HomePersonal growthProductivity8 ways you're sabotaging your own productivity

8 ways you're sabotaging your own productivity

Reading time:  5  minutes

Few people go through their day completely how they originally envisioned it.

It's surprisingly rare for you to leave the office or your workspace after completing all the tasks you initially set out to do. Although intention and structure are essential to getting things done, the best-laid plans can still go wrong.

To take full charge of our productivity, we must first take charge of ourselves – our work environment, our focus and the way we work. It means recognizing the ways in which we limit our own performance and then making effective changes to counter it.

Productivity = deep work

Of all the productivity models, “deep work” is possibly one of the simplest and most useful. Simply put, it recognizes that we do our best work in a state of deep, uninterrupted concentration. This focus needs to be maintained – you can't sit back and forth between meetings and tasks and expect to do in-depth work.

Deep work is the opposite of "superficial work": the small, low-value tasks that keep us busy without requiring much cognitive effort—and don't really get us much further either.

Email, chat messages, administration, meetings – these superficial tasks cover our days far too often, encouraging the habit of frequently switching contexts, making focus and presence on one task impossible.

Whenever we think about how our actions affect our productivity, it's helpful to use the deep work model: assessing whether we create the conditions for long-term deep work or whether we encourage unproductive shallow work.

How to sabotage your productivity

We now list 8 examples where you reduce your productivity and do not get around to doing “deep work” well.

Opening yourself up to distraction

The (digital) workplace is full of distractions – from email push notifications and chat messages to co-workers' edits in a collaboration document.

Aside from that, your workplace itself can also work against you, with noise, co-workers and movement hindering your ability to concentrate. In addition to actually learning how to manage notification settings for your apps and devices, it's important to first create the optimal working environment for in-depth work.

That can be as simple as finding accompanying music for more concentration, activating your phone and online status in “Do not disturb” to get into a flow state, to moving to a quieter space at the office or from home.

Unstructured working

In addition to being distracting, a cluttered workspace can actually create anxiety that affects our cognitive behavior and decision-making. But structure also extends to the mental environment, so mapping out breaks, periods for deep work, and regular times for answering emails can help you stay on track. Blocking time is a great approach here, as it protects and frees up space for specific tasks. It's about being purposeful with your time, with a simple, actionable structure to follow.

Unconscious procrastination

Obviously we are also very good at distracting ourselves; putting off a mountain of work to surf the web or check social media. But ultimately, procrastination is a symptom of bigger problems — whether you're feeling completely overwhelmed, need to take a break, change jobs, or just really not mind your work. Addressing the root cause of your procrastination can help you overcome some really annoying problems in the long run.

Underestimating time you need for tasks

If you agree to projects that you don't have time for or don't see the 'bigger picture', you will become overwhelmed and your attention will fly in all directions without really spending your time focusing on one thing in particular.

Be realistic about how long tasks and new requests will take you, and make sure you work this into a solid plan. A project management tool (we are fans of ClickUp!) or tracking tasks is indispensable for this, where you can indicate exactly how much time you will need for the various tasks, so that you can also plan ahead better.

Too much to do

Drowning at work is bad for our mental health and also prevents us from functioning optimally. A huge backlog can stress us out because we worry about how many tasks still need to be done, instead of focusing completely on the task at hand.

The work we accomplish when we worry about all our work is often flawed and very uninspired – which in turn can greatly diminish our passion and pride for our work.

Too little to do

Sounds quite contradictory, of course, but think about it. When you experienced a quiet moment at work, did you immediately focus on completing your short to-do list? Or did you spend time on unproductive things because the urgency was lower anyway?

According to Parkinson's law, work expands according to the time allotted to it – so be careful not to unnecessarily blow up simple tasks when it's quiet with you.

Then get on with useful activities – even if it's writing down a to-do list that you normally never get around to. Cleaning up and organizing your inbox, actually updating your Linkedin or doing preliminary research into an article to be written or a task to be performed. In short, find great ways to stay productive when you're a little less busy.

Confused with work

Too many of us rush through our days without stopping for even two minutes, believing that that will get us a lot done. We jump from a meeting to a phone call, cram in 30 minutes of completing tasks or responding to emails before moving on to another scheduled commitment.

It's a hectic, reactive way of working that is mostly oblivious to the real value it produces. It is ad hoc work – directionless, often not rewarding and actually from hot to here and unproductive extinguishing fires.

Improve your productivity and make way for "deep work"! (fig.)
Improve your productivity and make way for “deep work”! (picture.)

Don't take breaks

Despite some strange taboos surrounding a break — whether that's your full lunch break or actually spending your vacation time — no one is more than a little off.

Always being on standby and "on" is cognitively very intensive for our brains, so to maximize our mental processes, we have to build up time where they really have nothing to do and are not focused on anything.

Breaks don't have to be huge to make a difference – just 5 or 15 minutes, for example, by working with the Pomodoro Technique, may be enough.

That rest and break you take should be of quality – so not filled with all kinds of passive digital interaction, checking your social media or getting rid of personal tasks. Make sure you do something else for a while so that you and your brain can relax and you will be a lot more productive and creative after the break!

Finally about your productivity

It takes time to manage your time well and be truly productive. Always remind yourself what to do for the rest of the day. Don't forget to relax if you must. There's no pressure to get everything done quickly. Be productive, but also satisfied!

Sources ao AdHomeStead (link), Fast Company (link), Memory (link), TheBoss Magazine (link)

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