12 Bad Habits That Make You Less Productive Part 1

Biting your nails. Chewing with your mouth open. Speaking before you think. This is the kind of stuff we usually think about when we think of "bad habits."

But what about the bad habits that are hurting your performance at work?

There's a whole host of things many of us are guilty of doing every single day that research shows ends up really hurting our productivity. And the more aware you are of how these things are affecting your productivity, the more proactive you can be at taking responsibility for your choices.

So, ask yourself: Are you guilty of any of these bad habits? If so, it may be time to cut it out.

12 Bad Habits That Are Making You Less Productive

1) Rushing in the morning.

We all have those mornings where you're rushing your morning routine and barely have time to brush your teeth before running out the door to make it to the office on time. It's when the morning rush becomes a habit that there can be negative consequences to your sense of well being and your overall productivity.

When you start off your day in a frenzied state of mind, you're not giving your brain any time to decompress, reset, and prepare for the day. Instead, you're pumping it with adrenaline first thing in the morning, which can cause you to crash later on.

If your mornings lack time and space to breathe, try waking up 10–30 minutes earlier and starting off with a quick meditation session. According to a 2012 study, people who mediated "stayed on tasks longer and made fewer task switches, as well as reporting less negative feedback after task performance." Try the free app Headspace to start: It gives you 10 free guided meditation sessions, with the option of signing up for a monthly subscription.

2) Skipping breakfast.

I've never been able to skip breakfast, but I know plenty of people who do. Whether you blame it on being too rushed (see #1) or just not feeling hungry, eating a well-rounded breakfast just isn't a priority for a lot of people.

But it should be. Why? Because, technically, when you're sleeping, you're fasting -- meaning you wake up with low blood sugar. That low blood sugar is exactly why many of us feel tired, apathetic, and even a little irritable first thing in the morning. It's not you; it's your inherent need for the sustenance that, you know, keeps you up and running as a human.

What about replacing food with coffee? Sure, the caffeine rush from your morning coffee can help hide the symptoms of low blood sugar -- but it won't satisfy your need for food. In fact, it'll likely cause you to crash later in the day, which can really harm your productivity.

Prioritizing a healthy breakfast is a key to boosting productivity for the rest of your day. Try healthy breakfast foods that have the fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals that'll give you energy. Foods rich in vitamin B -- like oatmeal, bananas, pineapple, and avocados -- can help improve your concentration. Avoid breakfast foods with added sugar like sugary cereal, donuts, Pop Tarts, and even bagels.

3) Tackling the easy stuff first.

It can be very tempting to get all the easy tasks out of the way first before tackling the tough stuff. This is especially true when you're dreading that challenging task. You push it further and further down your to-do list ... until you've left it untouched for days or even weeks.

But tackling the most difficult tasks on your to-do list early on in the day is actually better for your overall productivity. Researchers have found that willpower is a finite resource that steadily decreases throughout the day, according to the book The Willpower Instinct.So your brain is much better at handling the hardest tasks at the beginning of the day when you're more focused.

Mornings also tend to lend fewer distractions, making it easier for you to get things done. My colleague James Gilbert suggests that folks "take advantage of morning hours to crank through meaty projects without distractions, and save any calls or virtual meetings for the afternoon."

Creating a to-do list is the easiest way to prioritize tasks effectively. Everyone has their own to-do list style, so check out this list of the best to-do list tools and apps out there and see which ones works best for you.

4) Checking and responding to emails as they come in.

Email is supposed to help us do our work, not distract us from our work. So why does it always feel like a productivity suck?

In an effort to stay on top of a constantly overflowing inbox, it can be tempting to check and respond to every email as soon as it comes in. Receiving email notifications in real time certainly doesn't help. But constantly switching tasks between work and email can really hurt your productivity.

To help you focus in chunks of time, turn off those pesky email alerts and limit checking your email to specified breaks.

To turn off notifications in Gmail: Click the gear icon and choose "Settings. In the "General" tab, scroll down to the "Desktop Notifications" section. From there, select "Mail notifications off" and click "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page.

If you're worried about missing an important email, try selecting "Important mail notifications on" and Gmail will notify you for emails it thinks are important to you based on past activity.


