Productivity is not something you can achieve overnight. It is a constant process of improving yourself that leads to being more productive than others. There are a lot of habits that decide whether we can be productive or not. Here are a few habits that are common in highly productive people.

1. Prioritize Correctly

Productive people don’t just prioritize their to-do-list, they prioritize correctly. They do not perform tasks on the basis of difficulty or time it would take; they figure out which tasks are more important and start with them. As Celestine Chua writes, “The first habit of productive people is to slice and dice everything that’s unimportant”. Productive people identify the high value tasks from the routine low value tasks and that is why they are able to achieve their goals.

 

2. Regular Sleeping Schedule

Most of the productive people have a consistent sleeping schedule. They go to bed and wake wake up at the same time everyday, whether weekdays or weekend. According to Paul Hudson “If you want to reduce stress and feel better overall, get some sleep and get sleep regularly at regular hours throughout the week“.

 

3. Taking Breaks

As pointed out by Louisa Kamps “People cycle from being alert to being fatigued about once every 90 minutes [Tony Schwartz]“. Therefore it is very important to take breaks strategically to maintain your energy level and being more productive. It is necessary to find time to step away from work and relax your mind and body to prevent burnout and stress.

 

4. No Multi-Tasking

According to Ilya Pozin in his article “Changing tasks more than 10 times a day drops your IQ an average of 10 points“. Therefore Multi-Tasking is a big NO for all productive people. They focus on one task at a time whether it take 5 minutes or 5 hours. They make sure to complete the task at hand before moving on to something else.

 

5. Not focus on perfection all the time

Perfection is usually not a goal for productive people. They know the difference between idealism and realism and thus they know where to stop. As Kyle B. Hart quotes in his article “There will never be the perfect time to do a great thing“. Productive people understand this therefore perfection is not a goal for them.

 

6. Health Conscious

Productive people value their health. They take out time to workout whether it involves going to the gym, or walking from work to home. They know that physical activity is very important for keeping their mind and body sharp. As Joel Brown says in his article “physical activity releases endorphins (“feel good” hormones that can alleviate stress and keeps us happy throughout the day) it also helps us stay in tiptop shape, and contributes to good sleeping habits“.

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