We are all aware of the time management habits that we must develop in order to be productive. But it's mostly our bad habits that prevent us from succeeding in life. They act like excess baggage on our backs, holding us back and putting a limit on our lives and productivity.

So it's crucial to take off this extra weight in order to be productive and get more meaningful things done. Being productive will allow us to learn more, grow professionally more quickly, have a more stable mental state, and finally earn more money.

In this memo, I'll be highlighting five time management mistakes that ruin productivity and how to avoid them.

1. Letting a Few Unproductive Hours Turn Into An Unproductive Day

It's easy to write off an entire day as "unproductive", when in fact, it was simply an unproductive

When something doesn't go as planned, dwelling disappointment wastes time. Don't give up on having a productive day too soon. Giving away our valuable time just because someone or something stole a portion of it is shortsighted.

Solution:

Divide your day into four sections: morning (5 am - 9 am), late morning (10 am - 1 pm), afternoon (2 pm - 7 pm), and night time (7 pm onward). By separating the day out, you never need to write off a day as ‘bad’, if you don’t perform well in one quarter.

The other three are still yours. Avoid letting the regret of one poor quarter destroy the next one; pick yourself up and begin the following quarter with new optimism and energy. On the plus side, you only need to seize the quarter; there is no pressure to seize the day.

2. Using Only Willpower To Fight Distractions

Willpower doesn’t work, systems do. Unfortunately, we live in a world full of distractions, and the brain has been conditioned to pay attention to every distraction. Notifications from 100 different apps steal huge amounts of time.

Willpower is limited and these distractions can't be tackled through sheer willpower. We must set up systems and reinvent our environment that works in favor of our productivity, not against it.

Solution:

Disable all unnecessary app alerts on the smartphone and if possible, uninstall all social media apps from it. Utilize your laptop to access social media. It decreases the probability of opening it several times a day and the web application is far less addictive.

Add some self-imposed deadlines and strive to meet them. The deadlines create urgency, accountability, and responsibility. Add meaning to the mundane tasks by connecting them with the bigger picture, that way you're likely to accomplish them despite the distractions.