Productivity... it's not always easy

I thought I would put down my ideas about productivity. Firstly, it's not that easy. Even for people who make it look effortless, I bet it's still not easy. You could be as organized as you like, but life often throws a curve ball necessitating changes of plans. So it's not a matter of purely keeping a calendar.

I guess over the past few years, there have been some things which have helped me more than others when it comes to staying productive. I'll note these down here, in no particular order.

1. Limiting what social media I'm on. I don't open social media on my phone because I don't want to be exposed to negativity. So that's a source of productivity
2. Setting up my phone so that anything that goes into my calendar has a notification beforehand. I like to set the notification time on the fly when I set up the appointment. I set up the notification to equate to however long it would take me to get there if I got ready and left when the notification happened
3. Note-taking software - I like ZimNotes and it's available for all operating systems. I can set up due dates, write drafts, etc
4. Speaking of writing drafts, if it's just a few sentences I like to use Zohive for that - it also has a space for to-do lists (but only stuff that you don't care if it goes away when you close the window!)
5. Bookmarking software - I save time by saving recipes, info, and other stuff into categories on a bookmarking site. That way I can easily find a site again that I'll need later. No need to have a long list of browser bookmarks to crawl through! There are many that work well and are free, but I like Raindrop the best because you can use it on phone or on desktop, so it's good for work or for personal stuff. I've tried out several different ones and they all have different pros and cons.
6. Limit which apps give me notifications at all, and limit further which ones give me notifications with sound. Anything non-essential can be dealt with later. I typically only have sound on for text messages, time-sensitive apps (e.g. anything to do with work), and my calendar/event/appointment notifications. Other stuff can be on silent, so it'll still show up on my screen but it won't distract me when I'm trying to get stuff done

I also try to "save up" stuff to do during wait times (e.g. waiting for an appointment) for which that time would otherwise be lost. Of course, the waiting room is not the best place to practice Duolingo out loud! But there's still plenty of other things that can be done during that sort of time.