與通常所列舉的應(yīng)該培養(yǎng)的有益習(xí)慣不同，本文在此舉出的是我們最好避免的7種習(xí)慣。

　　就像尋找對你有益的習(xí)慣一樣，尋找妨礙你的習(xí)慣同樣重要。這7種習(xí)慣中大多數(shù)都可能會輕易成為你日常生活的一部分，使你難以察覺它的存在（或者它如何影響到你）。我曾經(jīng)略微嘗試了這些習(xí)慣，結(jié)果毫無疑問，那些重要的事情沒有幾個可以完成。同時我也要添加說明的是，這只是在生活中你可能形成的影響效率的主要的7個習(xí)慣，我很確定絕不僅僅是這些。

    1、缺席。

 也許你曾經(jīng)聽過伍迪·艾倫所說的這句話：

   “百分之八十的成功來自于出席?！?/span>

    更多的出席——這是在生活中你可以保證更多成功所做的最大也是最簡單的事情之一，無論是在你的社交生活中，你的事業(yè)上還是你的健康方面。如果你想要改善你的健康狀況，一個最重要也是最有效的事情就是在每次你該出席時出現(xiàn)在健身房里。

    也許天氣會不好，也許你會不想出門，也許你有一大堆其他必須要做的事情。但是，如果即使你在積極性不高時仍然繼續(xù)出現(xiàn)在健身房里，那將比你呆在家里的沙發(fā)上放松要有效的多。

    我想這個也可以推及到生活的其他領(lǐng)域。如果你每天都堅持寫作或繪畫，你就會快速的得到提高。如果你更多的出門你就可以遇到更多的新朋友。如果你參加更多的約會，你遇到心上人的機(jī)會就會大大提高。僅僅只是更多出席就會使你的生活大大不同。而缺席卻會使你毫無收獲。

    2、拖拖拉拉。

      為了簡化，我將最喜歡的3種擺脫拖拉情況的方法列舉如下：

    -吞食青蛙。也就是說在一天的最開始就完成那些最艱難最重要的工作。早上良好的開始會讓你一天都保持高昂的情緒和積極的動力。這通常會使你這一天都十分高效。

    -你如何吃掉一頭大象呢？不要打算一口吃成胖子，這會使你感到過多負(fù)擔(dān)以至于產(chǎn)生拖延的念頭。把一項工作分為若干可付諸于行動的小步驟，然后僅僅關(guān)注第一步直到把它完成，接下來再繼續(xù)下一步。

    -說服自己。我發(fā)現(xiàn)這種向?qū)驼{(diào)整十分有效。就在我花了20分鐘躺在床上反復(fù)默念在這幾天里我都十分高效之后，我就不再會陷入拖拉的情況或者瀏覽1至5個我喜愛的網(wǎng)站尋找更新信息的必要。

    3、做一些無關(guān)緊要的事情。

    除了拖拖拉拉以外，你最容易陷入的不良習(xí)慣之一就是忙于一些無關(guān)緊要的事情之中。

    為了提高效率你也許需要某種時間管理方法。它可能會是一件極為簡單的事情，比如在一天的開始使用80/20法則。80/20法則,也就是我們通常所熟悉的帕累托法則認(rèn)為， 80%的收獲源自20%的努力。所以為求高效你應(yīng)該將你精力的大部分集中在那些極少數(shù)重要的事情上。

    當(dāng)使用這個法則時你只需按優(yōu)先順序?qū)懴逻@一天你需要做的3件最重要的事情，然后從頭做起。即使你只能完成其中的一件事，你仍然完成了今天最重要的事情。也許你也會偏愛其他諸如GTD等方法。但是無論你如何組織工作，最關(guān)鍵的還是尋找那些最重要的工作，這樣你就不必花費(fèi)幾天，幾個星期甚至幾個月的時間去忙于那些并不是很重要的事情。如果這些事情無關(guān)緊要，那么即使你快速的完成它們也是沒有多大用處的。

    4、多慮。

    因為多慮而很少采取行動。陷于無窮的分析之中只會使你虛度光陰。行動之前加以思考是沒有錯的。做一些調(diào)查研究，制定一個計劃，探究可能存在的積極以及不利因素。

