How to murder your productivity

According to Jiri Novotny, 'As popularized by Tim Ferris, according to Josh Waitzkin, “A study at The British Institute of Psychiatry showed that checking your email while performing another creative task decreases your IQ in the moment 10 points." '.<p>Only three levels of indirection from the (purported) original source! I'm convinced.<p>I tried tracking down the original study, because I have access to the internet, and eventually found <a href="http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002493.html" rel="nofollow">http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002493.h...</a>, in which the guy who ran the original "study" says how ridiculous the reaction to it is.<p>Too late now, though - every other blog post about productivity mentions how Tim Ferris mentions that Josh Waitzkin mentioned that he heard about it. The next one I see will probably use this post as its source.

Quite simply, the best way to strangle your productivity and toss it in the bay is to work at an office with a regular 9-5 weekly schedule. For innovative types (e.g., software engineers) and people with my temperament, what ends up happening is that you build a lifestyle based around the daily schlep to work, and you end up doing just enough to get by.

I'd prefer fewer self-post spam blog entries on HN. Seriously. <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=jirinovotny" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=jirinovotny</a>

Adding everything to a to-do list isn't so bad, as long as you consider it a "rough list of ideas it might be a good idea to do, but need to be seriously prioritized" instead of a MUST do list.

It depends on the work you do. The bad chair obviously not and besides that I have most of these things. I'm very productive for what needs to be done by me in the position I hold currently. As developer, this would be a great way to destroy my productivity indeed.

This is so true. Is there any post just opposite of this one: How to save your productivity?