Here is a guest post by Kate Simpson from Assignment Masters.
When it comes to the subject of productivity, everyone appears to be an expert ready to give out the best advice. Productivity is a very complex notion, and nowadays, everyone talks about it like they actually know what they are talking about, creating a surplus of myths about productivity.
The truth is, most of those wise advisors regurgitate information they have seen somewhere else, and even if they haven’t actually applied it, they still spread the information to their friends or around the web. That is how productivity myths appear. Productivity myths are simply advices that come from people who have no idea about what it means to be productive.
Today, you’ll discover five of the most common productivity myths that circulate around. It is essential that you get to know them and never fall into this trap as they can slow you down.
Myth 1: Work Harder, Harder, Harder
They say that by working longer hours every day you can get more stuff done. It’s true in some cases, but working 16 hours a day is only going to decrease the overall quality. When you overwork, your quality tends to decrease even though you may get more stuff done. First, think about your purpose… are you doing something just so you can say that it is done?
Instead of exhausting yourself to death, you can choose to work less and improve your efficiency while you do it. Better said, work hard but smart. Find the best ways to leverage your work time, and never forget to balance your life. Work is not everything, and if you neglect the other parts of your life, you may be working only to find yourself unfulfilled at the end.
Myth 2: Multitasking Equals Productivity
If your brain can take more than one task at a time, then why not, right? Wrong. The moment you decide to multi-task, you split your attention towards two things, and you’re only allocating half of your potential to each of the tasks. In other words, you’ll end up with two or three mediocre results instead of a great one.
Also, instead of saving time, you’ll spend even more by finishing more tasks rather than approaching one at a time. This makes sense. Real-life example: when you walk down the street and text at the same time, you are disturbed by other people so it’s harder to text; at the same time, it makes walking less enjoyable because you always have to be careful not to hit someone.
Myth 3: Do It Yourself Instead of Asking for Help
Successful people are quite different from those who are not. One thing that takes them and their business to the top is their decision to outsource. If you are a writer and you want to create a blog, you’ll have a hard time creating a beautiful-looking design, and then marketing it. Instead, you should just focus on the writing part and let others do the additional work like marketing and design.
Let’s say you’re running out of time with a writing assignment and you haven’t even started. It could get really overwhelming, so what do you do? Rather than trying to tackle everything, you can let a professional editing service like Assignment Masters do the editing or proofreading for you, so you can focus entirely on the writing part. Doing so, not only will you finish it faster, but it will also be more qualitative.
Myth 4: Keep Your Desk Clean, and You’ll Be Organized
Another myth. You can clean up your room, office, desk, whatever… that won’t make you more organized. In fact, what you need is a set of goals – a well-established plan – and some good productivity tools at your disposal.
In my case, all I needed was the Priority Matrix App. This tool not only helps you become more effective in the workplace, but it also helps you organize the other parts of your life. For me, it was the most efficient way to stay organized and also maintain a balanced lifestyle.
Myth 5: A Well-Known Productivity System Will Work for Everyone
Every one of us is different in our own way. We perceive work, act, and react in different ways. A productivity system that is considered to be “famous” may not work for you. It’s true… You can’t expect to follow someone’s way of living and have excellent results. For example, if you are trying to improve your essay writing skills, you can check out the blog section of Analyze Edu and find tons of tips and tricks. I’m telling you one thing: you can’t use all of them. You have to decide which will work best for you!
Another thing that you can do is modify a well-known productivity system to fit your needs. For example, a lot of people are fans of the Eisenhower Method of Time Management, in which you organize all of your tasks according to their criticality and urgency. Others are not fans of this method of organization. In this case, if critical and urgent don’t work best for you, then maybe arranging your tasks and events based on their effort and impact is a better way of thinking about it.
In summary, it is best to select all the good information from productivity systems that are already out there and personalize them according to your lifestyle and needs.
Conclusion
Before taking something as the truth, you really need to analyze the information and examine it on your own. Everyone wants to be productive, but unfortunately, not everyone can do it. The amount of misguided information on the internet is tremendous.
If you are not productive, it means that you are either doing it wrong or maybe you are just following a productivity myth. Take some time and do your homework before actually applying productivity strategies that circulate all over the place.
Author Bio: Kate Simpson 
Kate is the Head of the Editing Team at Assignment Masters. Kate is also contributing her own insights at News Column.