Some of the Biggest Productivity Problems and How to Overcome Them All!

Sometimes we may feel that we are not being as productive as we can but we are just not sure why. There may be some factors that you aren't taking in consideration that could be affecting how productive you feel. The way things are structured, set up in our lives and our lifestyle directly affect how much energy we have, how focused we can be, how organized and in turn Productive we are.

1. Distractions and Interruptions.
If you have a lot of distractions at work, people interrupting you, the phone ringing, colleagues speaking to you - this completely undermines the task at hand. You need to eliminate all distractions when you are performing the task. What happens most of the time is that we easily lose concentration and start doing the next thing that catches our eye, leaving the task undone and still on our list of things to do but with less time.

Get into the habit of clearing your space of all distractions before you know you have an important task to complete, so that you are able to give 100% attention to the task, the quantity and quality of your output will double!

2. Disorganized
Is your office or work space a mess? Can you find documents easily and readily? Do you have a system in place? To optimize your work area, it must work for you. There should be a system where everything flows, work comes in, it is organized accordingly, then work continues, etc.

If you spend too much time allocating files and sorting out papers for example, you need to create a system that works for you. Take one day to think about and implement a system that is effective for you. Get your filing up to date, clear out your inbox, create a daily action plan, plan, prioritize, etc - you will start to notice how much extra time you suddenly have!

3. Staying motivated!
It´s normal to not want to do something that doesn't motivate us but it´s also important to be able to motivate ourselves when needed. How can we motivate ourselves to complete the task at hand? Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves of the end goal and what we will be accomplishing.

We must also ensure our goals are aligned with our values, this makes it us so much more motivated to achieve them, because it is important to us. Sometimes, we simply need to find motivation when there is none. Imagine an outcome that would make you satisfied and happy with, after you have performed this task and then challenge yourself to achieve that exact outcome!

4. Time-management skills
If your time-management skills are not so good, this will directly limit how productive you can be. Perhaps you are constantly find yourself doing things at the last minute and just never have enough time to do everything. Maybe this is because of your time-allocation skills, which are way too unrealistic and you cannot get everything done in one day. Maybe you didn't plan properly for your tasks and suddenly there are a million things to do that you never thought of. Spending time improving your time-management skills and learning tools and techniques to manage your time, is essential in being productive.

5. Procrastination
This is something we all experience at some time, others more often than they would like to. If we procrastinate with a certain task, it's a good idea to try work out why.
We may also procrastinate if we are unclear about why we are doing something, the purpose of it and then if we are not sure how we will do it, we may procrastinate with getting it started.

If the task doesn't motivate us, we might procrastinate with it as well as we would rather be doing something else. It could also be that when we are told to do something, we rebel at being told, thus we just don't want to do it. The main idea is not to just write your inactivity off to procrastination but to identify why you are procrastinating, to change the limiting behavior and to get better results.

6. Relaxation and Health
If you are not feeling well, I'm sure you not feeling so productive either. Your health is something you don´t notice until it is in danger. Eating healthily, drinking lots of water and doing exercise seems so obvious, but why do so few people actually do it then? As humans, we love instant gratification and immediate results! Doing something because we know it's a good thing to do, but by us not doing it now doesn't affect us, it not enough to motivate us. Unfortunately it's only when we don't have our health and it could be too late, that is when we decide to make it a top priority in our lives. Remember to take time out to relax, an over worked, exhausted and stressed body will not help you to feel well and productive.