7 Horrible Overlooked Habits You Need to Stop Now

by The Productive Pixie - September 11, 2021

None of us are perfect, even if some people seem like they have their life entirely figured out. We all have bad habits, not that any of us like to admit it! Some habits are obviously bad, but some bad habits aren't so obvious. You might not realize that a certain bad habit is derailing your day, and ultimately your life. It might sound a little too dramatic that one habit could be derailing your day, but today we are going to tackle these bad habits because a small change can make a huge difference!

7 Horrible Overlooked Habits You Need to Stop Now

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Updated for 2024

I've talked a lot about creating good habits on this blog recently, so I decided it was time to address the elephant in the room aka bad habits. Bad habits aren't always obvious, and this can make it trickier to quit them. Some are obvious... like eating junk food or watching lots of TV. But they still are hard to quit, and that is because they are habits!

You have them built into your day. Your bad habits are part of your routine! For example, you might always check social media at a certain time of the day, and you know it's a bad habit, but it's something you always do... and you can quit tomorrow.

Well, it's time to stop with the "tomorrow" outlook because what you do today is more important. You need to take life one day at a time, instead of concentrating on tomorrow because if you always concentrate on tomorrow, then you'll be forever procrastinating and putting your life on hold. None of us have time for that! Life is way too short!

Okay, okay that's the end of my rant. I hope you didn't just click "unfollow" and "unsubscribe". I just got a little carried away because it's important, and I don't want you to waste your life doing things that you don't love.

The first step to dropping your bad habits and improving your life is to identify the habits that are holding you back from achieving your full potential. After that, you can tackle each demon one by one and conquer it. Remember to start small so you don't become overwhelmed and then crash and burn. Let's get into the habits you can give up to improve your life!

7 Horrible Overlooked Habits You Need to Stop Now

1. Hitting Snooze When Your Alarm Goes Off

"I'm not happy that I just woke up"

"I'm not grateful to be alive this morning"

"Today isn't worth it, so I'm going back to sleep"

This is what you are telling your brain, when you hit "snooze", and go back to sleep, and be honest, you never sleep well when your alarm keeps going off every few minutes. It's not worth your time anyway.

So do yourself a big favor tomorrow, and don't hit the snooze button. If you wake up and you are really tired, give yourself some grace, and just turn your alarm off and go back to sleep. If you have somewhere you need to be, I would not recommend doing this.

Side note - I will not be held liable if you sleep in, miss work, and are fired, etc. *Insert more fancy legal jargon.*

Of course, if you give yourself a lot of time in the morning to get ready because you are sooo tired, you could always sleep in, and then follow the tips I have in the post How to Have a Productive Day Even When You Wake Up Late. You can thank me later for those extra minutes of real sleep!

I regularly wake up at 5:30 in the morning, and I'll be writing a post with tips on how you can wake up earlier pretty soon!

2. Procrastinating

This habit ties in with #1. Procrastination, in my humble opinion, usually isn't thought of as a habit. People tend to procrastinate on all sorts of things, and they'll try to justify it by saying, "Well, I procrastinate a lot. That's just how I am."

But... that's not true. That may be how you are, but it doesn't have to be. It's not set in stone, and that's because procrastinating isn't part of someone's personality, it's just a habit. You may think of yourself as a procrastinator, maybe even a professional procrastinator, but really procrastinating is just a habit.

And for all of you out there who procrastinate, myself included, you can drop that habit. It will take a lot of work though because we probably procrastinate at least one thing every day. I even procrastinate things I know I enjoy doing, such as writing this article. I love writing, but before I start writing, it seems like a lot of work, and then once I get into the flow of writing and I have a lot of ideas, the time passes quickly.

It's just a matter of getting myself to start. It takes more effort to start writing an article than it does to scroll on social media. In the end, writing (for me at least) is the more enjoyable option. Next time you are procrastinating doing something, take a moment and identify why you are procrastinating.

3. Fake Multi-Tasking

Ahh, the topic of multi-tasking. But wait... we are talking about fake multi-tasking. Real multi-tasking is not a bad habit. In fact, I have a post about real ways to multi-task. I highly recommend that you check it out. Of course, my opinion might be a little bit bias because I wrote the article myself. 😂

Fake multi-tasking is when someone tries to do two tasks simultaneously, that cannot possibly be done at the same time. For example, a school student trying to complete their math and science homework at the same time. It's not humanly possible!

The student has to switch back and forth between the tasks, and then it will most likely take longer because the student will have to refocus every time they switch tasks.

Real multi-tasking is very helpful, but fake multi-tasking is a hindrance. It's a habit, you should be trying to drop... that Is if you have a problem with fake multi-tasking.

4. Not Planning Ahead

Pretty much everyone knows that you should plan ahead, and use some sort of organizational system to stay organized, whether that be a planner, a bullet journal, or an app on your phone.

The problem that comes with using an organizational system is that it can be very hard to stick with it.

Recommended Post - How to Easily Stick to Bullet Journaling Right Now

This might be because you are using the wrong organizational system. Once you find a system you like, you should just stick with it, right?

Not always. I've switched back and forth between using a bullet journal and a planner. Your life changes and so should your productivity system. This might mean that you make new types of layouts in your bullet journal or that you try out a new planner.

But back to the main topic of not planning ahead, this is a bad habit that will hold you back from reaching your goals, and becoming the type of person you want to be!

5. Taking Unplanned Breaks

So I have a little story to tell you. Haha, maybe it's more of a confession!

I have the habit of starting my to-do list in the morning and then working during lunch as well. I would power through work and get a lot done. Sounds like a boss move, right?

Well, it's not a good idea.

After lunch, I would take a "fifteen-minute" break because I worked so hard in the morning, I felt like I deserved it. Long story short, these breaks would usually last an hour or more, and I wouldn't get much done in the afternoon.

Here's the idea! It's good to take planned breaks because the planned breaks help you to be more productive, and you can do something fun during your break. Avoid the unplanned breaks that take a lot more time than you anticipate they will. For example, checking the news, emails, or social media.

6. Consuming Inspirational Content + Never Following the Advice

I bet you are guilty of this one. I know I am! If you have a Pinterest account, you are 100% guilty of doing this.

You save inspirational content all the time, and then you never read the articles, or if you do, you don't follow the advice.

We all know how this scenario goes! You read the article, you feel inspired, you think of something you "could" do, and then you move onto the next article. The same goes for listening to podcasts and reading inspirational books.

If you never follow the advice, then it is a waste of your time to read it. You might as well spend that time doing something that will actually contribute to your life and your happiness. Yeah, it's definitely a bad habit, but it's one you can certainly quit!

7. Not Finishing What You Start

You might as well not start if you aren't planning on pushing through until you finish. Every time you don't finish what you decided to do previously, you are telling yourself, that your word to yourself (and maybe others too) isn't worth much.

If you have to change your goal, then do that. If you have to make your goal smaller to reach it before your deadline, then do that. There is no shame in modifying your goals.

If you never finish what you start, there is probably an underlying problem such as procrastination, or not planning ahead.

7 Horrible Overlooked Habits You Need to Stop Now

So there you have it! Seven horrible overlooked habits you should remove from your life. I'm sure there are plenty more of them, but these should keep you busy for a while. Remember that what you do all the time is more important than what you do every once in a while. I believe that is a famous quote, so I take no credit for that but is so profound.

You need to work on the little habits that make up your day because what you do daily, shapes who you are.

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Tags : lifestyle, productivity

7 Horrible Overlooked Habits You Need to Stop Now