These indie hackers are working smarter, not harder

"Work smarter, not harder". Words to live by, but this can be easier said than done.

Here's how productive indie hackers are working smart. 👇

The number one thing that keeps indie hackers productive

👤 Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

A lesson hard learned: rest. When I fully disconnect and I'm not physically near my desk, I come back refreshed and feel better prepared to tackle my projects.

👤 Ida Radovanovic of Playground:

My ‘why’. Creating something meaningful is why I started this. So when I don’t feel like working, I just go back to what my work is bringing to this world.

👤 Sarah Joy Calpo of Impulse Bye:

Self-awareness. Specifically, of my energy and mental state. I've learned that if I push myself to work beyond a certain point, I'm going to pay for it by being almost useless the next day. So I listen to my body and brain for when I need to take breaks or stop working, and respect that need.

Also, being self-aware of what feels motivating in the moment. I'm not someone who can stick to routines. Accepting that repetitive routines don't work for me, and finding flexible and fun approaches helps me stay productive day after day.

👤 Fouad Tolaib of Archie Max:

As cliché as it may sound, it would have to be sheer determination. My determination stems from understanding the consequences of not following through and the reasons behind my actions.

Motivation is fleeting and temporary; you can't rely on it. With determination, I hold myself accountable, which necessitates finding smarter ways to stay productive.

👤 Pieter Levels of PhotoAI:

My favorite productivity hack is saying "no". Source

👤 Tony Dinh of Typing Mind:

My best productivity hack: Work when I feel the most inspired and focused.

This has been the most significant change for me after quitting my job. Let's escape the 9-5 routine. Source

👤 Arvid Kahl of The Bootstrapped Founder:

Here is my crazy productivity hack: Eat well and get some good sleep on a comfortable mattress. Source

👤 Maxime Dupré of Splitzy:

Time block, remove all distractions → deep work.

Systematize everything to remove decision-making.

Sleep. Well. Enough. Source

Best methodologies and processes

👤 Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

I use the Eisenhower matrix. To me, it's the best way of understanding what I should actually focus on. After all, if it's not important, why focus on it?

There are exceptions to this rule. When my productivity has waned, sometimes I'll do some less important things because they require less brain power.

👤 Sarah Joy Calpo of Impulse Bye:

I use Pomodoro. However, I'm not super strict about following it. Often, I'll set a timer just to get myself to start working. If the timer ends and I'm still focused, I'll continue working until I get to a good pausing point. I try not to work for more than 90 minutes without a significant (15+ minute) break, though.

👤 Ida Radovanovic of Playground:

For the past two years, I have worked with the 52/17 minutes productivity rule. It’s a similar idea to the Pomodoro method, but unlike the short sprints, the 52 minutes lets me focus deeply on a task.

When I say focus, it means no extra tabs, no phone checking, just you and your task.

When you move onto your 17-minute break, be careful. I used to spend the whole break checking my phone/socials. So I did an experiment of ‘no screen’ policy in breaks and this helped to calm my mind.

👤 Felix Wong of Zlides:

I decide what to work on according to the ICE scoring system:

• I = Impact
• C = Confidence
• E = Ease

I take a task and give it a score for each of these attributes from 1-5, then I multiply them together. The highest number is the one that I complete first.

👤 Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

I use todo lists and organize tasks by status with a due date and priority, sorted by descending order. I focus on the status first because I try not to let too many things be in progress. This is really difficult, but I try. Otherwise, it gets even more hectic.

I give the due date more importance than the priority, solely because the deadline makes sure the project keeps moving. Without a deadline, it's easy to keep putting things off (even if the priority is high).

The priority field helps sort the rest.

👤 Cyrus Zhang of ReadAvacado:

Use the GTD method. Source

👤 Fouad Tolaib of Archie Max:

I use todo lists and organize them by:

• Project
• Type (writing, design, marketing, admin, research, etc.)
• One-time or recurring
• Interval (if applicable)
• Priority

👤 Upen of Flezr:

This is what I do:

• Before I close for the day, I make a list of tasks that I need to finish the next day
• Start with higher ROI tasks
• Use simple paper/pen to write down the tasks and keep striking off once done
• Bookmark things that I want to read later and close them every week. Source

👤 Ida Radovanovic of Playground:

I combine kanban with Trello. I am a visual person so it’s really helpful to see tasks that I am focusing on and my progress.

