My FranklinCovey planner page recently included this Yiddish proverb:

"Bad habits are easier to abandon today than tomorrow."

Let's think about habits in this article. If you're reading this, I'm positive you have at least one bad habit (maybe more!) I know the person writing this has um, a few, um, bad habits. So let's just figure we're all in this together!

* Choose one habit that you have, which you consider to be a "bad habit" related to your productivity. It might be picking items up out of your inbox and just setting them back in the inbox. It might be opening email when you really don't have time to read it - or even opening email you know to be junk. It might be procrastination. It might be telling people, "Yes," when the answer is really "No." It might be keeping things "just in case." Who knows? Well, actually, you do.
* What would be a bold step to abandoning this bad habit? What decision do you need to make? What changes in your environment would support this change? Once you answer these questions, related to the first bullet point, you are really moving swiftly toward abandonment of the habit. For example, let's say your habit is to check email CONSTANTLY regardless of whether it's your top priority. A change in your environment would be to close your email program except when you are ready to focus only on email. Radical, I know.

* Think of the difference abandoning this bad habit would make...would it lead to a more peacefully productive life? Really consider the difference it could make. Motivation comes from that which we want more of or that which we want less of....so your motivation for abandoning this bad habit will be one of those two. Get a clear picture in your mind of what could happen if you actually left the office when you wanted to (and when you told others you were planning to) instead of hours later. Imagine finishing the book you're writing (which counts toward tenure, whereas answered emails are rarely counted in a tenure or merit document). Just sayin'....

* Share with someone you really trust (who also shares with you) what the one bad habit is that you intend to abandon TODAY (instead of tomorrow). The two of you can determine how you want to be accountable to each other for this commitment. My favorite idea related to this is that you decide that if you DON'T do whatever it is you said, you will donate money to an organization that you would NEVER under any other circumstances donate to. You go ahead and make out the check and your accountability partner vows to mail it in if you don't follow through on your commitment.

Let's look at the proverb again: "Bad habits are easier to abandon today than tomorrow." Truly, it doesn't get easier the more entrenched in a bad habit you get. If you would like additional ideas to assist you in your goal to be ever-more productive, then just

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