Do you often find it difficult to resist the allure of social media while at work? Do you
find it impossible for you to stay focused? Don’t worry, you are not the only one;
engaging and maintaining productivity is hard for everyone, especially when
surrounded by all sorts of distractions. But this does not have to be the case;
all you need is a little awareness and quick action to make things right again.
In this video, I will share with you 10 habits
destroying your productivity that you need to change immediately.
Humans are habitual creatures. And it's these habits that define how productive
or ineffective we are in life. However, issues arise when we fail to realize
that our bad habits are affecting our life, productivity and health.
Habits are the most important force in human life. And when you think about it,
this makes a lot of sense; you see, when something becomes a habit,
it usually happens automatically and bypasses the thought process. This can be a blessing or
a curse depending on the habit. The solution is to identify and eliminate those bad habits.
The first step in resolving a problem is identifying the root
cause, followed by resolving it. Unfortunately, in this situation,
self-examination can be a little tough. Besides, we may not be aware of our bad habits until others
point them out to us. So, to assist you, I have compiled a list of 12 common bad habits to avoid
in order to improve your productivity. Number 1: Not having a schedule
If you have the habit of working or completing your tasks whenever you like, you’re setting
yourself up for failure. According to researchers at Northwestern Medicine,
daily routines make you more likely to use your time effectively. In addition, “Often, no routine
means you simply run out of time, leaving things undone and not making the most of your time.”
In other words, a routine or schedule is essential for getting your mind into productive mode.
Without one, you always enter work mode detached,
making it difficult to get into the zone. Furthermore, only doing things when you
feel like it makes your mind fickle and lazy, which is a recipe for failure.
Not having a schedule means that you are starting your day off without a plan or direction. So,
basically your day starts out as a mess because you do not have a specific plan
for the activities or tasks you intend to complete. These situations can be avoided
if you make it a habit to structure your day. This way, you have a routine that you
religiously follow, which makes it easier for you to prioritize tasks and identify distractions.
Additionally, structuring your day makes everything easier and less stressful because
you know what to expect at the end of it. On the other hand, starting the day in shambles can kill
your productivity for the entire day. Therefore, you need to start it off right if you want to be
ready to have a productive day. And you can do this by creating a routine that best suits you.
Number 2: Not Prioritizing Your To-Do List
By failing to prioritize your to-do list, you are sabotaging your productivity. In
his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, businessman Stephen Covey recommends
that tasks should be categorized and then prioritized based on importance and urgency.
In other words, not all of your tasks are of the same importance, others are more
urgent. Therefore, you need to ensure that the right amount of attention is
given to the activities based on their importance.
If you do not know how to go about this, you can use the “Most Important Tasks” (MIT) methodology
to help you intentionally set daily priorities. This technique requires you to create a list
of two to three most important tasks with the greatest impact. This list should be separate
from your regular to-do list. Ensure that you create this list every night so you can determine
the activities that urgently must be completed the following day. Keep in mind that treating all
tasks equally will kill your productivity. Number 3: Multi-tasking
Multitasking is one of the worst and most common bad habits that damage one’s productivity
overtime. When you multitask, you are not performing multiple tasks at once. Rather,
you are temporarily devoting a portion of your attention to a
single task while devoting the majority of your attention to the act of switching tasks.
In other words, most of your strength is focused on switching tasks, not completing them as
expected. Eventually, the back-and-forth task switching will drain you mentally.
Studies show that multitasking lowers productivity by up to 40%. As a result,
one's productivity and brain health suffer. Furthermore, neuroscientists believe that our
brains are not designed to do more than one thing at a time. And when we try to multitask, we harm
our brains in ways that have a negative impact on our health, mental performance, and productivity.
Here is what you can do to stop this, each time you begin a new task, do not stop working until
you complete it. It means that you cannot move on to a new task however much you want
to. It might be hard to adjust to this new method at first, but with time, you will get
the hand of it, and your concentration and work quality will significantly improve.
Number 4: Keeping Your Phone With You All The Time
Having your phone on you all the time means there are high chances of you being distracted by it,
and this can kill your productivity. According to Éilish Duke's study,
"Smartphone addiction, daily interruptions, and self-reported productivity," smartphone
addiction and actively checking the phone reduce productivity both at work and at home. She further
explains that other studies have shown that interruptions, even as brief as 2.8 seconds,
disrupt the flow of concentration and lead to increased errors when performing a cognitive task.
These days, it is way too easy to be distracted by your phone even without realizing it. Even though
you set it to silent or vibrate, you are still likely to be distracted by it. It difficult to
have your phone with you and not check it to see if you've received a new message or if there's a
notification icon on one of your apps. However, as difficult as this maybe, it's imperative that
you hold off from checking your phone every five minutes. Put your phone in silent mode,
or switch off notifications if you have to, or better yet, lock your phone in another room.
Being derailed by your phone will not only destroy your mental flow and productivity,
but will also divert your attention from your family and friends and away
from the work you're attempting to complete. So set some boundaries
to avoid killing your productivity and destroying your relationships.
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Number 5: Unnecessarily Browsing the Internet
Another bad habit that's killing your productivity is unnecessarily browsing
the internet and social media. Whether you are at home or at work, it’s all too easy to get into the
habit of sitting around mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, flipping through Pinterest,
perusing pictures and videos on Instagram, or randomly clicking links all over the Internet.
According to several studies, American workers waste between one and two hours per day surfing
the internet, and thus costing their companies billions in lost productivity. According to a
recent Udemy study, 25% of US workers voted that non-business-related internet usage is
a major distraction, 23% voted for meetings, and 9% cited personal calls or emails as major
workplace distractions. Hence confirming mindless web surfing as a disruption.