To turn off alerts in Outlook: On the "Tools" menu, click "Options." Open the "Preferences" tab and click "E-mail Options," then "Advanced E-mail Options." Under "When new items arrive in my Inbox," clear the "Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only) check box.


Pro tip: Even when you're checking email, you don't have to respond to every single one right away. If you're worried about forgetting about email, I highly recommend using Andreas Klinger's method for triaging email in Gmail, which you can read about here.

The premise behind his method is to triage emails by urgent emails that need action/reply, not-so-urgent emails that eventually need action/reply, emails that are awaiting reply, and emails you delegate to someone else.

5) Checking Twitter, Facebook, and your other social feeds.

The whole "easily distracted" thing goes for social media notifications, too. Turns out we actually have a psychological urge to check for social media notifications, which makes it hard to check our News Feeds "just this once" -- and usually ends up in a lot of mindless browsing.

To turn off notifications in Google Chrome: Open Chrome, click "Chrome" in the menu bar on the top left of your screen, and choose "Preferences" from the dropdown menu. In the new browser window that appears, choose "Settings" from the menu on the left-hand side of your screen, and click "Show Advanced Settings" at the bottom. In the "Privacy" section, click on "Content Settings." Scroll down to the "Notifications" section.

From here, you can either choose "Do not allow any site to show notifications" if you want to turn them off altogether. Otherwise, click "Manage Exceptions" and see what Chrome currently allows notifications for -- and then alter that list as you see fit. To turn off Twitter notifications on desktop: Click on your profile picture in the top right-hand corner and select "Settings" from the dropdown menu. From the sidebar on the left-hand side of your screen, choose "Web notifications," and uncheck every box. Click "Save Changes." 6) Keeping your phone with you at work. Raise your hand if you have a small panic attack when you realize you don't have your phone with you -- whether you're sitting at your desk, attending a meeting, grabbing coffee ... heck, even going to the bathroom. (I'm guilty of this, too.) There's a reason Blackberries were nicknamed "Crackberries" back when they were popular: It's because smartphones are probably the easiest distraction on the planet. And when you keep your phone with you at work, you're putting your productivity levels at risk. A 2015 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance found that when people who were performing a task that required intense focus received a text or call on their phone, they had more incorrect answers and were more likely to make quick guesses. People who received notification of a call -- even if they didn’t pick it up -- were 3X more likely to make mistakes. In fact, error rates were about the same whether or not people answered that call or text. Why does receiving that text or call hurt our productivity so much? Researchers from that study say that, although the actually moment of interruption is short-lived, our thoughts are disrupted for a considerably longer period, making it tough to refocus. There are a lot of different ways to curb your phone addiction. The simplest is to turn your phone on silent and put it away while you're at work. If that isn't cutting it, try an app likeForest. This app will prompt you to plant a virtual tree when you start working, which "grows" over the course of 30 minutes. The more 30-minute periods you don't use your phone, the larger your forest will grow; but if you leave the app, you'll have to start all over again. Next week we will follow on with 6 more bad habits that make us less productive.

10 Tips to Grow Your Business

Are you ready to grow your business? Even if you have clear-cut objectives, use your answers to these 10 questions to help you fine-tune your efforts and grow your business successfully.
By now, you've set a working direction for the year, established clear-cut objectives. Your first-iteration plan to reach them should be in place. This now seems like an ideal time to rethink the whole thing, doesn't it? After all, one of the effects of internet time is that plans are subject to change just as soon as - or perhaps even before - they are written.

Along these lines of thinking, perhaps there are some items you missed. Maybe there are issues you didn't have time to consider, or even things your mind touched on, but quickly passed over to deal with more urgent and pressing events. If you are off-cycle, and on the verge of a new period, you can use this exercise ex ante, rather than ex post. To help you stimulate your neural pathways and hopefully create an idea or two, I offer the following thoughts for your consideration. These "considerations" are not sequenced in order of importance. I think they are all important.

1. How far in the distance is your planning horizon? Most companies today plan 12-24 months out, calling anything beyond that "vision." Internet time implies a shortened time frame for activities, but does that time-collapse extend to a shortened vision as well? How much have you thought about what you will accomplish this decade? What will be your company's impact on the millennium? (OK - perhaps millennium is too far out. What about the century?) You may say you have more pressing fish to fry. Your investors would like to see increased returns sooner than that. While this might be true enough, taking the long view can inform the short view, leading to greater returns for years to come. What do you see when you take the long view?