    但是強(qiáng)制性的反復(fù)思考就會成為另外一種浪費(fèi)時間的做法了。在嘗試之前你沒有必要去從每一個角度檢查每一件事情。而且你也不可以等到一個最完美的時間再去做事，因為這樣的時間從來不會出現(xiàn)。如果你繼續(xù)這樣思考就只會使自己陷的越來越深，從而使采取行動變得越來越難。相反，雖然思考在一定程度上對你有所幫助，但你現(xiàn)在需要做的就只是停止思考，然后去做那些你應(yīng)該做的事情。

    5、凡事過于消極。

    當(dāng)你凡事都從消極方面考慮時，你的積極性就會被大大打擊。你會發(fā)現(xiàn)到處都是問題和錯誤，而這些問題是本不存在的。你抓住細(xì)節(jié)不放。如果你想要尋找一個不做某事的理由，這當(dāng)然沒有問題。而當(dāng)你從一個消極角度看問題時，每次你都可能找出十個借口。

    因此你幾乎一事無成。你向任何愿意傾聽的人訴苦（也許很多人并不想聽），抱怨你的工作，生活和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)有多么的差勁。你的生活取決于你如何看待這個世界，這已經(jīng)成為一個能夠自我實現(xiàn)的預(yù)測。

    對此的一個解決方法就是了解消極方面的限度，認(rèn)識到你的消極思考并不是這個世界的真實寫照。然后不妨嘗試一些其他的角度。舉例來說，你可以嘗試著培養(yǎng)一下凡事從更為積極和樂觀的角度思考的習(xí)慣，這會對你大有幫助。通過這種方式，你也許就會開始嘗試這種積極性的挑戰(zhàn)。這并不容易，然而如果你接受了這種挑戰(zhàn)，連續(xù)7天都只從積極方面思考，你就會突然意識到你看問題的角度和想法是如此深刻地影響著你對世界的理解和你所得到的成果。

    6、固執(zhí)己見，與世隔絕。

    人們很難去承認(rèn)自己的想法不是最佳選擇，因此你越來越執(zhí)著于自己的想法，變得閉目塞聽。這會讓你很難取得進(jìn)步，比如說效率就會很難提高。在這種情況下，即使認(rèn)真思考改變?nèi)松目赡苄远紩兊煤茈y。

    顯然，解決方法之一就是打開心胸。開闊視野，從他人和自己的錯誤中汲取教訓(xùn)，從書籍等資源中獲取知識。與任何事一樣，這事說起來容易做起來難。正如前面所說，對此我的建議就是認(rèn)識到你的知識領(lǐng)域畢竟是有限的，而你做事的方式也會存在不足。那么不妨就嘗試一下新事物吧。

    而我的另一條建議就是，閱讀一下?？斯亍ね欣摹缎绿斓亍罚貏e是有關(guān)Ego的章節(jié)。正如托利所建議的，如果你不再像Ego那樣思考，你就會更加容易接受新思想，拋棄那些已經(jīng)無用的舊思想。另外我想要補(bǔ)充說明的就是：不要迷信書本，也不要盲目追求新的信息，否則你就會成為一個沉迷于自我?guī)椭娜?。在行動中運(yùn)用那些新信息和你學(xué)到的事情，然后加以嘗試。

    7、持續(xù)信息過剩。

    信息過剩并不是說你過多的閱讀，我所指的是所有輸入信息的過剩。如果你讓所有的信息都涌進(jìn)大腦，這當(dāng)然會導(dǎo)致難于清晰思考，因為刺激源太多了。以下就是這種習(xí)慣可能會存在的弊端：

       -你所接受的一些信息也許會是消極的。媒體和周圍環(huán)境會因種種原因提供一種消極的信息。如果你沒有根據(jù)需要對信息加以選擇，也許你就會陷入消極之中，從而影響到你的所思，所感，所為。

       -這會使你急于追趕當(dāng)今發(fā)生的事情，然而每時每刻都有十幾件事同時發(fā)生，想要追趕上它們幾乎是不可能的事情。你的生活會因此充滿壓力。

       -如果你持續(xù)被信息轟炸，并且還試圖將所有信息分類，那么你將很難做出決定并采取行動。就我個人而言，如果我得到過多的信息，就會造成某種形式上的癱瘓，一事無成?；蛘吣銜贿@種習(xí)慣所困，終日急于忙碌在一些非重要的事情上。

