9 Ways We Are Becoming More Unproductive In Our Everyday Life

My everyday life is cluttered, so I planned to remove a few things from my daily practices. And, I thought to jot down the things impacting this unproductivity.

Here are the top 9 things from that list. I believe most of them will coincide if you also decide to make a list of potential unproductive practices. It is a list only, and of course, I'm not considering making changes in all of these practices at once.

Let's dive!

1. We are taking too many things into our daily?plate.

Too many priorities dilute our timelines and disrupt the success. When we are multitasking on so many different levels of our lives, it can lead to attention deficiency, lack of quality, and unproductivity.

“It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” — Nathan W. Morris.

2. Most of us are stuck into a 'planning-heavy' mentality.

What it does is we come up with a structured plan that we fail to execute. Or, sometimes, we plan for an extended hour, which bypasses the hours to work on it.

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” — Bruce Lee.

3. Our work-day excuses delay our progression.

The reasons we say are tiredness, less time, family chores, etc. But, we forget to consider that every individual on the earth has the same 24 hour day (and, yes, even with the struggles and difficulties, it is up to us to find out the time to make our progress).

“You don’t need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment.” — Seth Godin.

4. Our weekend productivity load doesn't work in the long?run.

Because of the previous reason, we push some of our activities in the weekend. Therefore, we promise ourselves that doing some extra hours on the weekend will ease the pressure. Oh, I hope!

“Soon is not as good as now.” — Seth Godin.

5. We carry 'always a tomorrow' belief which bounds us into the zero-day syndrome.

Suppose you want to do a morning yoga session. But in the morning, while the alarm clock rings the bell, you utter, 'Meh, tomorrow for sure.' That marks the day as a zero-day for your yoga.

“Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece after all.” — Nathan W. Morris.

6. We tend to mark our efforts quantitatively and ignore our lives' qualitative aspects.

Productivity doesn't mean 'absence of leisure time, reading or outside roaming.'?

We should not sacrifice our hobbies, passions, and embedded values to attain productivity, as that will lose your identity, might frustrate you in the process, and hamper your growth.

7. We are sunk into the wrong meaning of productivity.

Nowadays, we are pushing ourselves too much. We don't need 15–20 hours of productivity. That is not sustainable and dangerous for you and your family. Pushing too much will decrease your productivity.

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” — Albert Einstein.

8. We are always 'connected' to the?world.

Hence, our attention diverts, and we get less time for meaningful interactions. Thus, our active presence in the connected world makes us less productive in time. So, if your work doesn't require 24/7 connectivity to the world, then disconnect yourself from it, and concentrate on your priority at that time.

“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” — Peter Drucker.

9. We commit to unnecessary things.

It can be social media, worthless phone applications, or useless subscriptions. It can be buying unnecessary goods or services from the grocery or the online store.

Our minds will remain cluttered until we reduce these burdens attached to these pointless distractions. Identifying the necessary actions will declutter our minds and focus on priorities.

Photo by energepic.com from Pexels

Do you agree?

I'm not a productivity hacker; I'm writing based on my struggles and difficulties. Perhaps, realizations!

It is not possible to tackle each one of these at a time. The best thing is to start with the easier ones and gradually go up to the hardest.

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” — Stephen Covey.

Thus, confidence builds up, and the chances of being productive increase dramatically.

(Previously published on Medium, modified for LinkedIn)