Everyone is in the race for being more productive. We all want to do more things, want to achieve more things?

Have you ever walked into the office in the morning, with all the best intentions to conquer a massive workload, just to face one distraction after the other all day and leave the office feeling deflated and with an even bigger workflow? You’re not alone. Most people face unproductive work habits that jeopardise their success. I know I have done it too.

The Cost of Unproductive Work Habits

Although I am not a fan of Britney Speakers, I do think that the lyrics her new single, Work B*tch sums it up perfectly:

You want a hot body? You want a Bugatti?
You want a Maserati? You better work bitch
You want a Lamborghini? Sippin martinis?
Look hot in a bikini? You better work bitch
You wanna live fancy? Live in a big mansion?
Party in France?
You better work bitch, you better work bitch
You better work bitch, you better work bitch
Now get to work bitch!
Now get to work bitch!

Nothing… absolutely nothing comes if you are slacking, unless you got a billion dollar sugar daddy!

For me, I think about the things that I have had to do, and the things that were the hardest always brought the best return. Just yesterday, I completed my first full length Olympic Triathlon. Throughout the buildup for the month, I was dreading the gruesome distance of 1.5km swim, the 40 km cycle and the 10 km.

My mind played game the whole time telling me to quit. But instead I kept on focusing at the end result and how I would feel. I didn’t let the fact that I should have trained more, that my body hurt or that I couldn’t keep up with some of the participants. I just had to work, there was no one going to pass the finish line for me except me. The same thing applies to success, health and happiness.

I want you to take a moment and consider your life and think about the things you’ve missed out on? Has any of this got to do with certain unproductive work habits that have stifled your ability to earn the money you were looking to earn, or reaching the goals that you wanted years ago already. Unproductive work habits hampers your progress and it can completely stop you from achieving your financial, health and lifestyle goals.

Unproductive Work Habits Show – Not Only in the Office

Did you know that your unproductive work habits are evident in your day-to-day life? That’s right. Unconscious unproductive lifestyle habits occur in your home life and in your personal life too.

Do you eat when you’re stressed or bored? Do you overspend ? Do you think negatively? Do you blame other people for your problems? Do you smoke or drink compulsively? Do you find it hard to say no and as a result allow people to encroach on your personal boundaries? Do you miss out on quality time with your loved ones? Are you constantly looking for your keys and other things that you seem to have lost? Do you bite your nails?

These are the unproductive lifestyle habits that make you feel unmotivated and disinterest. These are the things that drain your time, money and energy and lead to unproductive work habits. In this article, Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D. speaks about laziness and the many reasons that contribute to it – while laziness and unproductive work habits are two separate topics, I believe people are lazy when they really are unmotivated. Dr Timothy A. Pychyl explains procrastination well in this article. People who have unproductive work habits, usually:

don’t know how to prioritise tasks
don’t know how to perform necessary tasks
fear failure
have low self-esteem
lack motivation.

As a result they use every excuse to procrastinate, or pass the buck with the result that nothing gets done the way it should be. If you want to live an excellent life, you need to channel excellence in your behaviour and your work habits.

You can make the choice today to let go of unproductive work habits and turn into the dynamo you were meant to be. You have to make the decision to step away from those habits and embrace change.

Banish Unproductive Work Habits in 3 Easy Steps

“If it was that easy I would’ve done it a long time ago!” – Yes, I can hear you thinking that aloud. And no, it’s not that easy. You will have to be consistent at it – and that’s exactly why a large percentage of people fail to reach their dreams. But if you implement these simple changes consistently, you will open your subconscious to more and more seemingly natural behaviours that will spark that seed of excellence and change your life.

1. Assess Your Goals

By assessing your goals you will quickly see exactly where you are in terms of reaching your goals. Some people devote a lot of time to a very important task, but then they feel less productive than people who don’t share their responsibilities.

A typical example is a stay-at-home mom who spends all day changing diapers; feeding, cleaning, cooking, doing laundry… and when her husband arrives at home, the place is still a mess and she feels useless. However, she is exhausted from running after kids all day – a huge responsibility that someone has to take on.

Each job is important, but you have to decide to which degree it needs to form part of your daily tasks. Do you worry all day about whether your employees are on Facebook and you’re obsessively checking up on them? You’re wasting your time! Just block social media on each of their PCs and get on with important work, already!

What you can do right now: If you don’t know what you are wasting time on every day, consider starting a journal. You can time yourself to see how much time you spend on each task and see if that time is well-spent.

2. Asses Your Personal Life

Are you tired, depressed and overweight? Most people are not overweight because of bad genes, but because they don’t burn more calories than they consume. Being overweight makes the body work hard, which makes you tired. Being tired and overweight makes you depressed. Attack the problem at it’s source: eat the right food, drink more water and get busy.

“But I don’t have time!” – right. Well, the Dalai Lama said that you should meditate for 15 minutes a day, and if you don’t have fifteen minutes, you should do it for an hour. I have a friend who felt just like you. Except, she also felt sick all the time and she was broke. She had only one option and that was to stop looking for excuses and to push harder. She figured getting more money would make it easier to get everything else sorted out, so she started by working harder, taking on more customers and offering better service. That worked. She started practising yoga every second day a month ago and pushes herself harder every time. She’s feeling so good, that she’s going to start zumba too. She’s feeling better than ever and doesn’t crave bad food any more and she is able to cope with work and life.

What you can do right now: Stop making excuses and BE the change you want to see.

3. Get Help

There’s no shame in asking for help, in fact, that is often the catalyst for people to achieve what they want to. It’s perfectly okay to not know what’s needed in certain situations and we are notoriously blind to our own faults.

What you can do right now: Find someone else to take care of unproductive tasks. Join a gym. Get help with addictions. Use time-management software to track your activities. Attend on of my success workshops (see what I’m doing here? I’m asking you to help me to help you – clever huh?).

Have you successfully overcome unproductive work habits? Do you have more tips to share? Please tell us below.