    為了可以集中精力，清晰思考并付諸行動，你就需要在吸取信息時更有選擇性。當(dāng)你工作時盡可能的避免那些分散注意力的事物。關(guān)掉電話，斷開網(wǎng)絡(luò)，關(guān)上大門。你就會不可思議的發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)你沒有每隔五分鐘就被打擾一次，沒有機(jī)會因瀏覽RSS-feeds或喜愛的網(wǎng)站而拖延時，居然可以完成這么多的事情。

    現(xiàn)在并不是說我建議你們停止閱讀所有的博客或報紙。但是一定要清楚哪些是你真正想要閱讀的，哪些只是用來打發(fā)時間的。同時你也可以查看其他開闊性信息的領(lǐng)域。

    比如說，你沒有必要陷入所有來自周圍環(huán)境的消極情緒。如果周圍的所有人都在拖延或者焦急的忙于各種非重要的事情時，你會很容易被這種情緒所影響。如果你有一扇心靈之門，關(guān)上它而去關(guān)注更為重要的事情，這會是個不錯的主意。

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People

By Henrik Edberg

With a twist to the common list of habits that are useful to establish, here are 7 habits that you do best to avoid.

Just like finding habits that can be useful for you it’s important to find habits that are holding you back. Most of these 7 habits can easily become such a normal, everyday part of life that you hardly notice it (or how it’s affecting you). I’ve dabbled with all of them quite a bit. Not surprisingly I didn’t get much of the important stuff done. I′d also like to add that these are just 7 broad habits you can establish to become highly ineffective in most parts of your life. I pretty sure there are several more.

1. Not showing up.

Maybe you’ve heard this quote by Woody Allen:

“Eighty percent of success is showing up”

One of the biggest and simplest thing you can do to ensure more success in your life – whether it be in your social life, your career or with your health – is simply to show up more. If you want to improve your health then one of the most important and effective things you can do is just to show up at the gym every time you should be there.

The weather might be bad, you might not feel like going and you find yourself having all these other things you just must do. If you still go, if you show up at the gym when motivation is low you will improve a whole lot faster than if you just stayed at home relaxing on the sofa.

I think this applies to most areas of life. If you write or paint more, each day perhaps, you will improve quickly. If you get out more you can meet more new friends. If you go on more dates you chances of meeting someone special increases. Just showing up more can really make a big difference. Not showing up will not get you anywhere.

2. Procrastinating half the day. To keep it short, my 3 favourite ways to get out of a procrastinating state are:

- Swallow that frog. What′s this means is simply to do the hardest and most important task of the day first thing in the morning. A good start in the morning lifts your spirits and creates a positive momentum for the rest of the day. That often creates a pretty productive day.

- How do you eat an elephant? Don′t try to take it all in one big bite. It becomes overwhelming which leads to procrastination. Split a task into small actionable steps. Then just focus on the first step and nothing else. Just do that one until it’s done. Then move on to the next step.

- The Get around to It Paraliminal. I find this guided mediation to be very useful. After 20 minutes of mostly just lying on my bed and listening I’m far more productive for a few days. I don′t feel the urge to sink into that procrastinating state or the need to find out what’s new over at one or five of my favourite websites.

3. When actually doing something, doing something that isn’t the most important thing right now.

One of the easiest habits to get stuck in, besides procrastinating, is to keep yourself busy with unimportant tasks.

To be effective you probably need some kind of time management-system. It might be something really simple, like using the 80/20-rule at the beginning of each day. The 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle as it′s also known, says that you′ll get 80 percent of your results from only 20 percent of your tasks and activities. So you need to focus most of your energy on those few important tasks to be effective.

When you have prioritized using this rule just write down the top 3 most important things you need to do that day. Then, from the top, start doing them. Even if you just get one of the things done, you have still done the most important thing you could do today. You may perhaps prefer some other system, such as GTD. But however you organise your work it’s still of highest priority to find the most important tasks so you don’t spend days, weeks or months doing busywork that isn’t that essential anyway. Just getting things done faster isn’t that useful if the things you get done are unimportant to you.

