I try to make decisions every day that will help improve my productivity. It is important to develop and maintain good work habits in all aspects of our lives. Habits define how we live and how we interact with others and it can make or break us depending on what they are.

In order to live your best, most productive life, it’s worth taking the time to understand your good habits and identify your bad habits.

This article, while informative is extremely hard to grasp, even for me. I attempt to follow these steps and guidelines but it takes consistency and dedication to really grasp both your good and bad habits. I’ve spent some time breaking down how specific tasks can destroy your productivity while others can help it.

Not having a Routine Schedule

A routine that is built around priorities and consistencies is the most important way to increase productivity. It’s proven, it works and the key is dedication to stick to a routine to the best of your ability. It requires setting a specific routine that you rely on and ensure that you maintain. Sometimes this means setting a specific goal for outreach, creating SMART Goals and sticking to them or it can start with simply waking up at the same time every single day.

Starting with a basic routine and then building will allow someone that is unproductive to make multiple small improvements that will make a large difference.

Being Too ambitious with your to do list

There are multiple ways to create to do lists. There are multiple programs that you can use; I use Asana, a productivity App, while others you different programs and others use a simple pad and pen. Regardless of your method, prioritizing your tasks and not creating a list that is too ambitious is going to determine how effective and productive you truly are.

There are numerous methods when it comes to to-do lists. I typically recommend creating a master list of your to-do’s and at the beginning of the day determining your most important tasks. For the beginning of the day only focus on those tasks and nothing else. Once complete then move on to your less important tasks. This ensures that daily you are finishing your most important tasks and when this routine is put in place it makes a major difference.

Other methods include organizing your tasks based on easy to difficult and accomplishing the least important ones first. Crossing items off the list then motivates to move through more tasks and you’re able to accomplish more off the list. While I don’t typically recommend this approach there are multiple – and a lot more out there.

Regardless of the approach you take – you want to focus on prioritizing your tasks in the best way that works for you. An ongoing, long list doesn’t work. It should be organized in way where you can apply your routine – which will drive completing tasks more productively.

Being indecisive

Another problem with long to do lists is that you are forced to spend time on deciding what to do. Even in the above point, you are spending time organizing your tasks. Trying to keep your task list low will help you accomplish more.

We’ve all struggled to decide where to go to eat. It’s rarely because there are no options, it’s because there are too many.

Keep your options/tasks lower and you’ll make faster decisions on what to do, driving more being accomplished.

Not saying NO, when it needs to be said

Anyone that knows me knows that this is a lesson I’ve learned and one that I am happy to preach – and happy to continue to practice over and over again.

Sometimes accepting too much and saying yes is something that is destroying your productivity. Your good intentions turn into missed deadlines or poor quality of work due to accepting too much – this then results in the exact opposite of your intentions.

In many cases you need to be realistic with what you can do or should be doing and say no to the task or request.

Doing it all yourself

Again, I’ve been extremely guilty of this. It’s not possible to do everything yourself and once you value your time and understand how to set prioritizes and delegate, it becomes a major strength.

In so many cases, delegating tasks that are not within your scope, above or below you to others will immediately allow you to become more productive.

Focus on what you are the greatest at / responsible for and your distractions will be reduced dramatically.

Multi-tasking

I’ve read numerous resumes and have conducted numerous interviews where people claim that they are amazing multitaskers. While I understand that it’s explained and looked at as a positive, it’s amazing how unproductive doing multiple things at once are. It slows down production, it increases mistakes and it makes it extremely challenging to work in multiple environments.

(A good tip that fits well here is to keep your email notifications off. Fast email responses typically mean less work is being accomplished. Frequently, you’ll be working on something important than a non-critical email comes in that only takes a minute for you to apply to. So you apply, then read a newsletter, then jump to Facebook…. you get the point)

Studies have shown that multi-tasking or bouncing around from one task to another decreases productivity. That tunnel vision and focusing on one task at a time increases productivity.

It takes time for our brains to recommit to tasks, so every time you switch, your brain has to as well. That catch up wasted more time than you know. Commit to one task, do it with focus, and then switch only once complete.

Not keeping track of results

The most amazing professionals in the world have accomplished what they have through repetition, practice and tracking their progress. Regardless of how hard you work, there are always areas where you can improve or streamline to make easier. By keeping track of your progress, accomplishments and goals will allow you to identify shortcomings and build strategies around it.

Working without breaks

I’m a dog person, but I’m tired and this cat looks comfy. Once you realize that disconnecting and taking a break is required to increase productivity is when you’ll gain…that productivity. Without breaks, burnouts are inevitable and your progress and productivity will slow – even if you don’t notice it.

In my office I have a couch, dart board, tv, etc. – taking breaks and disconnecting allows more productivity in order to get more things done.

Living out of your email

I mentioned shutting off notifications above but this is specific to the example I gave. Think about how many times that you have checked your email or text messages today. How many of those times did you not accomplish anything related to your goals for that day? How many times did you drive off track and further away from accomplishing what you needed to accomplish?

Shut your email notifications off and set specific times per day to check your email. Doing this becomes very hard, however – if your job doesn’t require you to immediately answer every email, focus on getting your most important tasks completed and set a routine to check your email.

Being TOO Connected

I’m drilling home the point above. Disconnect from your email, text, social, etc. – Make yourself less available and remove distractions that will take you away from your productivity.

Try to disconnect for a set amount of time – 10 minutes – 1 hour, anything that works for you. During that time focus on one task and don’t let anything distract you. Repeat this a few times throughout the day and… well, you get the point.

You won’t believe how far your productivity will grow by taking these small and almost obvious tasks and applying them to your life.

These tasks are actually very difficult to perform, however once applied will make major improvements on your productivity and help you accomplish your goals.

Pay attention when you catch yourself performing one of these bad habits and then create a routine and stick to it. If you fail to stick to a routine, try again until sometimes sticks.