Do you wish to increase your output?
Since everyone has the same number of hours in the day, productivity depends more on working wisely than laboriously. To make the most of each day, we need to manage ourselves more than we need to manage our time. So, it is better to know negative behaviors that kill your productive.
This boils down to the routines we unconsciously follow every day. It’s possible that your habits are hindering your productivity without your knowledge.
John Dryden once said, “We make our habits first, and then our habits make us.”
You should give up the 12 negative habits listed below if you want to be more productive.
Lack of sleep
One of the most undervalued and frequently neglected activities, sleep directly affects our decision-making, happiness, and productivity.
A recent McKinsey study demonstrates the link between lack of sleep and productivity at work.
The prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for problem-solving, deteriorates if we don’t get enough sleep.
Working nonstop, as stated by Arianna Huffington, “we now know is the cognitive equivalent of arriving to work inebriated.”
Set a sensible time for when to finish operating and begin shutting down.
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Ignoring breakfast
Breakfast is the most significant meal of the day, according to many nutritionists and health professionals.
Yes, it is when it comes to your productivity.
You have probably gone more than 10 hours without eating by the time you wake up, which is how breakfast acquired its name because it literally means “breaking the fast.”
Your metabolism is boosted and your blood sugar levels are replenished at breakfast, which makes it easier for you to concentrate and be productive throughout the day.
Low blood sugar makes it much difficult to concentrate, and you’re more likely to feel exhausted, angry, and impatient. The perfect breakfast would be a balance of high-fiber carbohydrates with some lean protein if you wanted to start your day off right.
In addition to making you feel satisfied, fiber also helps to raise your blood sugar levels steadily and maintain steady levels of energy.
Consuming excessive sugar
As long as we’re talking about blood sugar levels, eating too much sugar is a recipe for disaster.
All of our cells run on glucose, and your brain needs glucose to focus on difficult activities. However, if you consume too much of it, you might feel jittery and find it difficult to focus. The sweet spot, according to the research, is 25 grams of glucose, but how you receive those grams will affect how productive you are.
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The energy boost you get from foods high in refined sugar, like doughnuts, drink, and sweets, will wear off after just 20 minutes, but oatmeal and other complex carbs release energy more gradually, allowing you to maintain focus.
Using a laptop, tablet, or phone while in bed
These days, we are so dependent on our technology that you probably check your phone before going to sleep.
The issue is that our phones, tablets, and laptops’ LED screens emit what is referred to as blue light. Studies have shown that it can harm our vision as well as inhibit the generation of melatonin, a vital hormone that aids in controlling the sleep cycle.
Low melatonin levels have also been linked to studies of depression.
Thankfully, there are apps like twilight that will assist cut down on blue light if you must use your phone as you get closer to bedtime.
Using the snooze feature
Do you occasionally awaken before your alarm goes off?
We’ve all had that experience at some point, and it occurs because your brain is prepared to awaken when the time is right.
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Your brain through a complex sequence of cycles while you sleep, with the final cycle preparing you to be attentive when it’s time to wake up. You will lose that alertness if you press the snooze button and go back to sleep. You will then wake up later feeling worn out and drowsy.
What’s worse is that it may take hours for this grogginess to subside.
So, regardless of how exhausted you may feel, force yourself out of bed when your alarm goes off if you want a productive morning.
Multitasking
I’m sorry to bust your bubble if you think that multitasking genuinely makes you more productive.
Multitasking seriously reduces productivity.
People are actually more productive when they focus on one task at a time, according to research from Stanford University. According to the study, persons who are constantly inundated with many streams of electronic information are less able to pay attention, remember details, or switch between tasks than those who focus on one thing at a time.
The study discovered that multitaskers—even those who really believed it improved their performance—performed worse than those who routinely concentrated on completing one thing at a time.
Holding informal meetings
Meetings, especially informal ones, can take up your valuable time like nothing else. They frequently dither and stray from the subject.
Meetings are valuable, no doubt, but make sure there is a clear time limit, plan, and agenda to follow.
Answering emails when they come in
Checking your emails and/or texts as soon as they arrive is usually mentioned in time management advice.
Productive people check their emails at specific times throughout the day because they are aware that the interruption they cause can break their flow.
It’s best to set up specific rules or alerts specifically for their emails and save the rest for last if you have folks that need an urgent response.
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By delaying a response, you teach individuals to anticipate that they won’t get one right away, which can also assist manage their expectations in the future.
Not setting priorities
Do you know what is most important to you?
The majority of individuals glide through their daily tasks without stopping to consider the wider picture.
You must have a vision for your life if you want to be eventually successful and reach your goals.
Warren Buffet offers a clever approach to accomplish this.
He suggested to his personal pilot that he prepare a list of 25 things that he wanted to accomplish before passing away. Then he gave him the advice to choose the top five items from that list and disregard the rest.
Concentrate on implementing those daily.
Postponing difficult chores
People frequently have a tendency to begin with simple things to get themselves going. While crossing those tasks off the list may be beneficial, it may not be the best course of action.
We all have a finite quantity of willpower, and it deteriorates over the day, so when it comes to tackling the difficult tasks, they frequently get unfinished.
I’ve found that the tasks that are challenging or frightening often lead to the greatest growth and advance us. Therefore, be careful to finish them first.
Perfectionism
Fear is the source of perfectionism. Fear of failure, rejection, or just that your work won’t be good enough and you’ll receive negative feedback.
We don’t start working until the dread of doing nothing at all outweighs the fear of doing it poorly. And that can take some time,” said Alain de Botton.
SEE ALSO: What Kind Of Thoughts Gives You Best Things
If you tend to attempt to do everything precisely, it’s possible that you’ll delay and unconsciously come up with reasons why you can’t accomplish something.
Make “Done = Good Enough” your new mantra!
Impulsive online browsing
I’ve done this before and occasionally still do!
You get a thought and get sidetracked hunting up the answer, which prompts additional thought, which prompts more research, and so on.
It consists of several harmful behaviours combined into one. You multitask, you interrupt yourself while working, and you act contrary to your priorities. Avoid falling into this trap.
The best habit to form is to write down these inquiries and suggestions on a piece of paper and then research them at a later time, outside of working hours.
The first step toward change is awareness.
The next stage is to alter your poor behaviors if you’ve realized that you have any of them.