👤 Sarah Joy Calpo of Impulse Bye:

I use a todo list to organize the tasks that I'm working on that day or in that work session. When I'm capturing tasks to do later, I put them in the relevant project in Asana. I have an Asana Project for each of my projects, plus one for admin/miscellaneous tasks. When I make my todo list for the day, I'll grab existing tasks from these different projects by assigning them today as a due date. That way they'll show up in my week view.

Within an Asana project, I group tasks into sections: Ideas, Notes, Resources, Archive. Ideas are doable tasks, Notes are for notes on the project as a whole, Resources are links to external resources, and Archive holds completed Idea tasks. I think I prefer the Ideas/Notes/Resources grouping more than KanBan because there's less pressure to get tasks done in a linear fashion.

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Hard-earned productivity tips

💡 Tip: Eliminate distractions

👤 Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

Eliminating distractions is imperative. No meetings, no messages, no emails, just heads-down focus time. When you're able to get into a flow state, it's a real life hack. Not only because the quality of your work is higher, but because in those 2-3 hours of heads-down focus time, you can do what you would've otherwise done in 5-7 hours with distractions.

Tony Dinh of Typing Mind:

Ultimate productivity hack:

✅ Code in full-screen
✅ Do Not Disturb on
✅ Headphones on Source

💡 Tip: Create phone friction

👤 Marc Louvion of Shipfast:

Keep your phone in a separate room. You’ll be amazed to see how a little friction makes your phone less distracting. Source

💡 Tip: Find purpose

👤 Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

You gotta find purpose and meaning behind your work. It has to be impactful. It doesn't have to be world-changing impactful, but it does need to have some sort of impact.

💡 Tip: Focus on one task

Tony Dinh of Typing Mind:

I break 90% of my tasks into small chunks of work that can be done within one working session (about 3-4 hours). This includes building, testing, deploying, and writing docs.

Because of that, I can be fully focused on one task of one product on one specific day.

And on a typical working day, I only do one task. Then, I spend the rest of the day on marketing, customer support, and interacting with the community (mostly on Twitter).

Other days, I do smaller tasks with a lot of context-switching, which I find quite fun and relaxing.

💡 Tip: Automate (and the "Rule of two")

👤 Tony Dinh of Typing Mind:

I try to automate everything that can possibly be automated. Especially around customer support.

• Self-refund, no questions asked
• A lot of FAQs
• Add tips and GIFs around the app UI
• "Rule of two": When the 2nd customer asks for something, I'll try to automate it.

💡 Tip: Track progress (not time)

👤 Fouad Tolaib of Archie Max:

Rather than tracking time, I focus on how much closer I am to reaching an objective. A glance at my to-do lists gives me a good indication of my progress.

💡 Tip: Slow down

👤 Fouad Tolaib of Archie Max:

Avoid the stress of randomly releasing products just for the sake of “shipping.” Respect yourself and those you aim to serve with your solutions.

Rushing to outpace others isn't productive. And first impressions matter., particularly in today's competitive landscape enhanced by AI and no-code solutions. It's better to spend more time on R&D, producing a more appealing and well-rounded product.

The misinterpretation of the MVP concept, originally meant for expedited R&D, has done more harm than good.

💡 Tip: Write it down

👤 Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

Write down as much as you can, especially if you're juggling and doing a lot. I can't tell you how many times I fell into the trap of thinking "I'll definitely remember that", and then forgetting afterward.

💡 Tip: Don't become attached

👤 Fouad Tolaib of Archie Max:

Don't become overly attached to achieving a result. Balance is key. Being determined without being too fixated on outcomes allows for necessary breaks to refresh your mind and sharpen your tools.

💡 Tip: Optimize your workspace

👤 Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

A simple thing that makes me more productive is my mechanical keyboards. The audio and haptic feedback allow me to type faster and with fewer mistakes, so when I have a writing-heavy task, I'll make sure that my good keyboard is ready to go.

💡 Tip: Get an accountability buddy

👤 Pieter Levels of PhotoAI:

Find a productivity partner, someone you mutually share your tasks with every day. This instantly makes your todo accountable. Source

💡 Tip: Be kind to yourself

👤 Ida Radovanovic of Playground:

Be more kind to yourself. Sometimes that means resting more. Other times it means taking longer time to work on a task that you thought would be quick. And don’t take it all so seriously.

💡 Tip: Take breaks (and naps)

👤 Rob Hope of One Page Love:

I start working around 7am and finish up at 7pm every day. But I take tons of breaks to surf and run. I also nap for 18 mins every day around 3pm.

Why an 18-minute nap? Man, I’ve been trying to perfect this strategy for years. So, 20+ has a longer wake time and at 30+ you are almost grumpy having to wake up. An 18-minute afternoon nap, followed by an espresso, gives me easily 2+ hours of super productive screen time.

