Boosting developer productivity is achieved through various settings in MongoDB Compass, a GUI tool for managing and analyzing data. The settings modal allows users to customize their experience with features such as dark mode, which improves battery life and reduces visual strain, and the ability to enable new features before they are generally available. Users can also optimize settings for specific use cases, such as adjusting view options in the Documents tab or aggregation pipeline settings to improve performance. Additionally, Compass provides shortcuts and accessibility features to enhance user productivity and workflow.