Stop Doing Productive. Start Being Productive.

Today’s guest post is by Gloria Kopp. Gloria is a digital marketer and a business consultant from Manville city. She is a content manager at Australian help. Gloria is a regular contributor to such websites as Engadget, Academized, HuffingtonPost, etc.

Everyone wants to be more productive; that’s why lists of productivity tips are so popular online. If you just follow all of these tips, you’ll get more done every day. However, you’ve probably found that that isn’t the case. So, what’s the problem? Let’s look a closer at some common productivity mistakes and how you can avoid them.

1. Avoiding Distracting Websites

There are many tools available that help you block out the rest of the internet while you work. Most of these tools give you just a blank screen or a reminder to start working. That’s ok for a while, but you can easily reach burnout by not taking breaks.

If you get mentally fatigued, it will take you longer to recover before you can get back to work. Instead, try using the Pomodoro technique. Work for 25 minutes straight, then take a 5-minute break to do whatever you like, including checking out websites and social media. You’ll get a lot more done this way.

2. Reward Yourself

If you’re looking to reach a specific goal, it’s easy to reward yourself when you’ve made some progress towards it. However, it’s not always helpful. For example, if you’re studying towards getting a scholarship, you may decide to reward yourself by stopping work for a day or so. This kind of reward can slow your progress and reduce your momentum. Instead, pick a reward that does not affect your work. For example, once you’ve reached your goal, have dinner at your favorite restaurant with a friend.   

3. Not Being Realistic

You want to be more productive. That’s a great goal, right? If you just become more self-disciplined, you can get anything (and everything) done, right? That really isn’t true. There are limits to your personal productivity. You may have health issues. You have unique demands on your time. Your energy levels also play an important role in your productivity. The best way to be productive is to work around these issues. What is a productive day for somebody else may not be a successful one for you. For example, you may get some work done in the hours while the kids are at school, and then take a break from your task list when they are home. If you don’t have school-aged kids, your day will likely look very different.

4. Thinking Multitasking Is Effective

When you’re tackling your to-do list, you’re probably trying to do more than one task at once. After all, the most productive people are multi-taskers, right? In fact, that isn’t the case at all. Recent research has shown how multitasking does not help you get more done. For example, writing and editing at the same time doesn’t save you time. You’ll just spend more on your work. 

5. Delaying Harder Tasks

It can be really tempting to put off the biggest–or most difficult–tasks until later in the day. Or you could just call this what it is: procrastination. You may want to do the smaller tasks on your list first, but this is a problem. What happens is you use this approach to put off the task you don’t want to do. Instead, tackle the hard task first. Get it done and out of the way. Then you’ll feel much more able to tackle the rest of your to-do list.

6. Not Knowing When You Are Most Productive

Everyone has a time of day when they’re most productive. Some people like to get up before everyone else and work in quiet. Some like to sleep in and then work late into the night. You need to find your most productive hours of the day, and make the most of them. Once you have, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

7. Not Delegating Your Work

Being productive doesn’t mean that you need to get everything done yourself. In fact, this can hinder you in getting all of your tasks done in the day. Go through all of your daily tasks, and see what you can delegate to others. Maybe you need to hire a virtual assistant. Use your resources wisely, and you’ll see you’ll get a lot more done every day.

Once you’ve made these adjustments to your everyday habits, your productivity levels will skyrocket. Pick one today and try it out for yourself. 

Do you know of any other productivity mistakes? Please share in the comments.