Are you making these productivity mistakes? 4 popular strategies that may actually harm your focus.

Can you hear that?

Tick-tock, tick-tock…

It’s the sound of time slipping through your fingers.Tick-tock, tick-tock…

Your blog post is still unfinished, your report far from completion, your deadline – looming.
But why? You’ve applied every productivity strategy on Earth. Why can’t you get stuff done?

What’s wrong with you?

It’s not you. You know productivity is crucial to success. You’ve worked hard to get it right. But not every productivity trick actually works. You may have been misled to implement something hindering rather than helping you get stuff done.

Look out for these four supposed productivity tricks that can do more harm than good .

1. Listening to your favourite songs while working

Many people swear motivation-boosting music is an awesome productivity strategy.

I beg to differ.

If we talk instrumental music, then there is evidence it can boost your focus.

But if you like listening to songs with lyrics while working or studying, you may be hindering your focus. Our brain is geared to seek patterns and meaning.  If there are missing pieces (e.g. misheard or mumbled bits), it will try to fill in the gaps to make sense of it. Or you get dragged into the story. And your focus is gone!

Too much ‘happy music’ can be dangerous to your concentration, too.
Positive emotions do boost productivity, but too much emotions can spoil. Just think back to those high school times when you were trying to study while madly in love.

It’s all about finding a ‘sweet spot of emotional arousal’ – not too much and not for too long of an emotional booster to get you motivated and keep you going.

Conclusion: if you like or need music when working, opt in for instrumental music and choose pieces with a positive vibe, but avoid anything evoking strong positive emotions or memories.

2. Multitasking

You may have heard about that one. With more evidence we now know, that contrary to the beliefs popular a few years ago, multitasking damages productivity. Instead of saving us time, it makes our brain waste time and energy on switching between tasks. As a result, those who multitask take twice as long to complete the task and are twice as likely to make mistakes.

Conclusion: Stop multitasking, start focusing on one thing at the time.

3. Using Pomodoro technique and other timers

To the productivity-savvy among you, this one may come as a total surprise. What? Pomodoro is widely regarded as an effective productivity technique!

Yes, but…

I’ve used and recommended Pomodoro technique for a long time. However, I realised recently that the beeping of the timer distracts me.
It usually happens at the least expected moment, while I’m engrossed in the task, or even already ‘in the zone’ 
It sends my heart racing and my focus off track. Result? Time and energy wasted on calming myself and re-focusing. This may be only a few seconds at a time, but if you do a lot of ‘Pomodoros’, it adds up.

Beeping of the timer, just like any other notifications is a powerful distractor – shifting your attention from whatever you’re doing to the beep. Just in case there is a sabre-toothed tiger just about to jump at you.

Conclusion: Pomodoro can still be an effective strategy, if you’re struggling to get going. But if you, like me, don’t like your Flow being interrupted, be careful.

4. Managing your time not energy

Time is a finite resource. Once today is gone, it is gone forever.
You’ve probably heard that, right?

But on the other hand, as long as you wake up tomorrow, you’ll have another day to your disposal. All you need is to get up.

Even with all the time in the world, you can’t achieve much when your energy level is low. Sickness, poor sleep, stress, malnutrition, tiredness can affect our energy levels. I’ve learnt about it the hard way recently. A proud owner of a jam-packed diary once, I had to slow right down and shift from managing my time, to managing my energy.

Filling in your diary with even only important stuff can back fire, if you don’t schedule time for recuperation and renewal.
Tony Schwartz , the champion of energy management movement, distinguishes four types of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. To fully function and be engaged in life, we need to attend to all of them.

Physical energy is most obvious. It’s about adequate sleep, nutrition, rest and overall good health. Make sure you attend to those needs on regular basis.

Mental energy is about your ability to concentrate on tasks at hand and sustain a level of focus necessary for performance, but also focusing on activities with long-term benefits, on things that truly matter to you.

Emotional energy: positive attitude, coping with stress and channelling negative feelings are powerful drivers of productivity. Emotional energy renewal happens when we cultivate gratefulness, appreciate others and manage stress adequately.

Spiritual energy stems from the connection with the wider world and our passion/mission. We recharge our spiritual batteries when we pursue our ‘noble goals’ and do things that are meaningful to others and us.
It’s hard to ‘schedule’ spiritual renewal into your diary, but don’t neglect it. Make sure you day-to-day tasks are connected with your sense of purpose and personal mission.

Conclusion: Learn how to manage your energy, not only time.

So, have you made any of those mistakes?

If you’ve had, you’re not alone. And please, don’t be ashamed – it’s not about finger pointing, but being honest. Admit you’ve got it wrong and take responsibility for fixing it.

You have the opportunity to finally sharpen your mind to inhumane levels and become uber-productive. No more half-focused, multi-jumpy-tasking humming to your favourite song.
You know what to do instead now.
Start getting the laser-sharp focus you deserve.

Your productivity, your livelihood and your happiness are on line here…

Bio: Joanna Jast helps entrepreneurs, wannabepreneurs, freelancers and career shifters accelerate their success by speeding up learning and personal change with science-backed strategies. Grab a copy of her FREE Laser-Sharp Quick Action Guide and start improving your focus now!