I sat on a chair twiddling my fingers, trying my best to concentrate. The room was beaming with noise coming from all four corners, kids screaming at the top of their lungs. A cloud of questions hovered in my mind, my seventh-grade teacher walked, she glared at us.

She said with a perfectly calm voice. “Why don’t you something constructive?”

That changed the way I looked at life, but I still had no idea what being constructive meant or what it meant to be productive.

I spent years reading and watching videos on productivity. “You must wake up early,” one entrepreneur said.

So, I started waking up early, my mother would tell me that I needed to learn about multitasking, but everyone said the opposite. “Multitasking doesn’t work, you need to focus on one thing at a time,” so I learned to stop multitasking.

There were so many productivity hacks out there, but everyone said something different. There were people saying work harder than you ever have ever worked. So, I learned how to do that until when I reached the age of twenty-five and I was burnt out.

“Is this what success is supposed to be like, I mean I wake up at 3 am, but I still am not doing much with my time,” I said to one of my friends. “I am always tired, I’m pretty sure that’s not what success is supposed to look like.”

“Have you tried doing something different, changing things around,” the answer was so simple, I grunted as if I hadn’t thought of that, then I realized she had a point.

I was doing everything wrong, listening to millions of Tom, Nancy’s and Dicks who had a say on how to be more productive, but it wasn’t working for me. I spent the next couple of years figuring out that there are a lot of productivity hacks out there that are myths.

I know, it almost seems like you have spent the last couple of years wasting away your life. Here’s the truth, productivity comes in many shapes and forms. You have to decide which ones haven’t worked for you and if you truly want to be productive here are a few myths that I hate to burst. 

It will help you in the long run, don’t believe, you would be shocked at how myths you have believed. Here are 12 productivity myths that you need to stop believing.

Productivity Myth 1# Multitasking doesn’t work

Put down your pitchforks, I know in a recent post I said something completely different, but this is where the trick lies. Multitasking depends on who you are,

I have ADHD so multitasking for me is like breathing, I can’t stop it even though I want to, but I have learned how to use it in small doses. So, you might be one of those people who is good at multitasking. Our mothers do it well, they can manage to cook four different things and not burn anything. That’s hard, by all accounts.

But many of us do multitasking and we don’t realize it, we do it while listening to music and working at the same time or listening to an audiobook while cooking.

So, this one depends on who you are as a person. If you are the type of person who can’t concentrate on doing two things at the same time then this isn’t for you. So, the advice that multitasking doesn’t work well is dependent on who you are as a person. Sometimes, not every piece of advice that we get works in our best interest.

This is where it comes in handy to know yourself, your ins and outs. If you don’t, it easy to follow every advice even if it isn’t meant for you. So, this is the first

productivity myth I had to burst, for all those people that thought your mother’s advice was wrong.

This was is complicated because it is both a myth and true. Multitasking to a certain degree doesn’t work, but as I said before, it helps if you are doing things that don’t require too much of your attention span. Listening to a song while you are writing works. Listening to a podcast while you are writing doesn’t work.

Just be careful when you use it. I wrote an awesome post on productivity hacks that can help you manage your time better.

Productivity Myth #2: The early bird catches the worm

Yes and no. It all depends on you again. Most people are just not early birds and that is okay. Just because you don’t wake up when the owls are up doesn’t

mean you won’t be successful. It all is about whether you are a lark or a night owl, some people can work until 2 am and still be running on fumes while

others can’t.  

For the longest time, we have believed that if we don’t wake up early we won’t be successful. It all depends on when you are the most alert, I have been a

morning person since I was eight. I would wake up before everyone else did, eventually, with time I started waking up later on and it took me time to figure

this out and once I did, everything clicked for me. So, the early bird does catch the worm, but you can still catch the worm despite waking up later than usual.

Know your body and how it works so that you can be more productive. That is how you will learn how to be more productive. This is productivity myth is one of those that many of us believe and with time it does become how undoing. 

Productivity Myth #3: Work Harder

Just because you work harder than everyone else doesn’t mean you are more productive. This is one of those myths we have been going around saying for years.

“Work hard so that you get the life you want,” teachers would say.

“What does that look like?” A student would ask.

“Well, you must always be buried in a book. work until you see results even if that means leaving work later than most people so that you get more done.”

