The importance of being honest with yourself

by | May 14, 2013 | General Productivity

Takeaway: It’s good to tell yourself when (and why) you succeed and fail.

Estimated Reading Time: 48 seconds.

Productivity tips and hacks are useful, but most of them are useless if you’re not honest with yourself. That might sound a bit hippie-dippy, but it’s not.

  • Is your to-do list doable, or do you keep putting things off to another day?
  • Do you make goals or new years resolutions that are too ambitious and give up a few weeks in, instead of setting more realistic goals from the start?
  • Do you hit the snooze button 5 times every morning instead of setting an alarm for when you actually will get up?
  • Do you ignore your body when it tells you that it’s full?
  • Do you ignore your mind when it tells you it’s overworked?
  • Do you spend several hours in front of the TV, and then try to forget about where your time went?

Something I’ve found lately is that self-honesty is invaluable when it comes to becoming more productive. Productivity shouldn’t be ruthless, and it’s okay to tell yourself when (and why) you succeed and fail.

Written by Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey has written hundreds of articles on the subject of productivity and is the author of three books: How to Calm Your Mind, Hyperfocus, and The Productivity Project. His books have been published in more than 40 languages. Chris writes about productivity on this site and speaks to organizations around the globe on how they can become more productive without hating the process.

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