October 20, 2025
I always struggled with being productive. Distractions are getting more powerful than ever. After years of trial and error, I finally found 3 secrets that helps me be productive everyday.
1. Switch to a dumb phone.
Yes, I switched to a dumb phone that has no internet access. It's a powerful weapon against all distractions. My mind came up with countless excuses like., I need Whatsapp, Uber blah blah. But I didn't listened to any of them and decided to give it a try. After few months, I realised I didn't need any of them as much as I thought I do. My mind overestimated it's importance. After switching to a dumb phone, I started to smash my todo list, got back my sleep, my time and my attention. I discovered that dumb phone has 100% success rate, compared to app based blockers. If I need to check WhatsApp or use Uber then I do it from my laptop.
Before dumb phone, I tried app blockers, Android based flip phone, timer lock but nothing worked. I personally use Nokia 105 and it works well for me. I'm happy with this little device.
2. Signup on Focusmate.com
Focusmate allows people to cowork virtually. Doing face to face work with a partner is highly productive. If someone is keeping an eye on you whole time, you don't have any choice but to sit on your chair and work. I have a pro plan because it allows unlimited sessions. I make 7 slots of 50 minutes each for the day. My slots are 9am to 9:50am, 10am to 10:50am, 11am to 11:50am, 12:00pm to 12:50pm, 2pm to 2:50pm, 3pm to 3:50pm, 4pm to 4:50pm. Focusmate allows me to have 7 hours of focused work everyday.
3. Install ColdTurkey blocker.
ColdTurkey is the toughest blocker on the internet. To get the most out of it, you should enable these settings -
And that's it!
Follow these 3 steps to go from 0 to productive and smash your goals!