Overview of ten productivity hacks used by designers and summarized for the modern tech office worker, engineer or manager to exploit.

1. Productivity Hacks to Optimize Your Time and Maximize Results.
WorkHacks

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hello.
UXDesigner,Technologist&BrandConsultant
@jameschrisa jchrisa.info

3. WhyHackWork?
With our busy schedules, constant interruptions and short deadlines, we need all the tips
and tricks to allow us to focus on the activities that maximizes the most and best output
possible.

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Remember80/20Rule
Pareto’s Principle states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes or
80% of the value will come from 20% of the effort. We need to leverage this heuristic into
our routines.

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WorkingHacks
Productivity hacks encompasses many different areas.
Tools
Automation
Resourcing
Heuristic

6. LOTSOFPICS
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Take pictures, not notes.

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IMAGESOVERTEXT
Humans can take in visual information faster than textual information.
Findings show that the human brain can interpret images that the eye sees in just 13 milliseconds

8. RECORDVIDEO
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Moving Pictures To Tell Stories

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VIDEOSTORYBOARDING
Taking a video is much richer than a single image with a
series of images that work as a storyboard.
Findings show that the human brain can interpret images that the eye sees in just 13 milliseconds

10. USEFRAMEWORKS
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Harness The Power of Reuse.

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Don’t reinvent the wheel. Utilize existing libraries, frameworks
and templates to get started quickly on prototyping a product
or service.
USINGFRAMEWORKS

12. CUT&PASTE-REMIX
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Harness The Power of Reuse.

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Search and remix the best pieces of images, photos, graphics,
code snippets and content for developing concepts, models
and planning materials.
CUT&PASTE-REMIX

14. DRAFTOUTLINES
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Short Content Over Long Form

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DRAFTOUTLINES
When writing internal or external documentation, start with
outlines versus paragraphs. Outlines provide a quick step-by-
step roadmap that is easier to read than long format content.

16. ENLISTTHEROBOTS
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Automate Routine Tasks

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Avoid repetitive tasks by using automation applications, tools
or scripts that can run continuously. This will shave off time
doing routine tasks manually.
ENLISTTHEROBOTS

18. FOCUSEDSPRINTS
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Work Sprints Versus Long Marathons

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Allot time to run your high priority tasks on a set time limit
with no interruptions instead of allowing yourself to devote
long hours on one problem with periodic interruptions.
FOCUSEDSPRINTS

20. CALLFORREINFORCEMENTS
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Enlisting The Help of Crowds

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When you cannot rely on automation to do batch jobs and
routine tasks need a human intervention, you can enlist the
crowd workforce (e.g. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk) to help
you with those assignments. This allows you to invest your
time on high value targets.
REINFORCEMENTS

22. USINGSTICKIESCREATIVELY
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Utilizing Sticky Notes

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Using sticky notes creatively to build adaptable diagrams,
flow charts and maps to help you plan your projects. It is
often faster to move a note physically than opening a
software diagramming app.
USESTICKIES

24. FACETOFACEMEETINGS
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Get personal.

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With the digital world full of communication channels and
apps, we forget about the human space. Email and
messaging doesn’t always lead to clearer answers. Personal
face time often lead to understanding and quality answers.
FACETIME

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1. Pictures & Images
2. Video
3. Frameworks
4. Cut and Paste, Remix
5. Focused Work Sprints
6. Use Outlines
7. Automate
8. Crowdsource
9. Stickies
SUMMARY

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QUESTIONS?
NEW HACKS TO SHARE?

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THANKS!