Five Habits That Destroy Focus And Productivity

Everybody has bad habits. And most of the time, these are habits we’re used to doing on a daily basis. These habits become a part of our routine, and keep on hindering us from becoming focused and productive. 

Usually, we have our New Year’s resolution on the first day or first month of the year, and January 2022 is fast approaching. But should you even wait for the start of the year to make a change? Change can happen anytime, and the best time to do that is - Now.

In this episode, I would like to share with you five bad habits that you can start working on. Habits that can destroy success in life.

Comparing Ourselves With Others

Let’s face it, we’re all guilty of this at one point in our lives. We tend to compare our day one to the day 30 of others. We have that human nature of basing the level of our success to the success of others. 

Some people will always be ahead compared to us, but that doesn’t mean you are not successful. Success is not measured by what you have or others have. Success lies in ourselves, in what we believe in, in what we choose to do to achieve our own meaning of success.

Just like what coach Shetty said, comparison is a cancer in your life. There are three C's that are equal to cancer - Comparison, Criticism, and Competition. These 3 C’s kill productivity.

Instead, what you can do is be in charge of your own actions. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, and make changes to be a better you. When you look at your own self, and because you know yourself, you will be able to identify what needs to be changed in an achievable and attainable manner. You are your only competition.

No Plan Or Priorities

Productivity is all about proper planning. When you don’t have a plan, you might end up not being able to finish or even do tasks at hand. It is vital to have order to attain productivity.

 As for me, the To Be list works better than the To Do list. To Do list is just a list of things to check off at the end of the day, while To Be list is more focused. It’s a list of goals you want to change in yourself. Some of which are wanting to be organized, to be clear, to be disciplined, to be more efficient. With these small goals in mind, you aim and become more productive. And this develops good habits that can last longer.

Multitasking

In many ways, multitasking does seem to be a good idea. By working on more than one task, multitaskers may look productive. However, multitasking can actually hurt productivity. It can also cause exhaustion in many.

To be productive, one must focus on one task at a time. Focusing on one task allows you to perform better and efficiently without losing all your energy. Don’t be busy, be productive.

Constantly Checking Your Phone

In this day and age, technology has been a huge part of our lives. And smartphones are the perfect example. Everyday, we check our phones to open our Facebook, scroll through it, comment and engage with people. Taking away not only minutes but hours of our time. Time that should have been spent doing something productive. We get lost in so much content, and before we realize it, we’ve already wasted so much time, and we end up cramming on the important things instead.

This is actually one of the worst habits of many today. It's such a bad habit that it drains our mental power and it drains our creativity. So what we really need to do is set boundaries. Boundaries set limits, limits lead to productivity.

Being A YES Person

I struggled with this myself. We tend to say Yes to everything, to everybody. Why? Simply because we want to please others. But saying yes affects your productivity. If you say yes to everything offered to you, you end up not being able to deliver the best results. 

It is important to say No when you need to. Saying no creates a boundary. A boundary that means you can’t do everything. Saying No can save you from a disaster, saying No allows you to become productive and focused on the tasks you already have.  

Bottomline

These are only some of the bad habits we constantly struggle with. We need to evaluate ourselves, and identify the habits that hinder us from achieving our goals, our success. 

Don’t wait for the coming year to make some changes. Start making changes now to a better, more productive, and focused you. 

Be compassionate towards yourself. Focus on your actions, focus on your behaviours. Compare your growth to who you were yesterday, in order to be who you need to be tomorrow.