And people wonder why most of us are so sleep deprived and our bodies are failing us. It isn’t because of Tom and Jerry on Cartoon Network teaching us how to play.

No, it is the advice that we have gotten since we were kids. Just because you work more than others doesn’t mean you are productive. The exact opposite, you could be buried in a book and yet, not understand what you are reading. You could leave work later than most people and still be behind everyone else.

Why? Even our bodies can’t keep with the tiresome demands we require of it. Coffee isn’t a miracle drug that will push us past exertion. Everything has its limits and this is why you need to learn how to work smarter and not harder. Find ways to make life easier for you so that you can accomplish more. Here’s a simple analogy, I hate washing dishes as most people do, but I realized I spent far longer washing plates if I allowed them to pile up so I started washing plates every time I used them, I cut my time in half.

Find ways to work smarter and you will realize that you will be far more productive if you do that. It sounds simple, but it isn’t. With everything it will take time to understand this. The work harder productivity myth causes a lot of grief, it pushes us to the extent of our body breaking down. Keep telling yourself you need to work smarter and not harder.

Productivity Myth #4: I don’t have time for a system or routine

This is an excuse that many of us use, but the truth is you need a routine and this is coming from someone who has used the whole I will wing it speech.

Starting a business has made me realize two things; one a system is the difference between success and failure, and two if you want life to be easier you

need a system.

So, I dragged my feet and started working on a system that will help me progress quicker than the tortoise in the race but will also make me smarter than the hare.

There are countless people without systems and that is why they aren’t successful. So, yes, developing a system will take time, but once it is up and running you won’t have to worry about it.

This productivity myth needs a serious makeover because so many of us believe it. If you can make time to watch your favorite television show be it Game of Thrones or the Big Bang Theory, you have time to create a system that works for you. The reason you use that excuse is that you don’t want to it and I understand, doing something that’s different is terrifying, but one step forward and you will get there. Keep remembering that and you will be fine. 

Having not enough time is an excuse we use often, even when it comes to productivity. Many of us believe in this productivity myth.

Productivity Myth #5: Creativity has no business being part of my

system

So, this productivity myth is for creative types. I understand how hard it is to wade through all the business talk when you are a creative person. I regard myself as a

creative type and for the longest time, I believed I couldn’t be a business person. It is ironic how I realize that was a creativity myth. That is coming soon to a blog post near you, but for now, let us burst this myth.

Creative work is still working, whether we want to accept that or we don’t. We still need to deal with procrastination, shoddy work or even drifting off between edits.

The most successful creative types have a system so why do most of us creative types think that we can deliver a Van Gogh without having a system. Even Van Gogh himself struggled to deliver his work in time because he had no system. So, unless you want to be successful when you are deceased, I think its best that you work with a system. I went a little dark there, but I just wanted to show you how important it is to have a system. 

Those who don’t can spend years working on their projects and get noticed much later on in life. If you ever wondered why it takes some creative types years to 

deliver their best work, that is because they have no system in place. Have a system for everything you do in life. This will be the difference between you being

successful and unsuccessful.

Productivity Myth #6: I will wait for my muse

This is one of those productivity myths that has become so common people actually believe that if they wait for a muse, that is when they will be more productive.

You will be waiting for years because it is true Success, waits for no man. And that is why waiting for inspiration or a muse is not only a waste of time, it is a waste

of your potential.

It is incredibly easy to believe this myth that many of us have been saying this for years. But this isn’t true at all, no matter how many times you want a muse, you

have to learn to work despite being unmotivated. You have to learn to work even when your brain is foggy and you need to understand that when you push yourself that’s when you can be more productive.

A lot of these things are mind over matter, it sounds simple, but it does take time to use this to your advantage. Keep in mind that when you push yourself, this will

train yourself how to respond to moments when you don’t feel like it. This always helps you when dealing with procrastination. So, for all those that aren’t sure how

to get rid of the terrible P. This is one way to curb its effect, do work even when you don’t want to.

Productivity Myth #7: I work best under-pressure

Delayed action has become the default setting for most of us. I did this for the longest time. I definitely understand this because I did for years. I always would tell

people that I worked the best under pressure and as a result, I was always tired, overworked and stressed. I put my health through the grinder that most times I

would see bright hues of colors dancing in front of me.

