4 Common Bad Habits

“Position yourself to succeed by doing the other things in your life that rejuvenate you. Exhaustion affects your quality and productivity.” – Jeff VanderMeer

You might think your bad habit of sitting in front of the television at night to watch your favorite show isn’t affecting your productivity. You might be surprised to know it is. There are many bad habits that affect productivity. Here are few of the most common ones.

  1. Habit #1: Indecisiveness. Being indecisive is often worse than making the wrong decision. When you fail to make a choice, you’re left in limbo. It keeps you from moving on and being productive.

To overcome this habit, set a realistic deadline of when to make the decision. Share your deadline with others who can hold you accountable. Trust your instincts, cut back on the number of options to consider and prioritize what is demanded of you so the decision making is easier.

2. Habit #2 Doing the easy tasks first. Delaying the hard tasks by doing the easy stuff first takes up your time. You end up not having the time to do the hard tasks. This leads to low productivity and very little success.

Beat this habit by using the “Eat The Frog First” strategy. This means doing the worst and hardest tasks first. Schedule your most important tasks for the beginning of the day. Once the hard tasks are finished you free your time, your mind and your energy to easily do the other stuff.

3. Habit #3 Checking and responding to email and social media throughout the day. You lose valuable time reading and responding to messages. Each time you open your email or social media feeds, you are taking time away from the important tasks that help you reach your goals.

Beat this habit by setting a specific time and length of time during the day to check and respond to messages. Turn off the notifications and close your email browser completely.

4. Habit #4 Procrastinating on doing the tasks. Procrastination comes from being bored with the task, not sure of what you need to do or from fear that you can’t do the task. You find things to do like straightening your files or cleaning the toilet instead of doing the task.

When faced with tasks you don’t want to do for whatever reason, ask yourself why you don’t want to do it. Is it fear because you don’t know how to do it? Then ask for help or google it for the answer. If it’s because it’s boring, maybe it’s something you can delegate or outsource to someone else. If it’s because you’re overwhelmed with the scope of the task, such as a big project you need to do for your business or wanting to get in shape, break it down into microtasks.

There are a lot of habits that can keep you from being productive. Everything from working too long to bad eating habits can affect your productivity.

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