“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” ––Paul J. Meyer
Do you believe bad habits are sabotaging your productivity? Do you think you have control over changing your bad habits to become more productive in life?
Any habits, whether they are good are bad, are formed slowly over the years. It is up to us to recognize when we are falling into the trap of the vicious cycle of bad habits and allowing them to hurt our productivity.
Go through the list below and see which bad habit is hindering your productivity. If you have some other habits you think can be added to the list, post them in the comment below.
Bad Habit #1 – Lack of Sleep
There is a direct correlation between sleep and productivity. We may think if we decrease our sleep hours, then we will increase our productive time.
However, the opposite is the truth.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, “those with even mild insomnia experienced 58 percent more productivity loss, those who reported problems with daytime sleepiness experienced 50 percent more productivity loss.”
Bad Habit #2 – Lack of Healthy Diet
We all know and have heard many times the importance of a healthy diet. Empty calories food such as sugary drinks will give you short bursts of energy, but then it will quickly bring you down.
Also, there are adverse effects on our health as a result of poor diet.
I have noticed that when I do not take time to eat healthily, I feel lazy and sleepy during the day and lose productivity.
Bad Habit #3 – Distractions
It is easy to get distracted, primarily if you work in an environment where the television is in sight or your smartphone is at your fingertip.
When you focus on a specific task, make sure and keep your phone or the TV remote control away.
If it helps you any, then turn off the phone entirely because you want to eliminate the urge of checking the Facebook post, reading a new tweet, and replying to “unimportant emails.”
Bad Habit #4 – Procrastination
This website is around this habit – procrastination. We keep putting important tasks away either because of our deep-rooted fear or pure laziness.
If you are putting away doing essential tasks because of your fear, I suggest you first work on this problem.
If you are procrastinating because of some other reasons, then make sure you are not trying to tackle the difficult task before the simple task.
When we try to tackle the difficult task first, it is easy to get discouraged if the finish line is not in near sight.
However, if you tackle a simple task first, it gives you a sense of accomplishment and motivates you to finish the next task on your list.
Bad Habit #5 – Multiple Goals
We, especially women, are good at multi-tasking, but it does not mean we can manage multiple goals.
We do not have an infinite number of hours available in a day. If we sleep for 8 hours and work for 8 hours, it leaves us with 8 hours to focus on our goal.
Common sense says that it would be more beneficial to allocate those hours on one goal than multiple goals.
Bad Habit #6 – No Deadlines
We had known the importance of deadlines when we were a student in school and university.
There was a “due date” for the assignments for a reason. If we did not meet those deadlines, then our grades were negatively affected.
If there were no deadlines, then how would we know if we are making any progress?
Set a specific deadline for your goal and adjust your actions accordingly to complete the tasks on time.
Bad Habit #7 -Unorganized
An unorganized space is like a disorganized mind.
When your mind is scattered and cluttered, you are not able to focus. Then how is it possible for you to be productive if your plan of action, workplace, and surrounding is scattered?
Create a system to get organized. Find out what works for you to remain organized. It may be as simple as listing your “to-do tasks” on a sticky note and place them in front of you.
If possible, please avoid using the phone to remain organized. Unless you are one of the few who is disciplined and does not get easily distracted, then, by all means, use your phone.
But if you quickly get distracted, then instead of checking your “to-do” lists, you may end up checking emails, replying to texts, or checking the latest news.
Bad Habit #8 – Increased Screen Time
With all the information available at our fingertips, it is easy to lose track of time.
I specifically struggled with this one. Although I watched inspirational videos on YouTube, I spent hours and hours watching those videos because the “suggested video” title was so enticing.
Before I knew it, I had spent close to 4 hours watching inspirational videos.
Now some may be addicted to screen for different reasons. The screen time does not necessarily have to be just a smartphone. It can be TV as well.
Allocate a specific time of the day you use your phone or watch TV and stick to it.
Bad Habit #9 – Being a Perfectionist
I am the culprit of this habit myself. For example, I started working on this website in 2020, but my website did not go live until 2021. It was not that I procrastinated. I was working behind the scenes the whole time but had this attitude of having the website perfect before it went live.
If you are like I am, you need to learn to be flexible (I know it is easier said than done).
Just know that we will never be “perfect.”
We are always learning and growing.
Keep in mind that there are some things that you will learn along the way.
Bad Habit #10 – Waiting for a Perfect Time to Start
There is no such thing as “perfect time to start.” If there is a perfect time to start, then that is now.
There will always be other commitment in our life that needs our attention, but if you do not carve out the time for yourself and start now, you will never begin.
Also, once you start doing something, you get in the momentum and move towards achieving your goal.
Bad Habit #11 – Trying to Be a Superman/Superwoman
You must learn how to delegate the tasks you don’t know how to do because if you try to complete every task, you will get burned out.
Yeah, you may know how to do everything, but you just do not enough hours in a day to accomplish everything (as we discussed earlier).
If you delegate, it takes some load off of you, allowing you to be more efficient.
Bad Habit #12 – Putting Other People’s Need Before Yours
Yes, it is good to think about other people’s needs but to a certain extent. Avoid being a people pleaser and putting their needs before yours.
There is nothing wrong with being selfish.
Start treating time as a currency and decide how you will spend your time because you cannot regain lost time.
Your well-wisher will understand and support you in your endeavor.
Bad Habit #13 – Quitting Before Reaching Your Goal
Your productivity would increase so much more if you just become stubborn in achieving your goal.
If, however, you keep quitting before reaching your goal, then you have multiple incomplete goals sitting on your table.
If you fall off the wagon, instead of regressing, get back on track and keep moving forward.
Bad Habit #14 – Absorbing Useless Advice and Ideas
Stop listening to people giving you useless advice and ideas, especially if that advice and opinions come from people who have not achieved what you want.
Would you listen to a financially broke person if you desire to become financially secure?
So, before you absorb someone else’s advice, see where they are currently.
Are they following their advice?
Bad Habit #15 – Lack of Purpose
Having a lack of purpose is like driving down the road without knowing your destination. You will keep driving and never arriving.
Know the purpose of your specific goal because knowing the purpose will give you the motivation.
Bad Habit #16 – Hitting the Snooze
Once you decide to focus on a specific goal for a particular time, commit to it.
It takes a while to form new habits.
If you have decided to wake up early in the morning, instead of waking up 30 minutes to an hour early, just set your alarm clock to wake up 10 minutes before your usual wake-up time.
However, make sure that once the alarm goes off, do not hit the snooze button and fall back to sleep.
Bad Habit #17 – Stress
When there is stress, whether physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, there is no way your brain is focusing on any goal. Under pressure, your body is in a “fight or flight response.”
To be productive, you need to figure out the root cause of your stress and manage it.
When you feel stressed, close your eyes and take few deep breaths.
If calm music helps you feel relaxed, play soft music in the background while working on a task.
Everyone is different, so figure out what works for you to relieve the stress.
Conclusion
It is not difficult to break bad habits and create new good habits. If you want to be consistently productive, you will take the inventory of your habits and make a conscious effort to change them.
These bad habits may not be the obvious ones, but you will realize that these habits were formed over the years and crept up slowly. And now, these bad habits are hurting your productivity and, in turn, hurting your success in life!