2. How are your prospects' needs going to change? How is their world affected by the dramatic increases in connectivity and the compression of time? What are you doing to understand their changing environment - their changing business issues? What are you doing to improve your customer's business under these slippery conditions? To take it one step further, what do your customers' customers want? While you are at it, you might stop to consider how your suppliers' needs are changing? Could those changes open up new opportunities for you, or darkly portend changes downstream totally derailing your business model? What about your distributors? Is their world shifting? Can you both benefit?

3. Who in your organization simply isn't contributing? As they say, your mileage may vary from individual to individual but everyone has the responsibility to go some distance, to make something valuable happen. Not everyone will make good on that implied promise. The often observed 80-20 rule applies to your staff as well: 20% of your people will produce 80% of the value.

That leaves 80% producing only 20%. Do the math: the bottom 10% of your organization produces almost nothing.

Who isn't making the cut? Should you be doing something about it? You may think it beneficent to provide that bottom percent with a paying job - don't. It isn't. The non-performers know who they are, but they won't cut the cord on their own. Do what you can to help them reach the bar, but if after a while they don't make it, set them free to find an environment in which they can succeed. Free up your own resources for people who make a difference.

4. Are you creating solutions to today's problems? What about next week's, next year's, or the problems of several years from now? How are you figuring out what those problems are going to be, way out there on the time horizon? Because the solution you sell today should certainly address today's problems, but the solutions on today's drawing board better not. Who in your organization is responsible for trend-tracking and forecasting?

Are you building scenarios for the future? What about prospect focus groups, or some other market-based feedback mechanism? Who is your resident futurist?

5. What do you believe about the business you are in? For most people this is a strange question - we rarely spend time thinking about our own beliefs. The collection of beliefs you hold about your business - what the Germans call Weltanschauung - is decisive in most of the choices you make. How much risk to take. What's risky and what isn't. What projects and initiatives to undertake. What kind of resources you need and whom to hire.

Whom to partner with, or should you have partners at all?

Cooperate or compete. How to treat your team. What your customers should expect from you. How hard do you expect people to work?

All these decisions stem from your beliefs, and it will help you to make them explicit. Once you surface those beliefs, you can start to distinguish which are useful beliefs and which are not.

What is the benefit of a particular belief? Is this belief relevant to your current world, or is it a holdover from some past part of life? Then, when you are ready, you can experiment with new beliefs.

6. What are the obstacles to proceeding along your current path? Yes - you've set a plan in motion, and you are taking steps toward its achievement. But what roadblocks may rise up to stop you? What things could get in your way - foreseen and unforeseen? (I know, if it's unforeseen how are you going to see it? Use your imagination, that's the point of this exercise.)

Rank these obstacles in terms of likelihood, then rank them in terms of severity. Consider how you might deal with them if they come up. The value of this is a) like the Boy Scouts, you are better prepared; b) you may illuminate issues you have been trying to sweep under the rug; and c) you just may invent a whole new approach to get where you are going, and it just might be better than what you are doing now.

7. What, if you only knew how, would you be doing? What would you do now if you had additional resources - and should the lack of resources be stopping you? What, if you were sure it would be successful, would you jump on right away? What would you begin immediately, if your resources were limitless? (Yes, limitless can be relative.) What are you betting the future of your company on? What would you be willing to bet the future of your company on?

8. What are the most important issues, right now? Make separate lists for issues in your market and issues in your company.

Which of these issues are you dealing with, which ones are on the backburner, and which ones aren't even in the kitchen? What are the processes you use to deal with these issues? Which issues are you ignoring, or hoping will go away?

What breakthroughs might be possible by addressing or resolving issues in the latter category? Where are you "resolving" issues by compromising? What possibilities are available by refusing to compromise, or by breaking your compromises? What old stories or old ways of looking at things make these compromises seem inevitable? Where could new technologies (either material, virtual, or societal) be applied to break these compromises?

