9 bad habits you must break to be more productive

9 schwimmbadeanstalt habits you must break to be more productive9 bad habits you must break to be more productiveNothing sabotages yur productivity quite like bad habits. They are insidious, creeping up on you slowly until you dont even notice the damage theyre causing.Bad habits slow you down, decrease your accuracy, make you less creative, and stifle your performance. Getting control of your bad habits is critical, and not just for productivitys sake. A University of Minnesota study found that people who exercise a high degree of self-control tend to be much happier than those who dont, both in the moment and in the long run.By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character. Grenville KleiserSome bad habits cause more trouble than others, and the nine that follow are the worst offenders. Shedding these habits will increase your productivity and allow you to enjoy the positive mood that comes with increased self-control.Impulsively surfing the Inter netIt takes you 15 consecutive minutes of focus before you can fully engage in a task. Once you do, you ding into a euphoric state of increased productivity calledflow. Research shows that people in a flow state are five times more productive than they otherwise would be. When you click out of your work because you get an itch to check the news, Facebook, a sports score, or what have you, this pulls you out of flow. This means you have to go through another 15 minutes of continuous focus to reenter the flow state. Click in and out of your work enough times, and you can go through an entire day without experiencing flow.PerfectionismMost writers spend countless hours brainstorming characters and plot, and they even write page after page that they know theyll never include in the book. They do this because they know that ideas need time to develop. We tend to freeze up when its time to get started because we know that our ideas arent perfect and what we produce might not be any good. But how can you ever produce something great if you dont get started and give your ideas time to evolve? Author Jodi Picoult summarized the importance of avoiding perfectionism perfectly You can edit a bad page, but you cant edit a blank page.MeetingsMeetings gobble up your precious time like no other. Ultra-productive people avoid meetings as much as humanly possible. They know that a meeting will drag on forever if they let it, so when they must have a meeting they inform everyone at the onset that theyll stick to the intended schedule. This sets a clear limit that motivates everyone to be more focused and efficient.Responding to e-mail-nachrichts as they arriveProductive people dont allow their e-mail to be a constant interruption. In addition to checking their e-mail on a schedule, they take advantage of features that prioritize messages by sender. They set alerts for their fruchtwein important vendors and their best customers, and they save the rest until they reach a stopping point in their work. Some people even set up an autoresponder that lets senders know when theyll be checking their e-mail again.Hitting the snooze buttonWhen you sleep, your brain moves through an elaborate series of cycles, the last of which prepares you to be alert at your wake up time. This is why youll sometimes wake up right before your alarm clock goes off- your brain knows its time to wake up and its ready to do so. When you hit the snooze button and fall back asleep, you lose this alertness and wake up later, tired and groggy. Worst of all, this grogginess can take hours to wear off. So no matter how tired you think you are when your alarm clock goes off, force yourself out of bed if you want to have a productive morning.MultitaskingMultitasking is a real productivity killer. Research conducted at Stanford University confirms that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with several st reams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.But what if some people have a special giftstoff for multitasking? The Stanford researchers compared groups of people, based on their tendency to multitask and their belief that it helps their performance. They found that heavy multitaskers- those who multitasked a lot and felt that it boosted their performance- were actually worse at multitasking than those who liked to do a single thing at a time. The frequent multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. OuchPutting off tough tasksWe have a limited amount of mental energy, and as we exhaust this energy, our decision-making and product ivity decline rapidly. This is called decision fatigue. When you put off tough tasks till late in the day because theyre intimidating, you save them for when youre at your worst. To beat decision fatigue, you must tackle complex tasks in the morning when your mind is fresh.Using your phone, tablet, or computer in bedThis is a big one that most people dont even realize harms their sleep and productivity. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in your mood, energy level, and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly, the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. In the afternoon, the suns rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you sleepy.By the evening, your brain doesnt expect any blue light exposure and is very sensitive to it. Most of our favorite evening devices- laptops, tab lets, televisions, and mobile phones- emit short-wavelength blue light, and in the case of your laptop, tablet, and phone, they do so brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. As weve all experienced, a poor nights sleep has disastrous effects upon productivity. The best thing you can do is to avoid these devices after dinner (television is OK for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set).Eating too much sugarGlucose functions as the gas pedal for energy in the brain. You need traubenzucker to concentrate on challenging tasks. With too little glucose, you feel tired, unfocused, and slow too much glucose leaves you jittery and unable to concentrate. Research has shown that the sweet spot is about 25 grams of glucose. The tricky thing is that you can get these 25 grams of glucose any way you want, and youll feel the same- at least initially. The difference lies in how long the productivity lasts. Donuts, soda, and other forms of refined sugar lead to an energy boost that lasts a mere 20 minutes, while oatmeal, brown rice, and other foods containing complex carbohydrates release their energy slowly, which enables you to sustain your focus.Bringing It All TogetherSome of these habits may seem minor, but they add up. Most amount to a personal choice between immediate pleasures and lasting ones. After all, the worst habit is losing track of what really matters to you.Travis Bradberryis the co-author ofEmotional Intelligence 2.0,and the cofounder ofTalentSmart.This article first appeared at LinkedIn.9 bad habits you must break to be more productiveNothing sabotages your productivity quite like bad habits. They are insidious, creeping up on you slowly until you dont even notice the damage theyre causing. Bad habits slow you down, decrease your accuracy, make you less creative, and stifle your performance. Getting control of your bad habits is critical, and not just for productivitys sake. A University of Minnesota study found that people who exercise a high degree of self-control tend to be much happier than those who dont, both in the moment and in the long run.