Being productive isn’t easy, regardless of how badly you’d like to be and how hard you think you’re willing to work. But increasing your output at work and in life is a much more attainable goal if you’re not sabotaging yourself with bad habits.
Here are 10 things you should stop doing right now:
1. Impulsive web browsing: Since most of us work with access to the Internet, it’s easy to get side-tracked looking up the answer to a random question that just popped into your head.
That’s why Quora user Suresh Rathinam recommends writing down these thoughts or questions on a notepad. This way, you can look up the information you want later, when you’re not trying to get work done.
2. Moral licensing: Whether it’s a new diet, workout routine, or work schedule, one of the most difficult things about forming a new habit is the urge to cheat as a reward for sticking to a routine for a while. This idea that we “deserve” to splurge on fancy meal after being thrifty for a week is called “moral licensing,” and it undermines a lot of people’s plans for self-improvement
Instead, try making your goal part of your identity, such that you think of yourself as the kind of person who saves money or works out regularly, rather than as someone who is working against their own will to do something new.
3. Putting off your most important work until later in the day: People often start off their day by completing easy tasks to get themselves rolling and leave their more difficult work for later. This is a bad idea, and one that frequently leads to the important work not getting done at all.
As researchers have found, people have a limited amount of willpower that decreases throughout the day. That being the case, it’s best to get your hardest, most important tasks done at the beginning of the day.
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