The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they’re too heavy to be broken. – Warren Buffet. There are so many situations in everyday lives where people do not make any substantial gains no matter how much work they put into it. In these situations instead of putting even more effort into the following strategy, t they should take the time to step back and scrutinize their habits, contrary to popular opinion. In this article we will discuss 15 Habits That Kill Your Progress.
Bad habits are one’s enemies and are especially dangerous because it is almost impossible to know when they are costing you and your progress. Most of the time, all you need is to make changes in your habits to see considerable changes in your growth and development.
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1
Lack of Routine
To define your work properly, you need to see considerable progress sometimes. Sometimes you have to answer work emails when you are home watching the TV or you have to attend conference calls while you are on vacation.
You would not make much progress when you are having a blurred boundary between rest and work. It will make you put in subpar effort to get through the day. The best way to counter blurred boundaries is to create a routine and stick to it. A good routine will help, you to focus better on whatever you do. It includes having time for a workout, breakfast, and other important daily activities.
2
Perfectionism
If you struggle with perfectionism, there is a chance for you to not put your all into whatever you do. Perfectionism can make you have impractically high standards that will get in the way of your progress.
They also tire you out mentally and put you in positions where you will be unable to finish your task because you want to make the little you’ve done perfectly.
Another problem with this habit is that you will end up shifting the blame whenever things don’t go as planned because your head already had the perfect plan. Perfectionism will prevent you from accepting your mistakes and making plans to consolidate your weaknesses.
3
Staying Up Late and Not Getting Enough
Most of the people are guilty of trying to catch up with their favorite series or putting in extra hours for work and ending up going to bed late. This isn’t a problem as a one-time thing, but when you do it enough times that your brain doesn’t get enough rest before the next day, it is a good way to go out of sync and kill your progress. Scientists have proven that not having enough sleep can affect memory consolidation, cognitive performance, and your ability to concentrate.
So, remember sleep is also an important part of preparation when you think of pulling that all-nighter.
4
Multitasking
Multitasking is one of the most common of all bad habits that can plague you and kill your progress. This bad habit results in decreased efficiency slow cognitive processing and stress in the long run.
Multitasking will also make you feel like you’re a hard worker even though you end up with several incomplete tasks. Multitasking also plays on the feeling of confidence in your skill. You could do your tasks perfectly but you were multitasking and ended up being a botched job and a minor task with it.
The best way to avoid multitasking and sabotaging your progress is to batch similar tasks together and complete them before you go to the next agenda.
5
Planning Over Complicated and Long To-Do Lists
The gospel of the to-do list has been preached over and over. To-do lists are important for productivity, but overdoing them could kill your progress. Many people are in the habit of planning a to-do list with dozens of tasks per day.
Due to overzealousness, one might spend more time planning and writing the to-do list instead of the amount of time it will take to carry out the tasks. Unfortunately, sometimes even after writing this excessively long list, you find yourself overwhelmed and unlikely to complete them all. All of this would lower your morale. The optimum to-do list has about 1 to 5 tasks with subtasks that fit into any of them.
6
Procrastination
“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin. It’s human nature they often put off big projects until the last minute despite knowing their dangers. Most of the time, the habit of procrastination is linked to multiple reasons like fear of criticism or failure and lack of interest.
No one is too old to procrastinate such as, as a boss in a large company you can find yourself procrastinating on meeting plans, students procrastinating preparing for examinations or doing assignments, etc. Even though after procrastinating, you succeed in finishing the task until the last minute but you find it haphazardly done, or you’ll end up too tired and stressed from all the rush.
7
Indiscipline
There will be days you don’t feel like working when it comes down to it. Self-discipline keeps you going when there is no motivation to painstakingly follow regulations. A good example of self-discipline is frequently studying. Everyone knows it’s important to read frequently to truly understand a topic but very few people can consistently do so. It is not because they don’t want to pass, but because they don’t have the self-discipline to read when they are not in the mood.
8
Comparison
Being competitive is good but comparing your growth to others is the thing that can sabotage your progress. All humans are fundamentally different, and they have their unique ways of getting things done. Comparing yourself to others can distract you from your goals as you try to imitate the growth curve of another person.
Don’t think about competing with your mentor because unnecessary comparison can also lead to unhealthy competition and put you in situations where you would rather fail to save face than ask for help. You might also feel low on energy as comparing yourself with your mentor is not a good idea at all. They have more experience and knowledge compared to you.
9
Addiction to Technology
Tech is meant to make peoples lives easier and increase their productivity, but more often it does the opposite.
Technology is now at the tip of a fingerprint and causes more distraction than any other thing in human lives. Many people can’t do without checking their emails and messages several times a day. Even if they’re not doing that, they are scrolling through the unlimited feed of their favorite platform dishes nonstop.
You might be on the verge of a breakthrough, and then you get a notification from your phone that will interrupt your productivity flow. Even though you just check your phone for a minute but you would not get the chance to reconnect or focus with the same intensity you once were.
10
Trying to Do It All and Not Delegating Work
It is good to have confidence in your ability to do things on your own, but sometimes, doing it all can slow you down and affect your overall performance.
The delegation also has the added advantage of allowing people skilled in a specific field to carry out the task and give you better results. As the head of a team, it is better to delegate work to professional co-workers even though you know a specific field, so that you can focus on the bigger picture.
11
Not Learning From Mistakes
Mistakes are necessary for growth as they provide you with hands-on experience of the best actions to take in certain situations.
The best thing for people is to accept their mistakes without making excuses to justify them. When you make excuses, your mind doesn’t attach the right reasons to your situation, and you are in danger of doing the same thing again. The worst mistake you can make is not to learn from your mistakes.
12
Rushing
Rushing into something without careful thought and planning can be fatal to the project, no matter how simple it is.
You should be careful not to waste time being indecisive. You should also make sure that adequate preparation is made before starting any project.
13
Indecision and Self Doubt
Indecision can be very expensive if left unchecked. It has the power to destroy all the hard work and preparation you put into a project. It is normal to go through all the different available options but you must pay attention to the time spent as well.
While making a difficult choice, one sorts through all available data and weighs the pros and cons in their head until concluding. It ultimately wastes a lot of willpower and energy that’s better invested in your job.
14
Can’t Tolerate Criticism
If you do not know how to accept criticism, it can easily derail your progress and hard work. It is hard to accept criticism especially when it involves something personal, without it getting to you a little.
It is best to understand the suggestion and not concentrate on the tone in which it is said. You should also be able to discern constructive criticism from straight malicious ones.
15
Not Managing Stress
A person cannot be fully motivated all the time. In those periods when they don’t feel in the mood to work, their ability to manage stress can be the defining factor of their success.
Stressful situations can throw you off track and fill you up with anxiety. Stress has a direct influence on your productivity. The best way to counter it is to have stress-relieving habits. Engaging in activities like yoga, meditation, music, arts, and sports is a mental exercise that can keep you in check and relieve you of the stress that would otherwise build up.
Read More: 15 Bad Habits That Make You Procrastinate
Conclusion:
Many things come into play to become highly successful in your field. As you look out for ways to improve yourself, remember to also look within, for that is the most important place to grow first.
Since you got this far, you should check out our article on the 10 Most Important core values for success. Don’t forget to tell us in the comments what habit is the most fatal to one’s progress.
Swami Satchidananda once said, “When you become the master of your mind, you are master of everything” leaving you with this.