9. What are you sacrificing to accomplish your current objectives? The definition of sacrifice is giving up something of value for something of even greater value. Did you intend to give up that thing of value, or is it a thoughtless byproduct of your other choices? Do not dismiss this lightly.

In your business there are a number of priority-conflicting critical success factors. These include profitability, product development, new sales, customer satisfaction, recruiting and retention, revenue growth, sufficient capital - which one gets the most attention? And in this operating cycle - will each area get the attention it needs? Even in a lower position of priority, these areas cannot be neglected. What isn't getting done that needs to be done and how are you going to do it?

10. What is the purpose of your organization? I don't just mean increasing shareholder wealth that simply won't inspire your people to greatness. What besides that - a given - is the purpose of your company. Purpose is not something you invent, it is there already - you have to uncover it. Why do you come to work each day? What do you hope to accomplish in the long run?

What about your executive team? Your individual employees - why do they come? What do they think they are doing each day? Do you know? Have you bothered to find out? You've just completed a planning cycle, and I'm asking what your purpose is! If you can't answer this question easily, now would be a great time to start.

Bonus question for consideration: Are there any questions I've listed above that you do not have easy answers to, but wish you did?

10 Ways to Get New Customers

Getting new customers for your business is hard work, but it's necessary if you want to be successful. Here are 10 ways you can get the attention of new prospects and turn them into loyal customers.

Your business needs a steady influx of new prospects in order to be successful. Whether you’re in sales and looking for new customers or you’re a freelancer looking for new clients, you need to know how to attract prospects to your business. While the rise of the Internet over the last couple of decades has forever changed the way that business is done, the top professionals know that getting new prospects and retaining clients requires a mix of old and new techniques. If you’re looking for a leg up as you prospect for new customers, here are ten helpful tips to get you started.

Make Use of Social Media

The first step to acquiring new prospects is to use social media to your advantage. Creating Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts for your business is free and can exponentially increase the exposure of your company. More importantly, since these platforms have become ubiquitous, prospective clients may be turned off if your business doesn’t have a social media presence.

Keep Content Fresh

Consistently updating your website and social media accounts with new content is a great way to stay relevant and show prospects that you’re actively engaged with your industry. Find articles, infographics or studies that are related to your business and post links on your social media accounts. Additionally, it can be helpful to maintain a weekly blog to showcase your own opinions and personality.

Use Testimonials

One of the best ways to attract new prospects is to show off your existing ones. If you know that you’ve provided a customer with a particularly positive experience, ask them for a testimonial. These testimonials don’t have to be elaborate or embellished. Simply providing proof that you can deliver on your promises will help to give faith to prospective customers.

Network

Making use of the Internet can go a long way towards attracting new prospects, but personal connects are the lifeblood of business. Whenever possible, engage with prospects and clients face-to-face in order to give them a personalized experience. By making an effort to get to know everyone you work with individually, you can create a stronger bond, increasing the likelihood that they decide to do business with you.

Expect Resistance

It’s human nature to follow a set routine. As you prospect for new clients, don’t be surprised if you encounter resistance from people who feel set in their ways. If you sense that a prospective client is hesitant about doing business with you, listen to his or her concerns and do your best to address each of them accordingly.

Get Referrals from Existing Customers

One of the easiest techniques for finding new prospects is to make use of your existing customer pool. Talk to your clients and see if they know of anyone who could also benefit from your services or expertise. Remember that word of mouth can be incredibly powerful, and by having an existing client refer you to a prospect, you can greatly increase the likelihood that you land the new customer.

How Do You Know Which Social Network Is Best for You?

You could have a presence on every social media site out there if you had unlimited time - but you don't. Here's how you can figure out which social media platforms are the best for your business.

Social media is big, right? There’s no denying that you could put a lot of time into trying to have a presence on all of the major networks but there’s a problem—you don’t have that kind of time. Instead of trying to have a presence on all of them, the better strategy is to pick one or two and concentrate your efforts there. The question becomes, which networks fit your business the best?

Facebook

Facebook is, by far, the largest social network on the planet. With 1.04 billion daily active users,

Facebook would be the third largest country in the world if it had a physical presence.According to the company, about 84% of its users are outside of the United States and Canada but even if you aren’t a multinational company, there’s still plenty of reasons to use Facebook.

