If you feel unhappy with what you accomplish by the end of a day, then there’s a good chance the reasons lie here.
1. You Ignore Your Preferences
We all have rhythms and idiosyncrasies that make us productive little dynamos in some circumstances and virtual zombies in others.
Some people work well in the morning, in a busy office, with a range of projects, and lots of spontaneity. Others don’t get going till the evening and need peace, focus, and routine. Others fall everywhere in between.
Do you know what brings out your most productive self?
Do you allow yourself to structure your time and your environment to provide what you need for maximum effectiveness?
2. You Think There’s Time For Everything
Life is short, days are short, we’re all busy, change is never-ending. Nobody gets everything perfectly done.
The best we can hope for is to get the important things done.
But as long as you believe it’s all doable, you’ll fall into the trap of thinking you have time for the small stuff. And that can keep the big stuff forever out of your reach.
3. You Don’t Know Which Activities Really Matter
Because there’s so much to do, it can sometimes be difficult to identify which are the activities that matter.
In any career, goal, project, or challenge there will be magic activities that accelerate your progress, and without which you can’t succeed.
The trick is to analyze your priorities and get ruthless about the way you spend your time. Otherwise you can stay clueless about what will bring the best returns on your limited time and energy.
4. You Don’t Have An Effective Time Management System
No, I’m not talking about your awesome new app or leather-bound diary.
I’m talking about you – the way you manage yourself day-to-day, the way you decide what needs to be done, and to check off the things that matter.
Until you have this system down, you may be squandering your energy and time and wondering why you aren’t making better progress.
5. You Don’t Know How To Focus
One of the most common complaints among people who feel frustrated with their productivity is that they can never finish anything.
Although it’s a perfectly recognizable problem, it’s one that has to be overcome if you want to increase your personal effectiveness and become more productive.
Only by learning to focus can you complete those important tasks and become a master at getting stuff done.
6. You’re A Perfectionist
Are you nodding at this? While straightening your keyboard?
Being a perfectionist can serve you in some ways – it means you have high standards, do great work, take immense pride in your contributions.
But it’s not a great quality when it come to getting things done. If you want to improve your time-management skills, then letting go of perfectionistic standards for things that really don’t matter is an essential step.
7. You Procrastinate
Procrastination is human and we all do it sometimes. Procrastination itself is not the enemy.
What stands in the way of productivity is the mind games we play around the very natural tendency to put off the difficult act of getting started.
Procrastination is a challenge most people relate to. Which is not surprising, given that the solution often involves solving all 6 problems above.
Because when you work with your natural preferences, when you’re clear about how little time you have in life, when you know which activities are magic, and how to fit them into your day, when you’ve learned how to focus and you’ve let go of needing your efforts to be perfect, then procrastination all but disappears.
What Are Your Productivity Obstacles?
What holds you back from getting things done?
Do you relate to any of these reasons?
Learn more about our 7 Days To Better Productivity & Time Management.
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Always good to be reminded of why we are not as productive as we want to be – thanks for posting.
I tend to chuck the curved ball, and almost fanatically, think outside the square, I really don’t get bored easily;-).
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Very true. I consider myself very organized but any or all of these creep into my life from time to time.
Thanks, Michelle & Lydia. I truly appreciate the support.
I find it almost impossible to start anything. My house has become a pit, I am not keeping up with bills etc., I am letting my art slide, and I can’t seem to get going with an exercise program. I experience all the obstacles listed, and I have no been able to stop using all my energy beating myself up about this. The only solution is action and I do not seem to be able to start.
Me! I *am* my productivity obstacle!
And here’s how (in a nice little list to go with your post above):
1) I am a night owl. But I have a day job. So the torture of forcing myself to get up in the mornings is very draining to me, so by the time I get home at night I am exhausted (whether or not I’ve had a productive day at work), and that doesn’t leave me in a good place to be doing any of my own things (blogging, creating, relaxing etc). In my ideal world? I’d work in the afternoon. Maybe from 11am to 1pm, break for an hour for lunch, then work from 2pm – 4pmish. That would leave my evenings nicely free for all the other things I want to do in life to feel fulfilled. Can’t see my employers going for that though! Therein lies a whole other issue (I want to work for myself).
2) Ha! Yes, “I’ll do that later” is often found in my vocabulary! Then of course “later” appears and I’m tired or want to go home or want a cat nap…and so of course it doesn’t get done.
3) Knowing what actually matters – oh I struggle with this at work, because a lot of the time it involves other people – and they all have their own priorities & ideas about what’s important, which I may disagree with. Then at home – I do tend to waste a lot of time on Facebook and eBay. I should be putting that time to good use, not squandering it on “relaxing” (i.e. if I want to relax, I should do it properly!)
4) This depends on whether there’s something in particular that needs doing. So for example, tonight I have to tidy the house to a reasonable standard because my mum is coming to stay tomorrow. That gives me enough incentive to pull my finger out. But if it’s just “write a blog post tonight” then all too often I find myself going “oh, I’ll do it later” (see number 2 above!) and of course it doesn’t get done. So I need to make myself accountable and give myself incentives / punishments for not doing things.
5) Focus – see number 3 above – when I’m at work, I can be doing a multitude of things because that’s what my role dictates – I might be in the middle of doing the finances, but if the CEO demands something then I have to jump (though I do shout at him!). So I do seem to flit from one thing to another unless I’m left in the office by myself which is when I am the most productive. That only happens about once a year though!
6) Ha – no, I’m not a perfectionist. I’m organised but messy (yes, this is an issue!), but I’m definitely not a perfectionist.
7) I am the Queen of Procrastination! Kneel before me! (or do it later…). Seriously though, at work I procrastinate like there’s no tomorrow. I have so much to do that it can be hard to see where to start. So I don’t. (obviously I do at some point or I’d have been fired by now for not doing anything). But it’s painful. Then at home (when wanting to do my own stuff e.g. blogging, creating stuff, relaxing etc) also end up procrastinating by sitting on the sofa with the boyfriend & then just zoning out watching crap on tv. Not good for me!
Basically, I am my own worst enemy, and that affects my life, my attitude, and my general wellbeing.