💡 Tip: Clock out

👤 Rob Hope of One Page Love:

I am learning to accept that side projects can never be finished.

There is unlimited optimization and marketing to do. The only true time it's done is when it's sold or the domain expires.

So most evenings I try to shut off, cook, and watch a series with my wife. I rarely work late anymore and it's awesome. I dig sleeping, ha. At the same time, my wife accepts my chosen path of building online and knows sometimes we need to focus on getting it done. No matter what.

💡 Tip: Dogfood your product

👤 Tony Dinh of Typing Mind:

I use all of my products every day.

It's the #1 source of motivation to continue working on the products, or just to push out a new update.

Also, because of this, I often find bugs before the customers do, so that's even better.

💡 Tip: Hire a virtual assistant

👤 Rob Hope of One Page Love:

I hired someone to help with admin 4 days a week.

💡 Tip: Think

👤 Arvid Kahl of The Bootstrapped Founder:

An hour of thinking is a productive hour. Source

💡 Tip: Plan your focus

👤 Ida Radovanovic of Playground:

At the beginning of each month, I create a “Monthly focus list” eg. “December focus”. It includes up to four focus areas, I have tried more, but learned that four is the optimum. Then I add measurable KPIs to each focus area. From there I break down these focus areas into weekly todo actions.

💡 Tip: Reflect

👤 Ida Radovanovic of Playground:

Reflect. I find it to be a very powerful tool to take smarter steps in the future and feel proud of yourself. This is why, at the end of each month, I stop and do a list of:

1. What went well
2. What wasn’t so great
3. What should I do next

We are often just on the go, but instead of execution mode, when you pause, you can learn from yourself and make better decisions.

💡 Tip: Create a focus ritual

👤 Sarah Joy Calpo of Impulse Bye:

Create a focus ritual. When I'm finding it really, really hard to concentrate or get started, I have a quick ritual that gets me focused:

1. Hydrate
2. Reaching stretches
3. Warm up my hands
4. Take a few deep breaths to center myself
5. Write down the first thing I want to get done

💡 Tip: Templatize

👤 Tony Dinh of Typing Mind:

I keep a markdown file called “SNIPPETS” in each of my projects and put common reusable/project-specific code snippets in there. So when I need to create a new similar code block, it's fast. Source

💡 Tip: Get to work

👤 Arvid Kahl of The Bootstrapped Founder:

The truth about productivity: the more you read about it, the less productive you are 😉 Source

Some tools to make it happen

👤 Fouad Tolaib of Archie Max:

• ToDoist: For to-do lists and task management.
• ChatGPT: For research, analysis, and proofreading.
• Close: For outreach and CRM.
• Google Drive: For file sharing and document management.
• Evernote: For ideation and note-taking.

👤 Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

• Baserow
• ClickUp

👤 Rob Hope of One Page Love:

After years of using Trello I'm now all-in on Notion. I have one team account for Love Curated shared with one other person. Then I have another team account with my wife to keep track of home loans, finances, upcoming trips, etc. I dig being organized.

Then iA Writer for light lists/writing (sync'd with Dropbox). Clear app (think I bought it 8 years ago for $5) on the iPhone for shopping and temporary lists.

My desktop icons often act as a to-do list too and I'm always trying to clear those out.

👤 Sarah Joy Calpo of Impulse Bye:

• Asana: For capturing tasks, project notes, and planning my work for the day/week.
• Notebook and pen: Sometimes an idea demands to be explored on paper, not on a screen. I'll also use notebooks or loose paper for daily todos sometimes.
• Tidal: Yes, the streaming platform. Music is 100% a productivity tool for me. Certain songs can help me get into flow easily, and I often use playlists or albums as Pomodoro timers.
• Calendarist: I don't consistently track my time, but when I do, I use Calendarist since it uses Google calendar events.
• Humble New Tab Page: This is a Chrome extension that displays your bookmarks on your new tab page. I have project folders with relevant links for each project that I can collapse and expand for easy access to frequently needed links (e.g. links to GitHub repos or documentation for whatever framework I'm using). Having them easily accessible means spending less time trying to remember where things are or how to get to them.

And some words of encouragement

👤 Sarah Joy Calpo:

Remember: Your vision is worth the work. I'm not saying it's going to be perfect and the next big thing, or even conventionally successful, but the lessons you'll learn, the skills you'll improve through doing, the growth you'll experience, all of that is going to happen for you. Keep going.