15 Productivity Hacks Every Engineer & Manager Should Know
Simple strategies to work smarter, deliver better results and have more time for yourself!
Intro
Being busy does not equal to being productive.
There are many different ways that our productivity gets decreased. And the worst thing is if we don’t even notice it.
This happened to me a lot of times before. I was thinking that I was being productive by doing some things.
But at the end of the day, I got nothing done.
Lucky for us, we have Aleš Žehelj with us as a guest author today. His mission is to help as many people as possible to develop healthy habits and be productive.
I have asked him to share his top 15 productivity tips with us.
Let’s get straight into them. Aleš, over to you!
1. Start planning: Think in systems, not just to-do lists
Without structured planning, we can get buried in tasks, projects and drown in meetings and reactive tasks.
Planning across different time periods helps you see what matters now, and what’s coming next.
And also this is very important to keep in mind:
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
— James Clear
Top tips:
Daily planning: List top 3 tasks. Set clear intentions for focused work.
Weekly: Plan key deliverables, team syncs, and buffer time for problem-solving.
Monthly/Quarterly: Review project milestones, tech debt and growth areas (team or personal).
Use tools like Notion (Gregor’s top choice), OneNote, Google Keep. Paper still works, if you actually use it.
2. Time blocking: Own your calendar, own your day
Our days can get hijacked quickly by interruptions, ad-hoc requests and low-value tasks if we’re not owning our time.
Doing context-switching and multitasking is not the way to go. Time blocking is a powerful way to protect your focus and balance your workload. If you don’t schedule your time, someone else will.
Here are my top tips:
Create themed blocks: Try to combine similar activities together → activities like doing deep work (coding or overall focus time), meetings, admin/emails, education/learning, breaks, personal matters and social time.
Stick to your blocks: Treat them as seriously as important client meetings. If something urgent comes up, reschedule, don’t delete the block!
Use different colors for blocks or labels (e.g., blue for deep work, yellow for meetings) to see your day at a glance and maintain balance.
3. Set priorities: Don’t confuse activity with progress
Setting priorities is a very simple principle that anyone can use. But very few people actually use it.
If you prioritize poorly, you can be very efficient → but at things that aren't important.
Prioritizing helps you spend your best brainpower on what actually drives progress → resolving critical problems, or making decisions that move the team forward.
Pro tips:
Use the Eisenhower Matrix (urgent vs. important) or the ABC method to sort tasks.
Start each day by identifying 1–3 high-impact tasks, then protect time for them.
Teach your team to prioritize too. A team that knows what matters will be able to make great decisions autonomously.
4. Apply the two-minute rule: Eliminate micro-tasks before they pile up
Tiny tasks like replying to a Slack message, email, reviewing PRs can either be handled quickly or they pile up into a mental backlog that drains your focus.
The Two-Minute Rule (from David Allen's Getting Things Done) keeps your cognitive load light and your task list clean.
Pro tips:
If a task takes less than 2 minutes, do it immediately.
Don’t let small things steal space in your head or clutter your backlog.
Great for clearing administrative clutter (e.g., calendar invites, short replies, quick status updates) so you can focus on the big stuff.
5. Minimize context-switching: Protect your focus, protect your output
The most amount of work we do is when we are in deep focus for a longer amount of time. But constant interruptions, shifting priorities or changing directions negatively impact it.
It takes over 20 minutes to get back on track with a task after being interrupted.
Multiply that by a few times a day and your best hours are gone.
My top tips:
Batch similar tasks together: Meetings (specific theme of meetings like 1:1s), emails, responding to Slack messages, etc. Switching between emails, meetings, and tasks is mentally exhausting and inefficient.
Theme your whole days: Reserve entire days (if possible) for specific types of days like “Focus day” or “Meeting day” → to avoid jumping between too many unrelated responsibilities.
Prep before switching: When changing task types (e.g., from coding to a 1:1 meeting), take 3–5 minutes to mentally reset → review notes, stretch, or do a short walk to shift gears intentionally.
6. Avoid multitasking: Master one task at a time
Multitasking might feel efficient → but it’s actually a productivity trap.
Switching between writing code, checking messages and attending meetings creates mental clutter and increases the chance of errors.
The brain isn’t built to multitask, it just toggles attention back and forth, losing efficiency and depth each time.
Pro tips:
Practice monotasking: Focus on one task at a time, fully. Whether debugging, reviewing PRs or preparing a technical specification → give it your full attention.
Use a task queue system: List your tasks in order of priority. As you finish one, then move to the next. Tools like Todoist, Trello or even a basic checklist works great.
Set a timer for focus: Set a timer, Pomodoro timer works great (25–45 mins) and commit to just one task during that window. This reduces the temptation to jump between tasks or other things that may.
7. Limit notifications: Control your tech before it controls you
Notifications are tiny attention thieves. A ping from Slack, a notification of a new email or a message on Teams might seem harmless, but each one breaks your focus and pulls you out of the deep work mode.
For engineers in deep work or managers in strategic thinking, even a brief interruption can derail work momentum.
Pro tip:
Silence everything non-urgent → this includes visual and sound email alerts, chat pop-ups, social media badges, and even calendar reminders you already know about.
Turn off sounds and visual notifications on your devices (especially those corner-of-the-screen distractions). Go into Do Not Disturb mode or set Focus modes on your phone and desktop.
Batch notifications: Check email and messages at specific times during the day (e.g., 11:30 AM and 3:30 PM) instead of reacting instantly.
8. Schedule your meeting (manager) time and maker time
Engineers are makers and they need long, uninterrupted blocks to build, think + solve and managers are often managers of time → switching between planning, reviewing, communicating.
But when these two worlds collide, productivity suffers because of it.
That’s why separating “maker time” (focus work) from “manager time” (meetings, check-ins) is key to a productive day.
Pro tips:
Block your day into themes: For example, reserve mornings (9–12) for deep work, and afternoons (1–5) for meetings, admin, and follow-ups.
For managers: Reserve at least 2–3 hours of maker time a couple of times per week for strategy, planning, or reviewing. Leading isn’t just talking, it’s thinking and executing too.
For engineers: Use meeting hours for sprint planning/retros/demos, daily standups or async comms. Protect the rest for your deep focus.
9. Stop procrastinating: Start before you feel ready
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