We all have bad habits that we fight to break, but are your habits keeping you from achieving your goals? Breaking these bad habits will help you to boost your productivity.
If you want to be successful in your pursuits, here are the top 10 habits successful people don’t do; they consciously make it a point to avoid.
1- Right time doesn’t exist
There is no ‘right time’ there is just time, and what you choose to do with it.
— naramdil
If you are waiting for the perfect time to launch your business, start a diet, or do anything in life. Then there is bad news that the perfect time does not exist — the people who wait for the right time actually never initiate anything. As the Chinese proverb says:
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
Most of the time, people say that there is no right time to start a family. There will be challenges as soon as you start a family or new project. If you want to start anything, start right now, this is the best time.
2- Staying busy all the time is not good
Sometime sitting and doing nothing is the best something you can do.
— Karen Salmansohn
Research shows that being busy doesn’t mean you are productive. People who are busy all the time are running so many thoughts at one time and are unable to focus on one task.
In the end, they develop depression and start doing things in a rush, which actually decreases productivity.
I read somewhere to try to spend a week without scheduling anything, just do the task as they appear, and get into groovy again to schedule everything from the next week.
Make sure you always have time to relax without thinking.
3- Perfection does not exist
One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist. Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.
— Stepehn Hawking
Always look at the progress instead of completion. Try to see how many emails you replied to, how much you did in a day, how much productive time you spent instead of worrying about making them perfect.
Perfection does not exist. I did an M.Eng thesis in two years, I worked tirelessly to accomplish my thesis, but in the end, I had to write it’s partially completed. Actually, another grad student picked my thesis to continue the research.
4- Multitasking means screwing up
Multitasking is the sign of a stressed and diseased mind simultaneously doing many things poorly. Quality work and quality thinking require quite focus.
— Thibaut
Study shows that multitasking screw productivity, and actually, multitasker encounter a 40% drop in productivity and make 50% more errors than someone who is focused on one thing at any given time.
To be more productive, I recommend focusing on one thing at a time. You can easily remove all the distractions to focus on one task to get optimum results.
Tip: Create time slots to do tasks like emails, cellphone, WhatsApp checkups.
5- Cell Phone all the time
Some of you, if you. give up your cell phone, you will be successful.
— Eric Thomas
A couple of years ago, I realized that I was spending too much time on my cell phone. Almost every half hour, I was aimlessly checking the phone. Statistics show that people touch their phones an average of 2617 times per day. I was shocked to see this number.
You can easily check your smartphone’s built-in screen time function to see how much time you are spending per day on your cell phone.
I made a pact not to use the phone for more than 90 minutes in 24 hours. That habit helped me to focus on important things in life.
One study shows that cell phones make people unproductive. Data also shows that people are at least 26% more productive when they put their cell phones away.
6- Eating at the desk
I believe in stopping work and eating lunch.
— L’Wren Scott
There could be many reasons you love to eat at an office desk or amid the pandemic at the home office desk: catching up emails, all-day meetings, maybe a project is due.
We are not designed to sit all day by nature. Humans ahs to stand up walk or do some stretching to perform productively.
Research shows that sitting at the same place for a long time is actually detrimental to your productivity. Successful people understand the power of movement.
Some companies actually banned eating at your office desk to increase productivity.
7- Not taking breaks
In this game, everyone needs a break to refuel, recharge, and jump back in full throttle.
— Helen Edwards
This is kind of related to the previous point to take a break. Highly successful people prefer to work in chunks and take breaks to recharge mental power. Sometimes people think if you are working all day, it may be counterintuitive to take a break, but in reality, taking a break is the best thing you can do to your brain.
Without taking a break, your brain will get tired. Study shows that the brain faces a hard time making decisions that affect making an optimal decision.
To keep your productivity at its peak, make sure to add 10–15 minutes break every couple of hours into your schedule.
8- Don’t prioritize tasks
People who can focus, get things done. People who can prioritize get the right things done.
— John Maeda
I see many of my colleagues start their day to complete the easiest thing first. It is not bad to get work done, but it means you leave the complex tasks later when your energy starts depleting.
There is only one way to fix this: to prioritize the most complex task first thing in the morning when you are full of energy. I follow the following mantra.
I believe there is no ideal job in the world where you love to do everything. Many times you hate some parts of the job. I love to do those parts, which I don’t like to do first thing in the morning.
9- Doing everything yourself
The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t.
— Anthea Turner
I always suggest that if the project doesn’t need you, try to delegate the stuff. Always try to delegate basic things like email checking, replies, meeting schedules, etc.
Try to outsource your tasks to be more productive at a couple of things. I love to preschedule my social messages and use already built templates.
10- Not getting enough sleep
Lack of sleep makes me less productive. I need a good seven or eight hours a night. — Sandra Lee
Study shows that lack of sleep deprives your productivity — sleep deprivation cause loss of concentration. Successful people make sure to prioritize sleep to have productive days.
Research suggests that everyone needs 7–8 hours of quality sleep. Here is a great article I wrote on the science of sleep and how lack of sleep affects your productivity.
Key takeaways
- Do not wait for the right time. Right now, time doesn’t exist; start the goal you are procrastinating on.
- Multitasking tasks hurt your productivity. Avoid multitasking at all levels; try to focus on one thing at a time.
- Successful people always find time to relax; staying busy all the time is not productive.
- Prioritize your activities based on importance to optimize the results.
- Perfection does not exist; if companies wait for the perfect product, we will never see any progress.
- Do not spend more than 90 minutes a day on cell phone
- Successful people believe in body movement. Leave the desk, go for a walk, and stretch.
- Successful people always delegate to get the work done.
- They always prioritize sleep. Sleep is imperative for a productive life.
Thank you for reading.
