Fitbit + beeminder (fitbit to track steps, beeminder to ensure you walk enough)

- Punctuality. (Come early at least 5-10 minutes on every commitment, follow up on "let's have coffee sometime next week", and do things now when it comes to your mind rather than later) 

In the hustle and bustle professional world, punctuality is a given when deals are negotiated, widgets are cranked, and shares are traded. Though not many people I know take that same urgency into a non-professional setting. This is a structural opportunity you can work on to stand out.

I get a lot of "we should get together some times" on Facebook and emails but honestly, most of those people just say it for the sake of saying it and don't follow up, This one of my pet peeve with people. Nowadays, when people say something like that, I would be specific and set up a solid time and actually meet. This scares off some people, but those are not the people I want to spend time around, as it says a lot about their personality. The ones who follow up stay in my life and are worth working with.

It's quite hard to think up examples - what springs to mind is stuff like setting up good habits (exercise, eating, etc), which in truth require most of the effort to get started - however they do of course require ongoing maintenance.

One-time fixes with permanent effects are harder to recall, maybe because they don't require any thought to maintain. The main categories there would be:

- physical stuff you buy

- changes to your digital setup

- skills or mindsets you adopt.

Let me see:

- spending time learning keyboard shortcuts for your most-used applications. Even better, customise them so they meet your needs.

- set your home screen on Chrome to be your Todo list (Trello for me). It's the best place to start your day.

- a recent one: getting an extension like "controlled multi-tab browsing" which lets you put a limit on number of open tabs (for me, 8) seems to cut down mindless surfing quite a bit.

- reading Getting Things Done will permanently improve the way you approach tasks. Best insight from the book: when faced with a large task you keep putting off, define the next concrete step to take.

- make your email communication more efficient. Eg, when asking someone for meeting, suggest 2 or 3 times in your first email - this saves the back and forth on when and where to meet. Focus on specific, direct questions.

- useful mindsets to adopt: assume "willpower" doesn't exist - to change habits, focus on changing your environment and observing your emotional cycles. Joshua Spodek's blog has lots of good material on the second part. Key point is that getting pumped up and excited rarely works long-term; beating yourself up never works. Be patient with yourself, observe what situations make you slip up from habits, rationally think about how to deal with those situations in future. I call this a "structural fix" because once you learn these principles, you won't forget them.

-KeePass

-Gmail Smart Labels (invaluable for me since I get a lot of newsletters and similar bacn)

I don't know if it counts, but if sometimes your phone doesn't have enough battery life even though you've installed an app like JuiceDefender, get a second battery for your mobile device and bring it with you.

Maybe it is obvious, and I'm sorry if this is the case.

How about using Stickk.com for any projects/hobbies/tasks you are struggling to keep up or get started on... Put a contract on yourself.

Brushing my teeth while showering. Saves me from forgetting to do so and/or remembering later and disrupting something else I'm doing at the time.

More things like this.

This works great for repetitive Amazon purchases of any kind.  First step is optimize by taking 20-30 minutes to research the best for your money. Second step is to either:

a -  subscribe on a cycle if that options available (Amazon Subscribe & Save), or
b -  enter the purchase link URL into your calender and set as recurring reminder 

I do this for lots of things currently including dog food and coconut water. 

I wrote a quick piece about this a couple years ago and just reposted into my community section if your interested:

http://natedodson.com/community/optimizing-and-systemizing-repetitive-tasks

This discussion inspired a blog post from me: http://becomingawesome.com/index.php/2013/02/structural-improvements/

Here are the structural improvements that have me thinking: 

Technology

• Learn to type.  Might as well use Colemak
• Get a faster laptop
• Learn keyboard shortcuts
• Fix annoying laptop issues – like failed suspend actions, display quirks

Learning/Thinking

• Improve speed reading
• Listen to audio at 2x speed
• Improve memory
• Develop higher intelligence
• Improve judgement, decision making

Emotions

• Improve empathy, compassion
• Become a better listener
• Everyday mindfulness

Environment

• Live somewhere I love
• Reduce/eliminate commute time
• Associate with people who bring me joy

Physical

• Improve posture
• Reset my gut
• Improve balance