Thread by @wise_chimp

"10 Habits that Kill Your Productivity"

Thread

1. Not having a work routine

If you’re in the habit of just working whenever you feel like it, you’re setting yourself up for disaster.

A work routine is essential to getting your mind into productive gear.

Doing things only when you feel like it gives too much control to your state of mind.

And let’s be honest, most of the time none of us “feel” like working. Giving control of our productivity to our fickle – and lazy – emotions is a recipe for failure.

Here’s what you should do about it:

Work in the same place at the same time:

This is a great habit as it sets the mind up to naturally flow into productivity mode

2. Multitasking

When you multitask you’re not actually doing multiple tasks at the same time.

Rather, your temporarily giving partial focus to a single task while giving majority focus to the act of switching tasks.

In other words, most of your energy is being devoted to switching tasks, not completing them.

In addition, the cost of constantly “switching gears” (i.e. changing thought processes to handle different tasks) is a further drain on mental resources.

What can you do to stop this?

1. Be a completionist:

Each time you start a new task, don’t stop working on it till it’s finished.

2. Batch similar tasks:

Start batching your work. Group 2-3 similar tasks together, & feel free to multitask those tasks (& only those tasks).

3. Not removing distractions

The worst offenders to good productivity are definitely fun websites and social media/texting, so it's important that you take steps to ensure you aren’t distracted by them

Other distractions include:

Television
Family/friends/co-workers
Videogames

How can you deal with these?

1. Use site blockers

2. Turn off all notifiers

3. Unplug the television/video game system

4. Work where others can't bother you

4. Big-picture thinking

Keeping the big picture in mind is good… if u limit it to when you’re not actually working.

The big picture is, well, big. It’s a ton of steps into the future, & it’s easy to become overwhelmed with how much work u need to accomplish before reaching it.

Here’s a couple of ways to mediate this problem:

1. Limit big picture thoughts to non-work times

2. Focus on progress made

3. Focus on the small-picture

5. Being a perfectionist

Perfectionism can manifest itself in many ways, but the most common are:

First, when you have unrealistic work standards you work on your tasks to death.

This leads to falling behind schedule and causes a mountain of tasks to build in its wake.

Second, it’s easy to mentally “quit” when things don’t go as well as you’d like.

You might still work after that, but you’ll be half-assing it because things didn’t go “perfectly.”

Here’s how you can fix this problem:

1. Focus on finishing, not on perfecting

2. Become friends with failure

6. Being overloaded with info/options

Sometimes when we’re working we find ourselves bombarded with too much info and too many options.

What does this do to us? It makes us short-circuit.

Your mind goes blank and/or you become overwhelmed, killing your productivity.

What should you do about this?

1. Pick one thing and remove the rest from your sight

2. Disconnect from the world:
Just get away from it all. Get away from the internet, the emails, the phone calls, and just take a break. When u come back, pick the tiniest thing to do & do it.

7. Having a giant to-do list

When you’re planning your day, it’s easy to get overzealous and fill a to-do list with a dozen or more tasks.

Unfortunately, you’ll most likely be unable to complete them all. & when the day nears its end u see you’ve barely checked off half of them

Here’s what you should do:

Keep to-do lists between 1-5 tasks:

Doing this will ensure that you don’t become overwhelmed, and will help make sure you complete your to-do list as well

8. Using too many tools

When you start having an excess of tools to use (more than say, 4) just to do basic work every day, you’re actually hurting yourself.

By having too many tools, you’re basically just multitasking with tools instead of tasks.

Here’s what you should do:

1. Find tools that cover multiple bases

2. Use tools that sync up with others easily

9. Being indecisive

Indecision can bring a good, productive work session to screeching halt if it goes on for too long.

When you don’t know what to decide on, you sift through all the information you have and mentally rehearse the pros and cons until you make a decision.

For some it’s a major issue, so here’s what you can do about it:

1. Use the 2-minute rule:

Most decisions we make don’t really warrant an extensive decision process, so it’s fine to give a short timeline.

2. Use a “decision” list

10. Saying yes all the time

You might think saying yes to everything people ask of u is a good thing but it’s not. You’re doing yourself a great disservice by doing this.

So let it be known that your time is valuable because nobody will respect it if u don't say it loud & clear

Here's how you can do that:

Be honest and tell them no:

If you want to be nicer, just tell people to come back when you're less busy.

You live your life on auto pilot because you don't know what to do with your life.
Read the book "Live Intentionally" to change your

- habits,
- daily routine,
- mindset,
- become strong and
- disciplined.

Get your copy: 👇
gumroad.com/a/254932083/vr…

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