This post will be about the various techniques that I currently use to optimize my productivity, along the techniques that I use to find further optimisations.

You can categorize productivity techniques in two ways:

  1. Improve what work you pick (strategy quality)
  2. Improve the speed of your work (execution speed)

This post will focus on increasing execution speed while barely peeking into strategy quality improvements.

My current optimizations⌗

Minding myself⌗

Beeminder is a web app that forces you to pay dollars if you don’t do something.

For example, I have a goal that is connected to Toggl Track and forces me to work at least 4 hours per day.

I do this with every aspect of my life:

  • posting on this blog
  • taking notes on the books I read
  • using Anki everyday
  • not using Instagram too much (a simple Android time limit doesn’t work - I always have a good excuse - now that I’ve been forced to pay $15 to watch cat videos, I don’t find myself bypassing the time limit at all)
  • not watching too much anime (when I watch it, it also feels better since it’s rarer)
  • shutting down all my electronic devices before 11pm

Special mention to those two goals that I kept private:

  • washing myself (obvious)
  • not watching porn (I’m not puritan, but I’ve found out that I feel astoundly better without porn)

These are like Cron jobs (tasks that a computer must run everyday at a specific hour); Beeminder is flexible and has tons of integrations. It’s discipline-as-a-service.

If you’re interested in Beeminder, I recommend that you take a look at their blog.

Scheduling tasks that are worth my time⌗

I regularly find myself using a TODO-list app and getting smashed by the backlog I create myself. Lots of list items get stale quickly.

In addition to this problem, I’ve always scheduled tasks that are not worth my time.

The solution is doublefold:

  1. Deprecate old tasks automatically
  2. Don’t create tasks that do not catter to one’s goals.

To do this, I use Complice (link will lead to their Philosophy page)

My goals⌗

I’ll do a quick summary of my current goals as well as give example tasks so that you can get a rough idea of how my life goas.

So, without further ado, here are my goals:

  1. Make tons of cash
  2. Get smarter
  3. Grow friendships
  4. Get healthier
  5. Taking care of my family

Sample tasks⌗

  1. Cash: do task X on project Y (note: having to put these tasks in the “cash” category forces me to avoid useless ones - like implementing dark mode on an internal tool)
  2. Brain: write a blog post, take a book note
  3. Friends: send a thoughtful message to an old friend, buy a small gift
  4. Health: take an appointment with my doctor, research supplementation
  5. Family: do the laundry, buy cakes

Having an healthy body⌗

Life is sometimes though. I’m young, but I’ve got weird diseases that need attention.

I find myself procrastinating and waiting for my problems to get severe before I act on them. The key here is to consistently identify wellness bottlenecks and improve upon them.

Here are strategies I use to grow a healthier body:

  1. Walk 10k steps per day. The reason? It decreases mortality rate by 50% (source; summary)
  2. Take a 15mn walk in the morning as soon as possible to view sunlight (source)
  3. Do resistance training 3 times a week (I didn’t get to choose frequency, but I think that it’s nicer to have frequent but smaller sessions)
  4. Fucking call that doctor!!!

Having a healthy body helps tremendously at the cost of time (that I presupposedly get back in life expectancy)

Simulants⌗

Have you ever heard of stories of super-productive programmers that work in India specifically?

There’s a good reason for that: Modafinil.

Modafinil is a drug that was discovered in France that is used to treat narcolepsy. Off-label, it can be used to treat ADHD (though results are mixed with adults, the benefit-risk balance is good with children; source).

It can be described as Viagra for the brain.

How do people acquire this drug?⌗

In the majority of countries, you need to see a doctor to get it prescribed to you. In India, you can get it over the counter.

As of now, there are three ways to acquire Modafinil:

  1. Get it prescribed from your doctor (recommended; you’ll get the best quality this way)
  2. Buy it on a clearnet website (sadly, this is hard since a lot of scam websites exist)
  3. Buy it from the deep web. Ironically, this is the most reliable method of acquisition, since sellers must be serious in order to maintain their ratings high.

How does it works?⌗

The mechanisms of action of Modafinil are complex and not 100% understood, but to give a rough estimates, it increases dopamine and norepinephrine. Having tons of dopamine available makes you want to do things. Norepinephrine makes you stay awake.

What do you feel like on Modafinil?⌗

I’ve had quite good experiences with Modafinil. It makes you want to learn everything; small details matter a lot (it gets easier to lose oneself in rabbit holes). It additionally gives a sense of euphory and higher appreciation of music. Time is distorted; things go far faster.

As said above, it’s like viagra for the brain.

In short: Modafinil is MDMA for work addicts.

What are the drawbacks of Modafinil?⌗

The drawback is that it gives you headaches, bad sleep, and absolutely nukes your socialization capabilities. You’re a work robot, not some sort of therapy dogs. It makes interaction with “dumb” people very heard to bear. I generally avoid arguments, but under Modafinil, they’re hard to ignore since you have a ton of brainpower available.

How does it compares with classical stimulants? (Amphetamines: Methylphenidate, Adderall)⌗

Fun fact: adderall is a mix of different amphetamines that was originaly a shady weight-loss medecine. I have no idea why they kept it for treating ADHD.

It’s been known since the 1920s that amphetamines can be used to treat “bad brains”. Don’t ask me for sources, I’ve lost it.

Anyway, here are the differences in subjective effect between Modafinil and Amphetamines:

  • Modafinil feels less jittery
  • Modafinil does not cuts appetite as much
  • Modafinil does not drains as much energy as amphetamines (rebound effect)

Reviewing the past⌗

In order ot optimize my strategy efforts, I review what I’ve done in the week, month, quarter and year using Complice.

I won’t get into too much details, but looking back into the past helped me to take decision

What the hack is this post?⌗

Yeah, it’s a bit drafty. I need to post it to make Beemidner happy.

I’ll take the time to refactor it into two posts next week. I’d like to make a post about Modafinil/Armodafinil in particular

Where shoud I start optimizing myself?⌗

If you truly want to start optimization, I suggest that you do the following:

  1. Create a Beeminder account
  2. Create a goal that says “post a blog post about my productivity” that triggers every 7 days
  3. Install the beeminder app on your phone
  4. Write a blog post about it every 7 days.

This will bootstrap everything else. You’ll find yourself adding more beeminder goals, reading into the existing litterature and more.

I’m posting this right now to not pay Beeminder, so see you! I hope this has helped you. As said above, I’ll refactor it into multiple posts and correct grammatical mistakes, so make sure to follow me (I hope I have RSS, if not, create a Beeminder goal about reading my posts;there’s something new every week)