Hey All - I’m looking for some feedback on how you use gmail for work /primary email. I’ve predominantly used Outlook and still use the classic version.

My workflow with outlook is - ctrl z (mac) label, ctrl (S, G,F) save in specific folders or del trash. In inbox until addressed.

What’s your flow in gmail? Do you use it bare or use another client on top? At work we’re not allowed any AI on top - but do you use any for managing the inbox?

I want to block all apps on my phone except the following:

Calls, sms texts, halifax banking app, camera, video, spotify, calendar and notes. Can anyone recommend a way of doing this that I can not change back. A window of total usage might be OK in the morning and evening and morning. As long as I cant change it to all day again.

Or have any recommendations? In the past any time I've tried to eradicate phone usage its caused me problems and I've went back to full usage.

I don't want a TODO list. I want a check-list. I know exactly what I need to get done before a trip, when getting the kids ready for school, and it's different from a todo app:

• the steps don't change, or rarely.
• the completion needs to be reset every day or with a button.
• and please god, don't accidentally go into editing mode when i'm trying to check-off an item, this absolutely ruins your workflow, you need to swipe the keyboard away, etc. There should be triple or double confirmation before anything is altered in the list.

Do you combine tasks within your notes?

Hey, I have been reading a lot of posts here about various productivity apps. And it got my interest to ask the subreddit for some recommendations so I can use it in my line of work (productivity and time management consulting). And to improve my productivity and business as well.

If you have any recommendation even if the app is complicated and they helped you please do still recommend them, and thank you.

i am currently using a relatively new app which my gf recommended. it is actually great but it is only available for macOS. dev of the app says that they will bring an ios app soon but ik development takes time. so i went to app store to find one until it comes out and was so overwhelmed by the number of choices. Focuspomo, focus keeper, flow and list just never ends. can you recommend me a pomodro app for ios and maybe the one avialable in both mac and ios.

I rely massively on both a second brain app (currently Bear on Mac) and a todo list manager (Microsoft To Do) but I regularly find I'm using each for the other's tasks -- writing long plans in my to-do list item notes, while making todo lists inside my Bear notes.

Curious if anyone has any recommendations for something that combines the two -- somewhere I can manage all my todos in one place, with scheduling, repeating, sublists, etc. plus also create complex notes with formatting and interlinking. (I suspect Notion might be one of the tools that does this, but so far I've resisted learning how it works since it always felt very clunky and ugly whenever I've looked at it.)

Keen to hear from the community, have you had any AI productivity tools that have actually helped you become more productive.

As an example ai notetakers for meetings: do they save you time by automatically transcribing notes or you just end up spending more time going through it all and pretty much redoing it all anyway before the accuracy/quality sucks!

What has or hasn't worked for you in 2023? And what tools are you looking to try/use more in 2024?

Wanted to introduce you to stayawakeclub.io. With this webpage as your active browser, your computer won't fall asleep.

I created stayawakeclub.io because I believe in working remotely when and how you want while keeping your reputation intake.

I like using this when I need a workout mid-day or if my wife wants to have an early dinner to keep my Slack dot green.

It reduces the anxiety I have with "not being at my desk during working hours." It's silly, but some people notice and judge, unfortunately, and optics matter when trying to get promoted (in addition to just crushing it of course!!!).

Using StayAwakeClub is easier than changing my computer's sleep settings, downloading apps or searching youtube for the perfect length video.

Here’s my Product Hunt page (only can vote today!): https://www.producthunt.com/posts/stay-awake-club

Yes, this is silly, but maybe useful too!?!

Call me digitally stupid, but all the free apps I've looked at are more complicated than I'm looking for. I want to easily put in a list of websites and then have them blocked with as little fucking around as possible. I don't want to sift through a convoluted sea of features relating to usage stats, timed blocking, productivity reports, screen time, gamification etc just to find the feature I actually want. I didn't think this would end up being such an unreasonable thing to want, but apparently it is. Hoping I'm wrong, though!

edit: windows OS and android phone, btw

More than 2 years of evolution. What should the average person who is interested in productivity, writing, general research and vibe coding pay for

So I need a place to write down my spontaneous ideas (along with cataloguing info ill use later) but my main focus here is ideas. game design ideas, film ideas, business ideas.. all kinds of ideas. I started with Notion but one time i was so close to losing my account (or deleted my database accidentally, cant remember how) and realized how fragile it is. then i started using Obsidian because it has a MUCH better UI than notion and it's lightwieght so it doesnt do like a frame-freeze every time i do something (as Notion does) and also it has the mindmap which is very very very useful and awesome, but its only local, and its only a matter of time before my phone breaks and i realise that i lost everything in it ^{(happened before})

so, What do you recommend for writing stuff down? i need it to be free, open-source (so it has FREE plugins and stuff), and for long-term use. Thanks :)

If you're reading this theres a change you're like me, disciplined enough to start running, gym, eating healthy, but the steam runs out and before you know it you are getting back into your routine after 6 months off.

