5 Top Myths Sabotaging Your Productivity
If you keep making that face, it will become permanent."
"Don't sit too close to the TV or you'll fall through the floor."
"Eat your carrots and your eyes will always be good."
Do you recognize it? When you were a kid, you heard a lot of lies and tall tales like those.
Now that you're older and (hopefully) wiser, it seems strange that you could still be fooled by the same dirty tricks and widely believed lies. But, believe it or not, you still do, especially when it comes to how productive you are as an individual.
When it comes to getting things done on your list, there are a lot of warnings you should pay attention to. How do you know which ones are real and which ones are just made up? Here are five myths about productivity that you should put to rest for good.
1- Working harder to get more done
Example of being tired from overwork
This idea that more hours means more work is not true.
When you work long hours, you can't help but be less productive and do a worse job. When you work for hours at a time, it's hard to keep your mind on one thing.
So, working long hours does not make you more productive. Even if you work for less time, you can be more productive if you take breaks often.
Time Doctor is an app that lets you keep track of how productive you are and how long it takes you to do each task.
Desktime is another app you can use to find your bad habits that slow you down and make you less productive. You can also use the app to automate how you keep track of time.
2- Productive = Busy
We all know that even though people complain about how busy they are, they love it. You're needed if you're busy.
If you're busy, you're important. You must be doing something right if you're busy, right?
We get so busy that we forget to be in the moment and think about what we want.
What if we instead gave ourselves permission to slow down and be more in the moment?
When you give yourself time to be alone with your thoughts, that's when new ideas and direction become clear.
The space for clarity and ideas then makes the actions you take more effective. Who else thinks of their best ideas when they're in the shower?
How can we stop wanting to keep doing things?
The first step is to change the way you use the word "busy." Busy means stretched thin instead of needed.
Busy means stressed instead of important. When you're busy, you can't do your best work.
When you're busy, you miss what's going on right now. What are the costs of being "busy"?
3- To be productive, you need to stick to a regular schedule.
There's nothing wrong with having a healthy habit or ritual that keeps you on track, like getting up early on certain days to go for a walk or meditating at the end of each day.
But Dr. Boyes says that trying to force yourself into a routine just to be more productive is often worse than good.
What you should do instead is change your routine every so often to avoid getting stuck in a productivity rut.
Dr. Boyes says that when routines change, people are often forced to be creative.
That's mostly because changing things up helps us be more creative and use our skills in ways we wouldn't normally.
So, switch it up! "Personal projects can be great for this," says Dr. Boyes. "For example, trying a zero-waste period or "no-buy" days, or picking up a creative art, craft, or design hobby."
4- Make the most of your day.
One of the most enduring myths—so engrained that it might be how people think about productivity—is that working efficiently is about optimizing every waking hour to do as much as you can, as fast as you can.
Maximizing time may reduce creativity.
Being a continuous achiever isn't human nature. According to "deep work" specialist Cal Newport and other research, we have three to four productive hours per day.
“Being productive is not about time management,” argues Wharton organizational psychologist Adam Grant. “Time management only makes us aware of how many hours we waste.”
Grant says, “[P]roductivity and creativity necessitate contrary attention management tactics. Raising attentional filters to block irrelevant thoughts boosts productivity. Lowering attentional filters to let those concepts in fuels creativity.”
According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, creative energy is complex and conflicting.
“Creatives rest often and sleep a lot,” he explains. The key is that individuals manage their energy, not the dock, calendar, or timetable. When necessary, they can focus it like a laser beam; when not, creative types rapidly recharge their batteries.”
5- Using Reward.
American culture strongly promotes the assumption that money and prestige motivate people.
But the story of the person who discovered all the money and power they might want did not make them happy is timeless.
"Intrinsic motivation" generates our most significant and sustainable output.
In a 2013 study of 3,500 German schoolchildren, those motivated to get good grades worked hard and did well in the short term, but those motivated to learn a subject did better in the long run.
Extrinsic rewards like increases, promotions, and benefits can demotivate those who enjoy a task. "Motivational crowding theory" states that an extrinsic reward replaces internal motivation in a project-interested person. Even without the external reward, people struggle to find their internal motivation.
