productivity
I am trying my best this summer to become more productive. I’m not a serial doomscroller or anything, but I like small, incremental self-improvement. I figure I’m going to start keeping a timeline of my systems and routines to see how things change over time (some of this will be backfilled; I started this in July of 2025).
timeline#
Any date that doesn’t have an end means I’m still using the tool/system/etc.
Leechblock (November 2025)
Inspired by Matt Might, I’m now using Leechblock to block all social media on my computer for the majority of the day. It’s definitely annoying, but helps me stay on task quite well.
Daily Markdown File (October 2025)
After being tired of not having a place to collect all my random thoughts, I created a simple vim remap (
<leader>tod) to take me to a daily.md file and dump any idea/long-term todo I have. (I call it daily.md because I can insert a daily heading with <leader>date!) So far it seems mildly useful, though I haven’t been using it every day. Doing so is my next goal.FlashSpace (July 2025)
I am now using FlashSpace to manage spaces. I initially set up Aerospace but found it a bit clunky for my liking. I’m more of a one screen, one task guy, so I didn’t care at all about tiling and just wanted the space control. FlashSpace does this faster and more efficiently.
Social Media Blocking (July 2025)
It was becoming way to easy for me to just open twitter or reddit and doomscroll, so I’ve setup ublock to block the home screen for both of these apps (also youtube). I can still search for a youtube video or specific subreddits.
Grayscale Phone (June 2025)
Right when school ended for the 2024-2025 academic year, I finally committed to grayscaling my phone. At first it definitely made using it more appealing, but I think the only reason I’ve kept it around is because now the full color mode has become straining to look at. (The purpose of doing this right as school ended was to promote a summer lock-in, and I think I mostly succeeded!)
Mapping Ctrl + H/L to Mac Spaces Navigation (June 2025–July 2025))
This was because I was sick of using the trackpad to move between spaces. It was still a bit too slow for me, which is why I’ve since switched to FlashSpace.
Todoist (March 2025)
I had used Todoist for a bit before, but I tried to make it very low friction to use and it finally stuck this try. I absolutely love the natural language syntax.
ScreenZen (September 2024)
This is probably the single best decision I’ve ever made. Thank you Drew Gooden. My limit is 5 opens/app, 7 minutes each (for all social media).
After a year, I usually don’t even reach 1 open for each app.
Neovim (May 2024)
After using vanilla vim for a few months, neovim was a nice upgrade. I still use the same base (kickstart) config to this day. I try my best to keep my config files clean and keep my config minimal.
Vim (March 2024–May 2024))
It was recommended by my professor for Systems Programming I. Glad I stuck with it.
Meditation (January–March 2024)
I started meditating daily in January of 2024, but stopped by March. Don’t have a great explanation for why other than it became less of a priority. (Vim became my meditation.)