10 Bad Habits That Are Stopping You From Succeeding

Unfortunately, bad habits are a fact of life. They form unconsciously over time, often without us even noticing it and cause us to inhibit our own progress. But just because a bad habit has formed, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. The key to success and breaking those habits, starts with acknowledging that you have developed a bad habit in the first place. Then, once you know which habits are blocking you from success, you can make adjustments to your behaviour in order to reach the potential you have always known was there.

These ten self-destructive habits are a good place to begin:

1. Avoid planning your day (or week)

If you can’t clearly plan out and prioritize your events and activities, you won’t be able to move forward with your goals. Make sure you are constantly previewing and updating your schedule so that you know what you need to do and what is the most important.

2. Reacting to e-mails as soon as they come in

In most cases, you might think it is more effective to respond to someone immediately. But chances are, you are constantly checking your e-mail instead of doing your work. It becomes more of a distraction then an asset.

3. Communicating inefficiently

When you are unable to properly convey messages to others, it might have saved you time when writing them, but it will all catch up to you when you need to constantly clarify any vague or unspecific messages. Don’t rush through, think through carefully.

4. Settling into a rigid routine

Routines are key for being productive. This is especially for important tasks that you do every day. Be flexible enough to change your approach when the situation demands it, but have a routine planned out.

5. Never taking breaks

It might seem like a good idea to work through your breaks to get more done, but it can take a toll on your productivity in the long run. You run the risk of burning out and losing focus a lot more quickly than if you take a short break.

6. Running late

Arrive when you say you are going to arrive in order to avoid falling behind on your work. When you are late, you might fall behind and be able to catch up in some situations, but sometimes things come up and you will have extra to do to catch up.

7. Procrastinating on tough projects

When you procrastinate, you can’t really be putting your best efforts forward when you have to scramble to complete it last minute. If you truly can’t handle something, make sure you delegate it out as soon as possible. Don’t set it aside.

8. Delaying hard decisions

The harder the decision, the quicker it needs to be made. And when you let an important decision linger, you never know when more work will pile on and you won’t have as much time or energy to devote to it.

9. Never saying no

Make sure you don’t say yes to everyone. Get comfortable with saying no to requests that you don’t need to accept or can’t handle at the time. When you say no, you can honor commitments you have already made and focus on yourself when you need to.

10. Multitasking

It may seem like you are saving time by multitasking, but the reality is that it distracts your mind and you aren’t able to complete things as thoroughly as you would if you were doing things one at a time.