The 3 Reasons You’re Struggling To Be Productive

More than ever, people need to find ways to be more productive. I’m sure you can relate - For whatever reason, life is busier, you have more responsibilities, and there’s more on your plate that is stretching you even thinner.

The frustrating part is, even when you have don’t have any time to waste and every reason to get a lot done, you still find yourself unfocused, unmotivated, and unable to bring yourself to actually doing what you know you need to do. And even on the days when you do apply yourself, you still still feel like you didn’t get anything meaningful done. 

If that’s the case, here are the 3 most common reasons ambitious and inspired people struggle to be truly productive:

1. Low Energy Levels Deflates Everything. Productivity isn’t just about how much you get done, it’s also how well you do it. In other words, true productivity takes into consideration quantity and quality of action.

The main thing that impacts your willingness to take on difficult tasks, and to do those tasks well, is your energy level. When you feel good you stay more focused, transition faster, and put a better version of yourself into the time that you have. This causes more things to get done, faster, and with higher quality.

2. Not Having Clarity Of Action. There’s no shortage of things to do… From the sea of everything, it’s critical to identify what’s most important. While productivity increases when you do more things, faster, and with more quality… That’s only if you’re doing the right things. When you’ve clearly outlined the most impactful things that need to get done above all else, they're way more likely to happen.

3. Constantly Being Interrupted By Distractions. Your attention is precious and in today’s world, everything is trying to get it from you. But the worst of the bunch is technology, particularly our smartphones. As Nir Eyal puts it in his book “Indistractable”, pings, dings and rings dominate our consciousness and hijack our attention. In response to all of these notifications we find ourselves being reactive to what seems urgent all day over being proactive about actually doing what we know is most important.

As you can tell, all of this works together. It’s a formula: Improved energy levels + doing the right things + avoiding distractions = True productivity.

And when you’re truly productive… That’s when you really start to make your mark on the world in the ways you know you’re capable of, which brings with it an incredible amount of inspiration that fuels you to be your best. 

If you’re ready to stop feeling like days are passing without doing anything valuable with it, and instead start making progress with the focus, drive, and pace that generate the results you deserve, without feeling overstretched and overbusy, check out more about the 21 Day Super Habits Challenge. It walks you through how to install a new high-performance, productivity operating system, step-by-step.