Cover Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash

And how to overcome them.

Productivity is all about managing your time and energy properly. And without knowing it, you’re doing things that are counter-productive.

This article delves deeper into common ones that not many people think about, but waste their time and energy. And for each of them, I’m sharing expert-curated methods to fix it.

1. Working On Your Hardest Problems When You’re Sleepy

Energy management is a highly underrated skill. There are times of the day where we perform better doing certain types of activities. When you’re aware of that, you can perform the right activities at the right time.

How to learn to work on the right things at the right time:

Read this article: The Peak Time of Day for Everything You Do.
Create a schedule for a month to see what applies to you and what doesn’t.
Revise that schedule based on your results and try again for another month.
Do that until you have a schedule to helps you best perform the right activities at the right time.

2. Starting the Day Without Knowing What You’re Going to Do

There are two main benefits of knowing what you’re going to work on the next day the night before. One, your subconscious brain can “work on it” while you sleep. Two, it builds (positive) anticipation for when you wake up.

How to learn to prepare your brain for the next day:

Take a moment shortly after your workday to review your tasks for the next day.
Write down your top 3 tasks for the next day.
Quickly read them again right before bed.

3. Not Shopping Online Enough

These days, home delivery is quick and cheap. Most of the time, the price difference is worth it for the amount of time you can save not going to the store. Many countries now also have services where a driver will fetch anything you want from any local store and deliver it to you.

How to shop online more:

Realize that these days, you can buy pretty much everything and most stores have interesting return policies for their customers.
Realize that online store’s credit card processing systems tend to be more secure than terminals you find at local stores.
Look on Amazon or any commerce’s website.
When you think of something you might need in the near future, add to your cart.
When ready to purchase, your cart already has what you need.

4. Having a TV in Front of the Couch

Imagine all the things you could be doing if it wasn’t so inviting to sit in front of a TV. In 2017 alone, an average U.S. consumer spent 238 minutes (3h 58min) daily watching TV. Ouch. If you think you don’t have time for hobbies or side businesses, think again!

How to not have a TV in front of the couch:

Get rid of the couch entirely.
Move the couch in another room.
Replace couch with chairs (not-so-comfortable ones).

5. Going to School For a Piece of Paper

In many fields, you don’t need a diploma to do the job. These days, you can get higher-quality education online or through books or audiobooks. Many employers now realize that work ethics, soft skills, and a deep desire to learn trumps having a diploma any day.

How to go to school for the right reasons:

Go for the knowledge, not to pass exams and get a diploma.
Go for the social life, it builds your relationships skills.
Go for the important connections you’ll make with other students and the staff.
Don’t go for the prestige.

6. Doing What You Went to School For Even if You Lost Your Passion

Pivoting careers is a tough choice but one that’s necessary. Because you spent years learning something doesn’t mean you have to do it for the rest of your life. 4–7 years of schooling is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

How to switch careers:

Have a self-reflection week or a Think Day.
Do your Ikigai.
Think deep about your current and potential passion, mission, vocation, and profession.
List down the steps required to get to your Ikigai.
Take one action towards your goal today.
Take consistent action until you reach your Ikigai.

7. Not Revisiting Your Self-Awareness Regularly

People like to do personality tests once and think that it’s who they are for life. That could not be more wrong. You have the power to change your life around, and in fact, you do it subconsciously through your repeated actions and your environment.

Because change is the only constant thing in life, you should revisit your self-awareness regularly.

How to revisit your self-awareness:

Have at least one Think Day per month.
Journal daily for 10 minutes.
Ask others to take a personality test for you.
Re-do your personality tests at least once a year.

8. Not Delegating Things Other People Would do Faster and Better

Task delegation is a greatly underrated skill. It involves many sub-skills, and once you’ve learned them, you can greatly augment both your output and its quality.

How to learn to delegate the right way:

Identify your strengths and weaknesses and those of people around you.
Identify requirements for tasks you’re not as qualified to do.
Ask others to help and create win-win situations.
Use the services of an assistant.
Hire freelancers to do tasks you can do. Find them on Upwork.com or Fiverr.com.

9. Not Taking Breaks

Take much-needed breaks during the day. Take vacations regularly where you completely disconnect from work. You often don’t realize how your normal energy levels do go down when you don’t “recharge”. Taking a break allows you to raise back your normal energy level.

How to take breaks:

Force it by adding a time block in your calendar at least once a day.
Eat out instead of at your workplace.
Involve other people.
Think about your next vacation months in advance and don’t compromise on the date once it’s decided.
When you feel your energy level being so low, ask for sick days to recharge.
Always plan for the eventuality that you may not be available (as a leader, prepare your team so that they don’t always need you. Empower them.)

10. Not Listening to Other People’s Constructive Feedback

You learn most from what others have to say about what you do. If you reject their feedback, you’re wasting valuable lessons you could learn. The more lessons you learn, the more pitfalls you’ll dodge, “gaining back” precious time.

How to get better at listening to constructive feedback:

Never take it personally, even if the person says it in harsh ways.
Don’t dismiss feedback right away when you get it.
Just take note of it and think nothing of it on the moment.
Review your notes a few hours after.
It’s not always easy to give constructive feedback, so when someone does it, thank them.

11. Not Watching Instructional Videos or Podcasts at 2x Speed

A large amount of the content we consume today to educate ourselves is in the form of video or audio. The problem is that it’s a slow medium. Learn to listen to it at faster speeds. It will train your brain to process information faster, and of course, you’ll learn faster.

How to learn to watch or listen to at faster speeds:

Start at 1.25x.
Once 1.25x starts to feel natural, increment again by 0.25x.
Do that until you reach 2x.

Bonus tip: For videos, put the subtitles.

Getting rid of these productivity killers can do wonders for your time. Practice the sub-skills mentioned in the article. Master them. It’s time to claim back your time. You can do this.

Appendix A. Visual Representation

11 Unexpected Productivity Killers You’re Likely Doing But Really Shouldn’t Be