To become a highly productive and highly effective person is to maximize and greatly utilize your time and resources to complete a task. However, not everyone is built this way, and those who are not tend to overthink and become easily demotivated.

Although it's not easy to overcome this, it is certainly not impossible. If we can overcome these 9 bad habits, then we are on our way to become a highly productive and effective person.

1. Procrastination

"This can wait until later", does that sound familiar? Many people bring out that tagline almost on a daily basis. Whether it's because they're just "tired" or there's a more exciting task available, the reasons to procrastinate are endless. But, how many "laters" do we have in our lives, and how many of the things you put to the side actually get done in the end?

2. Lack of Planning

People who have poor efficiency is usually jumbled up in a mess of tasks. They might have started one task without finishing another, have no order to prioritize tasks, and usually fail to meet deadlines. Proper planning and time management is crucial to help us visualize when we should do what so that we can complete the hardest task in the shortest time possible.

3. Too Much Planning

This issue also plagues many of us where we spend more time thinking about doing and planning than we actually do. Even worse, sometimes we plan so much that we end up burning out and not even begin the task. Planning ahead is good, but overthinking about it is just another misuse of time. Sometimes it pays to just stick something into your timetable and get it done!

4. Caring About Other People's Opinions

The more you care about other people's opinions, the lesser self confidence you will have. This is because even the most casual comments can affect your thoughts and decisions. Keep in mind that people don't really bother to judge you most of the time as everyone has their own things to figure out. You are the master of yourself and you should be proud to put the real you on display.

5. Too Much of A Perfectionist

Yes, we want to produce work of the best quality, but sometimes paying attention to too small of a detail isn't worth the time. No matter how "perfect" you do something, people will find ways to criticize and judge. So, just do the best you can with the time and resources you have. Don't be discouraged when your product is imperfect, but be motivated because you completed the task in time. Remember, finished, not perfect.

6. Not Willing to Seek for Help

There are two main reasons why people refuse to seek for help. On one hand, some people worry too much about troubling other people or becoming a nuisance. On the other hand, some just have too much ego and refuse to be seen as stupid or inferior. Although trying to solve a problem yourself is good practice, but you have to learn to identify when you're at a dead end and be willing to ask for help. Most of the time, people are more than happy to assist without looking down on you.

7. Not Enough Preparation

Setting up the groundwork for any task is crucial for success. This can mean anything from preparing the required information, tools, or contacts for your task. Essentially, we are trying to reduce the chance of us encountering a problem that we don't have the right tools for. So, get the stationary you need, the websites you can refer to, or the contact number of the right person to ask when you reach a bottleneck.

8. Negative Comparisons

Being competitive is good, so is being motivated by people who are better than you. However, if you compare and contrast yourself with others all the time, especially with a negative mindset, then your motivations and mental health will only degrade in the long term. If you think only by comparison can you find your self worth, then you should definitely start by changing that mindset. Remember, always only compete with yourself and strive to become a better you than yesterday.

9. Taking On Too Much

Multitasking or working on too many tasks at the same time is not only detrimental to your productivity, but also your brain! Our brains are really not as good at multitasking as we thought, because it has to keep switching focus. This introduces the possibility of confusion and mistakes during the process. Studies have shown that focusing on one task at a time trumps multitasking in terms of speed and productivity.

If you have any of these bad habits, that's great! Because solving a problem requires first identifying it. It is never too late to change these habits and it will take time. So, be patient with yourself and you'll see a change in productivity soon enough!