Increase Your Productivity By Avoiding These 10 Things

*Image by orcmid on Flickr

If it was possible to make a living off of being completely unproductive or simply wasting your day away doing everything but the very work that you were supposed to do, then I’m willing to bet that most of us would be millionnaires several times over by now. Meanwhile, back in real life, decreased productivity usually correlates with decreased funds and an increased chance that you’ll be out of a job. Therefore, the folks over at HealthMoneySuccess offer some of the following tips on things we should stop doing in order to increase our likelihood of staying productive and gainfully employed. To see the full list of all 33 things, visit the original blog post here.

10 Things You Should Stop Doing

1. Reading all of the productivity blogs that you can find- Pick and choose one or two blogs to read daily, and stream them through an RSS feed, this way you’re less likely to surf the web aimlessly (see #3).
2. Spending too much time on social media sites (i.e. Facebook and Twitter)-Social media sites like these are incredibly addicting and can suck up large chunks of time without you even realizing it. Unless it’s for business, avoid it.
3. Surfing online aimlessly-Surfing online leads to more surfing, which leads to more surfing which leads to nothing getting accomplished. Try to avoid it while you are working, or at best, limit yourself to only a few minutes at a time when you need the occasional ‘mental break’.
4. Saying yes to every request-It’s ok to say ‘no’ to your boss when he or she is trying to dole out too much work to you. As long as your focus is on quality versus quantity and it is within reason, avoid taking on additional responsibilities that you know you won’t be able to handle.
5. Checking emails every 5 minutes-It can be incredibly tempting to check your email between having a smartphone that alerts you every two seconds when there’s something in your inbox to having your inbox open on your screen. Instead, try to go for a block of time, say an hour or so, without checking your email. It will be less distracting.
6. Buying cheaper electrical appliances or gadgets-You know that saying, ‘you get what you pay for’? Yup. It’s better to invest in quality appliances that will last you versus ones that will break more frequently.
7. Cluttering your wardrobe-The Salvation Army is always looking for generous donations. If you find yourself spending more time looking for things to get dressed in, you probably have too many clothes. Time to donate to charity.
8. Finding your keys, cell phone and wallet-Make a designated area where you will always leave your keys and wallet, this way you don’t have to wonder where they are when you are going out.
9. Losing your way-It’s always best to plan out where you are going ahead of time so that you don’t waste time.
10. Saving money manually-Automated is the way to go. Look for ways to have money automatically transferred from one account to the other so that you don’t have to waste time either online or “on line” doing it yourself.

(Via HealthMoneySuccess)