Productivity.

Q: I never feel like I am functioning at 100%. What’s the best way to be productive?

A: Productivity expert Damon Zahariades does a lot of research on productivity and recently wrote an article about five productivity myths. Below, I’ve broken them down three of them for you so you can better understand what might be holding you back from being your most productive self!

Myth #1: Multitasking makes you efficient.
People think that when they move from task to task quickly or even work on two or three tasks at once, they are being more efficient. Research actually shows that when you switch between tasks, you lose concentration and your brain needs a few seconds or minutes to refocus on the new task at hand.

Myth #2: The early bird catches the worm.
Not everyone is a morning person. I, for one, do my best work at night when there are few distractions. If you are a morning person, by all means, do your hardest work in the morning. However, everyone should listen to their internal clock and save their hardest work for when they are best able to focus.

Myth #3: You should never work at home.
I wrote that sentence while at home, working! And while it is true that they say that home has a lot of distractions, there are a lot of people who actually work more productively and efficiently from home.

If your goal is to be more productive, perhaps one of the first things to do is to understand your own personal productivity myths and facts!

Feel like you’re always behind the 8 ball? Like everyone else is always getting more done than you are? Read this column to learn about the myths and facts about productivity and procrastination.