Nevertheless, browsing the internet is a productivity-killing habit that can
be avoided. To hack this, you need to have self-control. Furthermore,
you need to either learn how to keep the tabs closed or turn off your
internet connection completely if you want to get work done.
There are also applications that you can use to block websites so that you don't get
tempted to browse while you are supposed to be working. Though it is incredibly hard to do so,
it is best to train yourself not to indulge in such distractions if you want to increase
or maintain your productivity. Number 6: Compare yourself with others
If there is one thing that will negatively affect your productivity, it is comparing your
productivity levels to those of others. Each of us has our own method of doing work and completing
tasks. The fact that someone completes a task faster than you does not imply that they are more
productive. Besides, why worry about others when you have direct control over your own actions?
To overcome this, you need to set productivity goals for yourself and shift your focus from
the outside to the inside. Only compare your current work productivity to previous ones
and make necessary adjustments. It is easy for you to become more productive:
it’s all about understanding how you work and the best ways to use your skill-set to complete tasks.
According to a study published in 2016, we tend to see our weaknesses as more changeable
than our strengths, which means we're more likely to try to improve where we're weak.
Several other studies, however, have shown that when we focus on developing our strengths,
we grow faster than when we focus on improving our weaknesses. Plus, people who use their strengths
are happier, less stressed, and more confident. Number 7: Overplanning
It is always a good idea to plan out all of your tasks in advance. When it gets down to it,
however, over-planning can end up killing your productivity. When you begin planning
every activity down to the smallest detail, you may find yourself stuck.
You reach a point where you've scheduled so much and gotten everything so detailed
that it's difficult to even begin. Hence, the entire procedure becomes overwhelming.
While planning, you need to make room for changes. Nothing ever goes as planned, and
over-planning kills productivity by not creating room for those slight adjustments, the minor
things that may go wrong. When you over-plan, you hold yourself to a level of perfection
that is simply not possible. So when things do not go according to plan, you get demotivated.
Overplanning also takes up so much of your time
because you spend a lot of time planning an activity, and at the end of the day,
you have less time to handle other tasks. This takes us back to the aspect of time management,
which is key to increasing productivity. In a study on employee productivity by Time watch,
90% of the workers agreed that better time management leads to increased productivity.
Therefore, in order to achieve this, you need to do away with the over planning. And the
first step toward attaining this is accepting that you cannot control everything in life.
Planning is great, and being prepared is fine, but if it becomes an all-consuming activity,
you should take a step back and reassess your routines.
Number 8: You say “yes” all the time
Constantly saying "yes" to projects, people, tasks, accounts, and the like can quickly take
a toll on your productivity. If you always say "yes," you'll find that you've taken
on more work than you can physically do in a given amount of time. For your own sake,
it is sometimes necessary to say "no" and put your foot down. So before you volunteer your time or
energy to a project, consider whether the item at hand is directly related to your ongoing projects
or personal work. If it does not correlate, drop it and focus on what best serves your interests.
Dr. Susan Biali, a physician, life coach, and author of "Live a Life You Love," advised that
when you say yes to one thing, you should turn around and say no to something else on
your to-do list. Therefore, by saying yes all the time, you may be saying no to the things that are
most important to you. As a result, you are not considering what you are most interested in. So,
you must learn to say no in order to live your best, most intentional life. Additionally,
turning down tasks and activities that do not serve you helps keep your schedule as streamlined,
productive, and fulfilling as possible. Number 9: Being a Perfectionist
Perfectionism is a big obstacle to productivity. If you are the
kind of person who constantly tries to make everything exactly perfect,
you will get nowhere. A study conducted in 2018 found that although perfectionism has
been linked to work motivation in recent years, it can also be easily linked to burnout, stress,
overwork, and eventually depression. All of which have a long-term impact on your productivity.
Perfectionism can appear in a number of ways, the most common being unreasonably high work
standards and being thrown off balance when things don't go as planned. When
you have unachievable work standards, you spend so much time working on those tasks,
and this causes a backlog of tasks to pile up. Secondly, it's easy to mentally "quit"
when things don't go as planned. You might still be able to work afterwards,
but you'll be working half-heartedly because things didn't go "perfectly."
You can fix this by focusing solely on completing your work. This will have a significant impact on
your productivity. You need to accept the fact that we are not perfect, and that the process of
getting things done involves making mistakes. In other words, do not be afraid of failing.
Additionally, recognizing your mistakes is a critical step in overcoming perfectionism.
If you can do this, you will be able to break free from the need to overthink every detail
and finally make some progress. Number 10: Having Self-doubt
To live your most productive life, you must abandon the bad habit of self-doubt.
Self-doubt kills productivity by causing you to lose focus and postpone decisions.
When you have self-doubt, you lack confidence and are always
uncertain about the choices you make. Self-doubt is a horrible trait to have.
According to best-selling author Barrie Davenport, low confidence
causes us to doubt our abilities and judgment, preventing us from taking calculated risks,
setting ambitious goals, and acting on them. She goes on to say that people who have this problem
at work frequently engage in subconscious behaviours that undermine their success,
making them less likely to ask for or get promotions, salary raises, and even jobs.
To overcome self-doubt, you must be confident in your ability to make the right decisions,
whether you are starting a business,
returning to school, or purchasing a home. Do not allow self-doubt to hold you back.
So, based on the habits mentioned in this video, does any resonate with you? Please
share your thoughts down in the comment section below. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
That is all I had for you today. Thank you so much for watching
this video. Remember to like and share this video with those around you. Also,
don't forget to subscribe to this channel if you haven’t.
With that said, have a great day, and I'll see you in the next one.