a list so that their emails are filtered automatically.