In life, we endeavour to do many things in business, in our careers, and our personal lives. Generally, we all strive to be productive. Productivity is simple if we are to be ruthlessly honest. It is just that at times, or most of the time, we fall prey to certain traps. When a trap is apparent, it is easy to circumvent it. It becomes a different story when the trap is disguised or subtle. That mostly happens with mental traps. There are mental traps that kill your productivity. Let me define mental traps for you. Mental traps are thinking patterns that inadvertently consume your time and limit your ability to accomplish wholesome tasks. Let us discuss some of them today.

The Fallacy Of Planning

I have seen many people live with this mental trap at play. Even I, at times, fall prey to it. The thing is, planning is good; it is necessary. After all, failure to plan is planning to fail. However, there is a balance you must strike. If you do not strike that balance, you will fail to accomplish anything or even start anything. This majorly stems from either overestimating or underestimating the time you need to do something.

If you overestimate, you end up with too much time and might fail to utilize it productively. Underestimating means, you will not have enough time to complete the task. Either way, you will fail to start or accomplish what you set out to do. You can be trapped in a maze of planning without realizing you are setting yourself up for failure—the best thing when planning is to attach definite timelines to what you want to do.

Letting Your Guard Down During Liminal Moments

Each and every one of us experiences what is called liminal moments every day. When something is liminal, this refers to the beginning of the first stage of a process. A liminal moment thus, is that moment when you transition from one item or task to another. Liminal moments can lead to severe mental traps that can hurt your productivity. Let’s suppose I want to research and work on two articles but with a break in between. Then whilst taking a break waiting to start the second one, I decide to go on social media.

If I am not careful, I can end up sucked up in social media and put off the second article for later. It has happened to me several times before. This happens to a lot of us; we, at times, poorly manage our liminal moments. It comprises liminal moments if you closely check most of your unproductive time. You need to be vigilant when it comes to your liminal moments. Liminal moments can boost your productivity or ruin it. Choose wisely.

Urgency Over Importance

There is a dilemma most people tend to face. It is the tug of war between what is urgent and important. It is not always the case that what is urgent is important. You can sometimes do what is urgent at the expense of what is essential. It is usually easy to do an urgent task because it may take a short time and effort. Yet something important might require a longer duration of consistent regular efforts. Looking at that, you will see that urgent tasks can be more appealing. The urgency can even be questionable, but attending to ‘urgency’ is usually fun.

This is because delayed gratification is unappealing to many people. They like that quick sense of accomplishment that urgent tasks provide. Thus one can get engrossed in doing what is urgent and, whilst at it, depriving what is important. It is a mental trap you need to be wary of. You need to apply the principle of deep work. Allot specific time slots for tasks you have to do. That way, you will not be tempted to jump onto urgent tasks that might pop up. After all, urgent tasks do not always have material or long-term value.

Feeling Bad When You Fail To Complete Tasks

There will be times you fail to complete tasks. This is usually inevitable due to the mercurial nature of life at times. You can have everything set, but some circumstances can get in the way. Thus you need to understand that sometimes you will fail to complete tasks. At times you will fail to complete tasks in time. You must react rightly to scenarios like that.

Do not let them weigh you down or make you feel bad. Failing to complete a task does not have to have a bearing on everything else. Do not let the shame of failing to complete a task cause you to fail everything else. It is a trap that you should protect yourself from. If you fail to complete this task, go on to the next and give it your best. Do not let feeling bad overshadow everything else you have to do.

You need to be wary of these mental traps. You can bask in them without even realizing it. It is important for you to know that productivity has many adversaries. If you want to know one area heavily attacked in your life, it is productivity. There are just too many attacks on your quest to be productive. That is why you need to deal actively with these mental traps.