Of course, people will choose to be productive than unproductive but in real life and due to bad habits and wrong orientation, we tend to embrace unproductivity more without us knowing it.
The best way to avoid this, is to observe the daily habits of highly unproductive people and make it our personal mission to make certain changes in our lives so that we will not get caught in the same web that they got themselves into.
5 Killer Habits of Highly Unproductive People
1. No Game Plan
No plan-No game! It's as simple as that. Like what Benjamin Franklin said, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". If productivity is linked to achieving worthwhile planned goals that leads to where you want to go then highly unproductive people start their day confused. It's not that they don't see the importance of planning, it's just that they don't like doing it. Because they have no plan, they see everything as a pile of unavoidable things-to-do and their sense of accomplishment comes in getting rid of these so called daily duties without really moving forward and getting anywhere. This happen quite often to people who are always caught up with work - they list down their things-to-do for the day and are happy after seeing that the list has diminished in number at the end of the day. But the bigger picture -which is, asking themselves the questions WHAT IT IS THAT YOU WANT IN LIFE? and, HOW DO I GET FROM WHERE I AM NOW TO WHERE I WANT TO BE? ...are matters that they seem to have no time at all. They only work on the the tasks that each day presents them probably because they fear failure, they are afraid that if they set higher goals that they will not be able to meet them. So they go on with their lives living inside their comfort zones not knowing that, that too is also a big risk since nothing is constant in this world and those that they see as fortresses may turn out to be their own self-made prisons.
2. Loves the Rush
Speaking of time, unproductivity is largely linked to a person's use of time. Highly unproductive people has mastered the skill of procrastination. What they can delay to a later date, they would. Usually they only attend to things that are often urgent and unimportant. WHY? Because time has run out. The reason for this can be traced to habit number 1 but more importantly it is deeply rooted in the attitude of the person. Highly unproductive people loses a great amount of time on the urgent and unimportant matters which seems to be the bulk of their daily tasks. Life coach Stephen Covey presented a time management matrix and concludes that people who are highly productive focuses on matters which are not urgent but very important - for example, exercise and planning. Opposite to what highly unproductive people are doing.
3. More Talk Less Action
People who are often unproductive, inefficient and incompetent hide behind long talks and time-consuming meetings and discussions. They are vampires. They borrow strengths from other people and drain them to the pulp so that they themselves become unproductive. Those who talks too much usually has nothing to say. Productivity stands by the Pareto Principle which teaches people to devote only 20% of time to tasks that will yield 80% of productive results. By prioritizing with the 80/20 principle productive people develops time management skills that boost their effectiveness.
You won't see Henry Sy and all the other business tycoons engaged in long conversations or phone calls longer than 5 minutes (except if it was his grandchildren) or stay on meetings longer than 45 minutes. To these highly productive successful people, TIME is worth more than GOLD and wasting it would be a serious crime. Now, why do highly unproductive people love long talks? There's probably two main reasons for that:
- First, it's like a form of an ego-trip to hide their insecurities. Talking gives them a sense of power, purpose and the appearance that they are doing something.
- Second, they probably are clueless and engaging themselves in long conversations provides them some leverages and time to figure out what they have to do or even boost their self confidence.
4. No Plan B
We all have to make a lot of risky decisions and activities on a daily basis. It is and will always be a part of life. Growth is not achieve without taking risks and dreams are nothing without venturing towards it. We make mistakes, learn from it and move forward. Highly unproductive people are no exception but the difference between those that are productive and unproductive is a 'Plan B.' A contingency. A projected corrective measure. Heck, highly unproductive people doesn't have a Plan A so what would you expect. The importance of a Plan B is to minimize loses when facing a risky situation. A Plan B allows productive people to accept and adapt to the situations while unproductive people goes to another unwarranted skill which is BLAMING. Those who often blame other people or situations are those that usually doesn't have a Plan B. Because they lack the foresight, they do the next possible action which is to find fault. Blaming and fault-finding are highly unproductive behaviors.
We all have to make a lot of risky decisions and activities on a daily basis. It is and will always be a part of life. Growth is not achieve without taking risks and dreams are nothing without venturing towards it. We make mistakes, learn from it and move forward. Highly unproductive people are no exception but the difference between those that are productive and unproductive is a 'Plan B.' A contingency. A projected corrective measure. Heck, highly unproductive people doesn't have a Plan A so what would you expect. The importance of a Plan B is to minimize loses when facing a risky situation. A Plan B allows productive people to accept and adapt to the situations while unproductive people goes to another unwarranted skill which is BLAMING. Those who often blame other people or situations are those that usually doesn't have a Plan B. Because they lack the foresight, they do the next possible action which is to find fault. Blaming and fault-finding are highly unproductive behaviors.
5. No Downtime Schedules
Lastly, highly unproductive people usually work themselves to death - and sometimes literally. That may appear to sound like they are very responsible and hard-working but the truth is, they just are unproductive. Like I said earlier, productivity is equated with time. The more TIME you have, TIME for the things that you love to do or TIME spent with the people that you love, that is the actual measuring stick of how productive a person is. Highly unproductive people have spent their time unwisely so that leaves them nothing for those that are really important. While productive people have downtimes scheduled with their priorities such exercise, vacation, reading a book, family dates and almost every other activities that enriches them.
So, those are the 5 killer habits of highly unproductive people. If you feel you have been offended in some way and on any part of this list, that might be a gentle productive nudge to remind you that it's never too late to be a more productive person. You are not dead yet.
Lastly, highly unproductive people usually work themselves to death - and sometimes literally. That may appear to sound like they are very responsible and hard-working but the truth is, they just are unproductive. Like I said earlier, productivity is equated with time. The more TIME you have, TIME for the things that you love to do or TIME spent with the people that you love, that is the actual measuring stick of how productive a person is. Highly unproductive people have spent their time unwisely so that leaves them nothing for those that are really important. While productive people have downtimes scheduled with their priorities such exercise, vacation, reading a book, family dates and almost every other activities that enriches them.