Then I realized I was messing up myself up, here I was thinking that being under-pressure upped my game, but I still was so tired. I hate planning, but I have come

to understand and appreciate how important it is. My teacher had this saying, she’d say “fail to prepare then you must prepare to fail.”

It was brutal hearing that as a sixteen-year-old awkward teen, but now as an adult I understand how important it is to plan. Without planning, you make more

mistakes so unless you want to get sick to the point where you give yourself a stroke then you need to stop working under-pressure.

And yes even people under the age of forty can get a stroke, life is more stressful and after a while of putting your body in the ringer, it gives in. So, don’t be like

everyone else and work under-pressure. Plan so that you can actually succeed.

Productivity Myth #8: Organizing is extremely boring

When it comes to organizing there are two camps of people; those that adore it and those that equate it to boredom. So, I was in the latter camp,

and I understand how it might appear boring, but it definitely makes life a little less chaotic and a never ending nightmare compared to everything else.

Being organized is a lifesaver, those who are organized, have their ducks or socks in a roll.

They don’t have to worry about missing deadlines, interviews or anything else. No, things work out for them and there we are rolling our eyes, but the truth is they

are having a laugh our expense. Why? Because organized people get to the top a lot quicker than those that are not, they always find a way to make time for things

and we could learn a thing or two.

To truly be productive you need to be organized. You have to be that kid who walked around with markers and colored sticky notes. You know the kid, who

always highlighted their notes and used a different pen for important points. The kid whose desk always looked like it was on sale at IKEA. You know, that kid.

Once you do that, you will look at life a lot better than most and yeah, you will actually become extremely productive. So ignore this productivity myth that

organizing is boring and start to embrace it,

Productivity Myth #9: No routine is my routine

I was a big fan of Mean Girls as a kid and my favorite line even up today is, “Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen!”

As much as we think that having no routine is a routine, it isn’t. Having a routine can change your life, it certainly did and this is coming from a person who

wanted so badly to make the no routine happen.

If you want to be productive then you need to have a routine or system in place. It is highly unlikely that without a system you are more productive with one.

The kids in school who had a system for studying always came up with higher scores than those who didn’t. From an early age, we have been trained to

accept that systems are actually a good thing, but the reason why we don’t follow through with it because we terrified to fail.

Doing anything that you aren’t used to is terrifying. I would say that just do it. If you fail at least you can say with a brave face. you tried it out.

Productivity Myth #10: You need a to-do list

Gasp, yeah you have read it right here, you don’t need a to-d0 list to be super productive. Nope, you don’t need a to-do list. The problem with to-do lists is

many of us go overboard. For a day we can list ten to twenty things we want to accomplish. There’s no amount of time in the day that will make it possible

for you to achieve twenty things unless you have eight arms or have a secret.

Most of us normal human beings have limits and that is the problem with to-do lists. I am not saying that they aren’t great, but it is the way we are doing them. It just doesn’t work out, the way we hope it will. So, what should you do instead of to-do lists? I would say have goals for the day. At least about five and focus on those goals. Every time, you make progress, this is a milestone you can use towards your monthly or yearly goals. 

Productivity Myth #11: A productivity app will help me

No, the new productivity app that you found on the Apple store or Playstore won’t make you a productivity guru. Yeah, even if they promise

you that it will solve your productivity woes it won’t. Any app is simply a guide for you, that’s all, it won’t change your life or give you the will to.

So, you need to start working on your productivity before you invest your time with a productivity app. This is just a helpful guide to get you started.

Nothing can beat a good old-fashioned system, having a system in place is hard, but just take your time and you will figure it out. 

Productivity Myth #12: Everything needs to be perfect

This is the messiest productivity myth out there because people don’t realize this until it is too late. There’s no such thing as perfectionism,

not even for Disney characters. Working on a project tirelessly until it reaches your standards of perfection drains you of energy that you

can use on other things.

When we spend way too much time trying to perfect things, that stops us from actually being productive and achieving our goals in time. If you are dying to know more productivity myths you need to stop believing, here you go.

What is your main takeaway from this and what productivity myths did you believe in and why did you? Comment below and I will reply as soon as possible. 

                                                              Keep Pushing

                                                             Vanessa