4. Thinking too much.

And thereby seldom taking action. Paralysis by analysis can waste years of your life. There is nothing wrong with thinking before you do something. Do some research, make a plan, explore potential upsides and problems.

But compulsively thinking and thinking and thinking is just another way to waste your time. You don’t have to examine everything from every angle before you try it. And you can’t wait for the perfect time to do something. That time never comes. And if you keep thinking you’ll just dig yourself down deeper and deeper and taking action will become more and more difficult. Instead you just need to stop thinking. Shut of your mind – it just helps you up to a point – and go do whatever you need to do.

5. Seeing the negative and downsides in just about anything.

When you see everything from a negative perspective you quickly punch a hole in your own motivation. You find faults everywhere and problems where there are really none. You cling to details. If you want to find a reason to not do something then that’s no problem. From a negative viewpoint you can find ten reasons every time.

And so very little gets done, you whine to anyone who wants to hear – and many who don’t – about how crappy your job, life and boss is. Which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as you create the life that is appropriate considering how think and see your world.

A solution is to realise the limits of a negative perspective. And that your perspective isn’t some kind of 100% true picture of the world. Then try other perspectives. For instance, trying to establish a habit of seeing things in a more positive and optimistic light can be quite useful. In that vein, you may want to try the Positivity Challenge. It′s not easy, but if you do the challenge and try to only think positive thoughts for 7 days it can give you an insight in how much your perspective and beliefs changes how you interpret your world. And what results you get.

6. Clinging to your own thoughts and being closed to outside influences.

It can be hard to admit that what you thought or believed was not the best alternative. So you cling to your thoughts harder and harder and keep your mind closed. This makes it hard to improve and for instance to become more effective. Even really considering the possibility that you can change your life can be difficult in this position.

One solution, obviously, is to open up more. To open up and learn from the mistakes of others, from your own mistakes and from other sources like books. This is easy to say though. It can, as almost anything, be harder to do. One suggestion I have is to, like I said about the previous habit, realise the limits of what you know and the way you going about things. And then just try something new.

Another tip is to read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and especially look at the chapters about the Ego. If you stop identifying so much with your thoughts and your Ego, as Tolle prescribes, it becomes a whole a lot easier to let new ideas and thoughts come into your life. And to let go of old thoughts that aren’t useful to you anymore. On the other hand I’d like to add and counter-balance with these tips: don’t get stuck in reading, in just taking in new information either or you might become a self-help junkie. Use the new information, put what you have learned in to action and try it out.

7. Constantly on information overload.

With information overload I don’t just mean that you read a lot. I pretty much mean an overload in all input. If you just let all information flow into your mind it will be hard to think clearly. It’s just too much stimulation. A few more potential downsides to this habit are:

- Some of the input you receive will be negative. The media and your surroundings often put a negative spin on things for various reasons. If you aren′t selective in what input you want in your life then you’ll be dragged into this negativity too. This affects how you think, feel and act.

- It creates an urge to keep up with what’s happening but there are always ten more things happening so you can’t keep up. This makes life stressful.

- It becomes hard to make decisions and take action if your mind is constantly bombarded with information or trying to sort through it all. Personally I find that if I get too much information it leads to a sort of paralysis. Not much get′s done. Or you get stuck in habit #3 and keep busy, busy, busy at high speed with low priority activities.

To be able to focus, think more clearly and take action it′s useful to be more selective in what you let into your mind. When you work shut out as much distractions as possible. Shut off the phone, internet and shut the door. It is strange how much you can get done when you aren′t interrupted every fifth minute or have the opportunity to procrastinate by checking your RSS-feeds or favourite websites.

Now I′m not suggesting that you should stop reading all blogs or newspapers. But think about what you really want to read and what you read just read to fill your time. And have a look at other areas of input where the doors are wide-open.

For instance, you don′t have to let in all the negative emotions from your surroundings. If everyone else are procrastinating or are anxiously keeping themselves busy by doing low-priority tasks at warp speed it′s easy to be influenced by that mood. If you have a door, then it might be good idea to shut it and focus on doing more important things.