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreBy constant self-discipline and self-control, you can develop greatness of character. Grenville KleiserSome bad habits cause more trouble than others, and the nine that follow are the worst offenders. Shedding these habits will increase your productivity and allow you to enjoy the positive mood that comes with increased self-control.Impulsively surfing the InternetIt takes you 15 consecutive minutes of focus before you can fully engage in a task. Once you do, you fall into a euphoric state of increased productivity calledflow. Research shows that people in a flow state are five times more productive than they otherwise would be. When you click out of your work because you get an itch to check the news, Facebook, a sports score, or what have you, this pulls you out of flow. This means you have to go through another 15 minutes of continuous focus to reenter the flow state. Click in and out of your work enough times, and you can go through an entire day without experiencing flow.PerfectionismMost writers spend countless hours brainstorming characters and plot, and they even write page after page that they know theyll never include in the book. They do this because they know that ideas need time to develop. We tend to freeze up when its time to get started because we know that our ideas arent perfect and what we produce might not be any good. But how can you ever produce something great if you dont get started and give your ideas time to evolve? Author Jodi Picoult summarized the importance of avoiding perfectionism perfectly You can edit a bad page, but you cant edit a blank page.MeetingsMeetings gobble up your precious time like no other. Ultra-productive people avoid meetings as much as humanly possible. They know that a meeting will drag on forever if they let it, so when they must have a meeting they inform everyone at the onset that theyll stick to the intended schedule. This sets a clear limit that motivates everyone to be more focused and efficient.Responding to e-mails as they arriveProductive people dont allow their e-mail to be a constant interruption. In addition to checking their e-mail on a schedule, they take advantage of features that prioritize messages by sender. They set alerts for their most important vendors and their best customers, and they save the rest until they reach a stopping point in their work. Some people even set up an autoresponder that lets senders know when theyll be checking their e-mail again.Hitting the snooze buttonWhen you sleep, your brain moves through an elaborate series of cycles, the last of which prep ares you to be alert at your wake up time. This is why youll sometimes wake up right before your alarm clock goes off- your brain knows its time to wake up and its ready to do so. When you hit the snooze button and fall back asleep, you lose this alertness and wake up later, tired and groggy. Worst of all, this grogginess can take hours to wear off. So no matter how tired you think you are when your alarm clock goes off, force yourself out of bed if you want to have a productive morning.MultitaskingMultitasking is a real productivity killer. Research conducted at Stanford University confirms that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both task s successfully.But what if some people have a special gift for multitasking? The Stanford researchers compared groups of people, based on their tendency to multitask and their belief that it helps their performance. They found that heavy multitaskers- those who multitasked a lot and felt that it boosted their performance- were actually worse at multitasking than those who liked to do a single thing at a time. The frequent multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. OuchPutting off tough tasksWe have a limited amount of mental energy, and as we exhaust this energy, our decision-making and productivity decline rapidly. This is called decision fatigue. When you put off tough tasks till late in the day because theyre intimidating, you save them for when youre at your worst. To beat decision fatigue, you must tackle complex tasks in the morning wh en your mind is fresh.Using your phone, tablet, or computer in bedThis is a big one that most people dont even realize harms their sleep and productivity. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in your mood, energy level, and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly, the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. In the afternoon, the suns rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you sleepy.By the evening, your brain doesnt expect any blue light exposure and is very sensitive to itMost of our favorite evening devices- laptops, tablets, televisions, and mobile phones- emit short-wavelength blue light, and in the case of your laptop, tablet, and phone, they do so brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asl eep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. As weve all experienced, a poor nights sleep has disastrous effects upon productivity. The best thing you can do is to avoid these devices after dinner (television is OK for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set).Eating too much sugarGlucose functions as the gas pedal for energy in the brain. You need glucose to concentrate on challenging tasks. With too little glucose, you feel tired, unfocused, and slow too much glucose leaves you jittery and unable to concentrate. Research has shown that the sweet spot is about 25 grams of glucose. The tricky thing is that you can get these 25 grams of glucose any way you want, and youll feel the same- at least initially. The difference lies in how long productivity lasts. Donuts, soda, and other forms of refined sugar lead to an energy boost that lasts a mere 20 minutes, while oatmeal, brown rice, and other foods containing complex carbohydrates release the ir energy slowly, which enables you to sustain your focus.Bringing It All TogetherSome of these habits may seem minor, but they add up. Most amount to a personal choice between immediate pleasures and lasting ones. After all, the worst habit is losing track of what really matters to you.Are there any productivity-killing habits that I missed? Please share them in the comments section below, because I learn just as much from you as you do from me.This article first appeared on Linkedin.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people