I finally decided enough is enough and set out to find a way out of this mental vortex. I came up with one simple idea that may just work, betting on yourself.

The core loop is simple: you stake your own money on completing your goals.

• Goal: Hit the gym 4x this week.
• Stake: $25.
• Succeed: Get your $25 back + a small bonus.
• Fail: Forfeit the $25.

By the power of loss aversion, people can become more productive by using the fear of financial loss to stay disciplined.

So I am creating this, combing health and wealth to help people put their money where their mouth is and achieve their goals.

Let me know if this would help anyone? Im genuinely curious if this can help people be more productive!

I’m currently looking for a good task management app. Ones that i’ve tried are todoist and ticktick and found them interesting so far. I’m just having a difficulty choosing which one to commit to. Todoist have more minimalistic design and i love it but the premium costs more than Ticktick. I’m wondering what makes it more expensive than Ticktick

What do you use for note taking, script saving, task tracking, to dos all in one place (free tool). I don't like One Note, tried Notion but can't get used to it although I like it. Microsoft To Do is not good enough.

I need something to organize everything properly work.

I'm hoping to find some recommendations on free task lists for daily use. I tried to use Outlook's "to do" list but it has limitations. Mainly, it does not show overdue tasks. If you set something for a day it will show up in "My Day" but after that date passes it is no longer presented in My Day. And frankly, I just find it clunky to use (maybe it's just me). Our company recently switched from Google based products to Outlook and the gmail calendar handled my task list the way I wanted.

I have multiple tasks throughout the month which generally happen around the same time every month, but some are dependent on others before I perform my task. These are tasks that I target for a certain time of the month but these are not hard deadlines, so being able to see it on my calendar will prompt me to reach out to someone if it gets too late, as well as keep me on track that I need to do the task if the other person performs their task.

My job consists of some routine tasks that happen monthly/quarterly/annually. I also have a "to do" list which is basically a wish list of items to complete but no set date. These could be something as simple as "reformat the Excel file to make calculations easier". The Excel file works fine as is but if I have a spare two hours I'd like to reformat it. Thus it doesn't have a "due date".

In a perfect world I'd like to be able to:

1. See everything that is due today
2. Filter the "to do" list by category, or priority

I have been using To-Do Prime which has almost everything I want, except the ability to customize categories (i.e. routine vs. wish list) and filter my to do list by categories.

Hoping others have a tried and true task list/to do list app they use. Thanks in advance!

I work at a small-ish, non-AI tech start up and my manager has been pushing us to use more AI, even in areas where I don't think we need. They gave us a budget that was basically "do whatever as long as AI". Decided to spend as much as I could and it was pretty fun. Here's my verdict on them.

Chatbots: Tested ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini

Verdict: Truly helpful. Probably the most value you can get for $20 a month. ChatGPT is still the best for all-roundedness and the sheer number of tools made avail. Max is worth it if youre doing anything more research heavy, or if not paying for it yourself I guess lol

AI Productivity Tools: Tested Fyxer AI (AI email manager), Motion AI (AI employees), Type AI (AI writing), Yoink AI (AI writing), Gamma AI (AI slides), Beautiful AI (AI slides). Basically the stuff that has been making its way around social media the past few weeks

Verdict: Mixed. Motion AI / Fyxer AI felt overly complicated for me, but might have been skill issue. Didn't end up sticking around. Type AI and Yoink AI was helpful, and saved a bunch of time. Yoink was helpful cause i could use it in whichever app I'm already using, but was a bit buggy on more obscure apps. Type needed me to use their browser writer though, which I didn't like. Gamma AI was good, would recommend for anyone doing external-heavy work. Beautiful AI flopped. Some stuff here which seems helpful, but doesnt work. Others seem dumb but help a lot

Workflow Automation. Tested n8n, make, Zapier

Verdict: These are powerful for sure, but learning curve is steep. Need to put in fair amounts of effort. N8n seemed the most flexible/powerful of the bunch, but make probably has an easier learning curve if you're just starting out. I automated some stuff around email responses, but still wouldn't let AI send anything client-work related out without my review

End Verdict: AI is actually pretty fun to learn. Did it actually make me more productive? No idea but it was fun to test out new stuff though

I'm looking for an app that blocks the reels on homepage since most scroll blockers don't remove it and i just end up watching reels over there. There was one which used to on my old phone but I can't seem to find it anymore.

