Break these 5 bad habits that hinder Employee Productivity in the workplace

Do you often find yourself getting distracted? Do you find social- media at work more enticing? Do you find working for longer hours, near to impossible? Are these bad habits hindering your productivity at work?

You are not alone!

Believe it or not, we all are guilty of doing things that we regret every single day. Say, procrastination, for example, that is constantly hurting our performance and in return, making us less productive.

We all agree that maintaining productivity at the workplace is not that easy, it takes effort to stay away from our worst distractions. But it doesn’t have to be this way. All it takes is a little pinch of responsibility, proactiveness, and awareness to make things better again, to make things happen.

Let’s have a look at some of these ‘bad habits’ that affects your work negatively and a way around them:

Multitasking: Good or bad for productivity?

It has been argued upon, time and again, whether multitasking is good or bad for productivity? Some say, juggling through things at the same time is an art while some say it destroys productivity and the remaining one percent, rather keep their views to themselves.

A number of researches have been conducted to determine the impact of multitasking, not only on productivity but on our brains. According to a Stanford University study from Clifford Nass found that heavy multitaskers probably think that they are good at balancing the act. However, not as effective as they think they are. 

In another study by Bryan College, handling more than one task at a time actually hinders employee performance. Also, that lack of productivity due to multitasking equates to global losses of $450 billion, annually. So, reality or myth? Here lies your answer!

Here’s what you should do:

• Create a list of tasks, in order of priority
• Schedule time to complete each task
• Keep yourself away from distractions, switch off your cellphones, stay focused
• Avoid switching back and forth between tasks, complete the task at hand before you shift your focus to another and take notes
• Better yet, use a time tracking tool such as Stafftimer App. 
• If you are an employer, encourage your employees to take breaks throughout the day

At the end of the day, it may be unrealistic for employers to think that they can eliminate multitasking completely. But they can always promote and adopt approaches that are not impulsive rather the opposite.

Lack of planning or planning poorly!

Planning tasks in advance are actually the most powerful tool for overcoming procrastination and boosting your productivity. However, lack of planning or planning poor is one of the reasons that lead to productivity deficiency. Not only this, it is one of the fatal reasons why projects fail. Our advice: Avoid project failure at all costs!

Planning is actually the foundation on which you base your overall productivity. And without productivity, the project is more likely to collapse. 

Here’s what you should do:

• Set realistic goals
• make a list of every step you will have to complete to finish a project
• Layout the project, you can see every step and task, avoid redundancy
• Identify KPIs and monitor them
• Plan properly and take action so to avoid redundancy
• Ensure that resources are ideally utilized

If you are motivated to improve your productivity levels, contribute to the overall success of the company by planning ahead.

Trying to put up a ‘One-Man’ show

It totally makes sense to rely on oneself and be independent but sometimes it’s better not to do all by yourself especially when you are working in a team. It’s perfectly normal to ask for help, at times. Not only can it improve relationships but also you can get more done in less time. 

Being a perfectionist is also one of the biggest offenders to productivity. When you feel like you have high work standards, and it’s against your principles to ask for outside help. Sometimes, it’s healthy to get out of your bubble, set your ego aside and seek help whenever needed!

Here’s, what you should do:

Rely on coworkers when you need to and we are sure they’d be happy to help. It’s that simple! 

Procrastination is a productivity killer

There would be no exaggeration to say that we all procrastinate from time to time. Either it’s working from home or working on a full-time job. Random emails, social media, cellphones keep you distracted. 

According to The Procrastination Equation, about 95% of people admit to putting off work. It not only keeps people from completing otherwise important tasks but also makes you fall behind on your schedule. 

Truth be told, there are no positive impacts of procrastination, only negative. Such as, low project performance, declining physical and mental health, high level of stress that can be avoided otherwise, only if we never let procrastination breach your productivity.

Here’s what you should actually do:

• Do you have this bad habit of procrastinating often? Step back and ask yourself this, just once. Why are you doing, what you are doing and see yourself falling back in line! 
• Try an app like the Stafftimer app to help keep you organized. For companies: it gives employee productivity a boost throughout the day.

Being a ‘YES SIR’, all the time!

Most of the time at work, we find our selves saying ‘YES’ to almost everything. You may ask yourself ‘If this is something you can do? Yes, sir. Is it something you want to do? No, thank you.

We understand, at work, we are bound to do what we are told and that’s fair. But sometimes, if you feel like, you are asked to do something that you probably can not pull off before the deadline or something that you don’t excel at. Just don’t take it! We know the idea of accomplishing everything at once sounds mesmerizing but greatly unrealistic. 

Speaking of which, here’s what you should do instead:

Be sure you’re only working on tasks you know you can. If you don’t see yourself pulling off something or have other tasks that need your attention on priority, politely let your supervisor know that you won’t be able to work on it.

Can you think of any other habits that hinder your productivity? Feel free to share.