Hidden Habits of Ineffective People

[Richard B Riddick]

No one sets out to be ineffective, but it's easy to pick up the habits. Too easy.


Consuming more than you create -
Effective people tend to create a lot of content. Content can mean a lot of things - but the rule is always the same, create more than you consume. Ineffective people, on the other hand, spend the majority of their time consuming the fruits of others' labor. They are consummate lurkers.


Watching your own vanity metrics -
Everyone suffers from some level of vanity. A need to be liked. The Internet feeds that need, keeping popularity at the forefront of any online identity with lists of 'Friends,' 'Followers,' 'Connections,' 'Re-Pins' and even the 'Like' itself. Ineffective people tend to feed on these popularity metrics, whereas effective people recognize that these are shallow indicators. Effective people focus more on engagement and strength of relationships; they create quality content to solicit engagement from others, or seek out interesting people and proactively engage them on their own terms.


Starting the day responding to others -
Ineffective people allow others to set the agenda for their day. They start their morning reading or responding to others' requests. Effective people approach each day with an agenda for what they want to accomplish, start their day tackling a task crucial for accomplishing their goal, and respond to others when (or if) it works with their agenda.


Prioritizing the wrong activities -
Busy work. It's quite literally work that keeps you busy; it saps your time, but gets you no closer to your end goal. Ineffective people tend not to recognize busy work, and therefore, they prioritize tasks that will not move them any closer to their goals. Effective people recognize busy work for what it is and waste little to no time trying to appear busy when they know there are more important tasks to be completed.


Relying on multi-tasking to "save time" -
Multi-tasking is a scam. Being able to walk and chew gum at the same time may be the only true form of multi-tasking worth doing. Ineffective people use multi-tasking to appear busy, or to fool themselves into believing they can reach their goal faster by making minor progress on a lot of things at once. Effective people have a secret weapon to saving time. Focus. Effective people know which tasks are important for reaching their goal, and they focus on each one after another.

http://www.quora.com/Chris-Wake/Post...fective-people

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Ha. Thought this was funny.

If only for being the complete opposite of what many are told.

Good list / bad list? What are your thoughts on this?

[Bambi]

what's it's point..?

[Sepalcure]

I feel that there's a grain of truth to it. Although I would personally supplant the word, "effective" with "successful," it's a far more fitting adjective that's more applicable to the outlined reasons.

The most successful people are typically the ones who do what ever they set their mind to without an outsider's urgency. So for instance, a successful child will complete his/her homework assignments without having to be told that they must do it and correct their mistakes in order to better their grade.

Number one confuses me--it's the wording ... it's very static and technical. I don't like technical wording but I think I understand it ...
Successful people utilize their creativity and make use of their potential. Rather than letting that potentiality go to waste, they put it to productive use. Productivity plus potentiality yields more content than consumption.

Number two ... well I mean, MOST people suffer from a degree of vanity: whether it's wanting to be more attractive or feeling as if they're more attractive than anyone else. Some people manifest this need and/or want to be more attractive in a more profound way than others. Likewise, some people express their belief that they are the most attractive person within their social group in an explicit way. The key of course is to accept your shortcomings and embrace your own best qualities. Physical attractiveness fades over time but inner beauty never diminishes. Shit like that.

But anyway ... yeah all of this is pretty common sense stuff. These aren't points that people don't read in self-help books or off of the Internet or hear from motivational speakers OR hear from their own family members. As a matter of fact I got that whole, "make yourself productive and focus on your work to be more successful" spiel from my uncle the other day. I got an A in my English class. 93.8 average, all because I took in his advice. Focusing and not trying to bombard yourself with fifty billion things at work and setting up attainable little goals that step you up to a main goal, sticking to those goals, remaining focused on that MAIN goal, etc.; all of those little seemingly insignificant tips and shit actually can work once it's put into practice and doesn't remain a simple theory in one's mind.

But yeah ... common sense shit is common sense.