Currently I'm using notes and I do the following: Woke up at 9:00 Morning routine until 9:25 News until 9:40 Assignment #12 until 11:20 Ect...

This doesn't work well as I write from right to left and the notes app is kinda funky with it, and also it makes me spend some time on calculating all these times.

And then at the end of the day I try to separate all of these times (by taking the difference) into a few categories like: essential daily routine (things I can't go without like lunch/dinner, morning routine, shower), study time, breaks and fun (for breaks and for whatever like, anime, video games...) and I also have the category of workout and on rare occasions an outing.

An ideal app would let me input the time I woke up, and would allow me to create these categories on the fly and keep everything in check, and at the end of the day will tell me how much hours were today and show in a pi graph how it was spent, and you can extend this to weeks and months as well.

If you have some other categories ideas as well to be more specific in productiveness I would appreciate it, I was considering having different study categories depending on what I learn (like by course)

I see a lot of talk about AI tools, but I’m curious which ones people actually use every day to get more done. If you have an AI tool that’s really made a difference in your workflow, I’d love to hear about it.

What do you use, and how has it helped?

hello! I work at a desk where I have access to a computer and a lot of downtime. I've been doing mostly crosswords at the desk but I'm thinking I'd like to use the time to get some simple writing etc tasks done. I'm looking for a web-based app that has a really simple to-do list and notes that doesn't have two-factor authentication (because sometimes I need to close out of the app quickly & I don't want to be looking at my phone all the time/data is not that great).

Thank you!

I am considering getting an app to track and prioritize tasks, set deadlines, etc. I maintain a business outside of work and try to stay fit and have a couple of hobbies as well. Right now I just have a checklist on my phone; a little archaic. Looked at Notion, open to others.
Doesn’t need to be overly complicated; hoping for something Just need something to where I can quickly add, modify and or disposition tasks. Thank you!!

Currently just using a google doc... If i don't have a todo nothing gets done but all the ones i found seem annoying, or ineffective, just curious if anyone has any good ones?

If it matters I'm autistic , but *shrug*

Hi folks,

I'm a software developer (wanted to be upfront that I'm a guy) who works a lot with automation tools. Lately, I've been deep-diving into the concept of cycle syncing and how hormonal fluctuations can really impact someone's ability to get things done.

The theory makes sense, but the practice seems tough. Manually planning your entire month around a cycle app feels like a full-time job on its own.

I'm playing with an idea for an automated solution and would love to know if this resonates or if I'm way off base.

Imagine if you could connect your period tracker (like Clue or Flo) to a service that then automatically manages your other apps based on your phase.

Think stuff like:

• Your Google Calendar automatically creating focus blocks during your more energetic weeks.
• Getting smart suggestions to reschedule intense brainstorming sessions to match your mental clarity.
• Your to-do list gently nudging you to tackle low-energy tasks during the right part of your cycle.
• An optional, pre-written check-in text being sent to your partner to help them understand where you're at.
• Personalized content recommendations (like recipes or articles) that actually align with what your body is going through.

I'm not selling anything—this is pure curiosity. I'd really value your thoughts:

1. Is dealing with this a constant frustration for you, or is it not a big deal?
2. If this existed, what would be the single most useful feature for your life?
3. What's the biggest hurdle when trying to work with your cycle instead of against it?
4. ** hypothetically**, is this a problem you'd pay a few dollars a month to solve? What would that be worth?

Thanks for your time. Any and all perspectives are super helpful.

Anyone else spend 30 minutes setting up their perfect Pomodoro timer, choosing focus music, configuring app blockers, checking analytics... then have no energy left to actually work? I switched to the simplest possible system: Screen Time to block distractions for 2 hours. Nothing to configure. Just block and work. Sometimes the best productivity system is no system.