You might have heard that Facebook has become the network for the older audience. Although it’s true that teens are flocking toward other networks like Instagram and Snapchat, Facebook still has as its largest audience the 18-29 crowd.

If you can only pick one social network, it would be Facebook. Because Facebook has a strong user base of adults, the ones that have money to spend, spending time on Facebook is a no-brainer if you’re looking for an all-purpose social network. Even if your business caters largely to the teenage crowd, you still want to reach their parents.

Don’t listen to the people who say that Facebook is dying. The network continues to grow and shows no signs of letting up.

Instagram

First, let’s set some context. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, there are a lot of similarities between the platforms although loyal users say that they’re on Instagram because they dislike Facebook. In fact, if you use Facebook advertising, you now have the option to advertise on Instagram as well.

With 300 million users and still growing, Instagram is worth your time, especially if your business caters to the younger audience. 32% of teens identify Instagram as their most important social network but the platform is gaining popularity with adults as well.

Because Instagram doesn’t allow links, business pages, or other features specifically catered to businesses, your presence will feel very personal, even if you advertise. If you use Instagram, you’ll want somebody with an eye for photography because the platform is designed to be highly visual. If you’re an accounting firm, for example, Instagram probably isn’t going to be the network of choice for you. On the flipside, if you’re a clothing retailer, it’s perfect.

Twitter

Twitter is widely known as an influencer’s network. You’ll find high profile people on Twitter. People with celebrity status, yes, but more important, well-respected people in their fields. If you’re an architect, you’re likely to find the leaders in the architecture industry on Twitter.

You probably don’t need to use it to advertise your retail store but as a well-known consultant in your field, you’ll probably find it worth your time.

Periscope

Recently, Twitter’s COO, Adam Bain said that the company’s focus is largely on the live experience. Periscope is how the company will do that. Periscope allows you to create live broadcasts from your phone or tablet and broadcast them to all of your followers. Periscope is an up-and-comer in the social space but is rapidly gaining traction.

Don’t forget that statistics show that people like text but they love video and pictures. Any business can benefit from using Periscope. Broadcast from your factory, broadcast a weekly podcast-style session as a thought leader in your field, or just have some fun and give your business a human side.

Snapchat

If you’re over 30, you probably don’t use Snapchat. In fact, more than 70% of Snapchat’s users are between the ages of 18 and 34. If you don’t know about Snapchat, users can send pictures to a list of followers but the image only lasts for a few seconds. Some major brands now have Snapchat including the NBA, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and many more. Brands often use Snapchat to set up an air of secrecy taking their followers behind the scenes of their business. There are probably better ways to use to your social media time than Snapchat but if your business caters to younger people and it’s fun and media friendly, (you have something interesting to share) Snapchat might present some opportunities.

Pinterest

Yes, everything you have heard about Pinterest is true. It’s all about the ladies. Nearly 70% of its users are female and yes, you’ll find more about interior design than you will about fishing. If you run a bait and tackle business, Pinterest is probably a waste of your time but if you’re a fashion blog, or a graphic designer, Pinterest is a great way to establish authority in your market. If your business appeals to females, Pinterest is worth consideration especially since it’s users spend more time on it than Facebook.

LinkedIn

You probably won’t use LinkedIn to advertise your next storewide sale but if you’re a consultant, content marketer, PR person, or own a business that is largely about connecting with others, you want to be on LinkedIn. Don’t think of LinkedIn as a way to advertise your business to customers; instead, use it to connect with other professionals in your industry and gain exposure.

For example, you might look for journalists who cover topics that fit your business. If you own a personal training business, you might look for sports journalists or if you’re a financial advisor, look for financial journalists. Or look for people who own businesses that would compliment yours. A personal trainer might look for people working in the sports equipment or apparel industry.

Networking is what often gives a small business the momentum to become larger. That’s the strength of LinkedIn.

Bottom Line

Whatever you do, the modern social media landscape requires a go-big-or-go-home mentality. You can’t dip your toe in the water; you have to fully immerse yourself to make it worth your while. For that reason, find one or two networks that fit your customer and concentrate your efforts. That’s the best way to find the success you’re looking for.