“Ill habits gather by unseen degrees/As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.” — John Dryden, English poet (Absalom and Achitophel, 1681)

Have you updated your NOT-to-do list lately?

Most of us are pretty good about compiling daily to-do lists to guide our workflow, and there’s no denying that those lists are vital for maximizing productivity. However, in many ways, a list of things you refuse to do is just as important.

A not-to-do list doesn’t have to be fancy. You simply start by writing down the time-stealing behaviors that you prefer not to take part in; then you review and revise your list periodically, to make sure you don’t accidentally slip into habits that damage your productivity and keep you at work too long.

Obviously, not-to-do lists will vary from person to person, based on what’s applicable to a particular workplace and what each individual considers impractical or illogical for them to take part in. But there are certain activities that everyone is wise to avoid, and in this article, I’ll discuss four.

Stop Gossiping
Some workplace socializing is necessary, because it helps you connect with your fellow co-workers, lets you enjoy work a little more, and can enhance your productivity in the long run. However, chatting with your buddies should stop short of discussing other people behind their backs.

Airing someone’s personal business for entertainment reasons is never going to help you accomplish anything, and spreading negativity or criticism is downright hurtful. Give it up; work isn’t a soap opera, nor should it be. If your company doesn’t have a no-gossip policy, create your own and stick to it.

Stop Complaining
We all have things in our lives we’re unhappy about, but complaining about them accomplishes very little; as with gossiping, all it does is spread negativity, and who needs more of that? In particular, you should avoid complaining about the amount of money you make, and how dissatisfied you may be with your job or co-workers.

Instead of moaning about life, readjust your attitude. If you’re disgruntled about things that you can’t change, learn to accept them and move on. If you find yourself complaining about things that you can change, then by all means, try to. In either case, do your best to remove the reasons for your complaints.

Letting yourself suffer just so you can complain about how the world has wronged you doesn’t just waste your time, it wastes everyone else’s. And besides—do other people beside your friends really need to know about your personal problems? If you’re looking for attention, there are more constructive ways to get it.

Stop Trying to Be a Machine
As much as some of us might like to think otherwise, we’re not machines. No matter how spectacular you are, you can only grind along at maximum focus for so long before you get tired and mistakes start creeping into your work…and then your productivity drops like a rock. While you shouldn’t take breaks too often, you do need to pull back occasionally so you can recharge and revitalize your creativity. You always do your best work when you’re well-rested.

Meal breaks are also important. You need to eat something every six hours or so, if only to keep your blood sugar levels high enough to avoid becoming fuzzyheaded. So don’t skip lunch, and don’t just scarf down a sandwich at your desk, either: get away for a few minutes, since by then you’ll probably need the change of pace and scenery to help you stay sharp.

Finally, don’t skip your macro-breaks, either. You need to take your weekends, holidays, and vacations as often as possible, so you can be rested and ready when work-time rolls around again.

Stop Multitasking
Multitasking is all the rage nowadays, but I happen to think that it’s the scourge of the modern office. The human brain can handle just a few things at a time, because we’ve only got so much “cognitive currency” to spend. Your mind’s trying to process all kinds of external stimuli already, so when you consciously try to do too many things at once, you literally spread yourself thin. Add in all the distractions that you have to deal with, from the sound of the rain on the windows to the photocopier chugging away across the hall to your chatty co-workers, and your efficiency begins to fall off sharply.

The worst thing about multitasking, I think, is that it fools you into thinking you’re getting a lot more done. But you’re not: you’re dividing your attention too finely. If you go too far, you’ll end up like one of those computers that assigns every single task a tiny, equal time-slice, and then takes forever to get any one task done. In computer parlance this is called “thrashing,” and I’ve seen it many times in human beings as well. If you really want to produce, focus tightly on one task at a time, and get it off your plate before moving on to the next task on your list.

Going Cold Turkey
The four items I’ve listed here are just a few of the egregious workplace habits that can rob you of productivity if you let them. These habits are sneaky: either their negative effects are easy to miss, or they fool you into thinking that they’re helping you be more productive. If you keep them up, though, you’re not going to get ahead; you’ll just end up slipping farther behind.

So for your productivity’s sake, I recommend that you sit down and seriously ask yourself if you’re guilty of any of these bad habits. If you are, then go cold turkey on each one. It may be hard, but you’ll be more productive in the long run—and that’s what really matters.

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Today I feature an article by guest columnist Rosa Say and her blog Managing With Aloha Coaching.  If you enjoy the article below, I suggest you subscribe to her blog.

If I am hard pressed to recommend one and only one tool as THE most essential one in every manager’s tool kit, there is no question for me what it will be.

It is the very first tool I teach new supervisors (and any struggling manager) to use;
No matter the industry they are in.
No matter the country they are in.

Whether they are new to their positions or seasoned pros.
Whether they have just one employee or thousands.

Whenever it is calm, and they are caught up.
Whenever it is frenetic and crazy, and they can’t see that light at the end of the tunnel.

Pretty much no matter what the circumstances are.
And get this – even more than my beloved Daily 5 Minutes®.

The One Tool that every manager must work with, and work with daily, is this:
A simple list kept easily and best with pencil and an 8×10 sheet of paper folded into three columns.

This is not just any list, but a very special one.

It is the list that will endear every manager to every employee, every boss, every supplier or vendor partner, and every customer.

It is the list that can single-handedly reinvent a manager’s reputation, as it simultaneously functions as that manager’s best training and coaching architect.

At the top of this list is its name, and right beneath that, as the headings of its three columns, are all the instructions managers will need.

This magic manager’s list is called, THE FOLLOW-UP I NEED TO COMPLETE.

Those headings of its three columns are,

1. What I must Do to Honor my Word
2. Who I need to Follow-up with, and By When
3. Why it is so Important to Them, and thus, to Me.

When management is a calling (as it should only be) managers work more for other people than they do for themselves. The work they do for others IS the work they do for themselves, for when they elevate the human condition, improving it as it aches to be improved, they are most fulfilled in the work they are most needed for, discovering that being a manager can be the most satisfying and rewarding work that exists.

When employees cry out to me that their managers “don’t know what they are doing,”
or “are never around when we need them”
or “are too poorly trained; it’s like we have a revolving door of management trainees here”
or “don’t really care about us”
or “always seem to be working on the wrong things at the wrong times”
or “said they’d take care of it, but we all know what that means”
… the complaining and whining goes on and on… nine times out of ten I will discover that the manager they are referring to has lost all credibility due to a horrible lack of follow-through. They may start with the best of intentions in very sincere conversations, but they have no reliable system for finishing well, and they are not held accountable.

On the other hand, the managers with exceptional follow-through are referred to as “the great ones.”

A key point is that great managers don’t necessarily do all the work and tasks involved; what they do is orchestrate them well, and they keep work flowing, moving all road-blocks out of the way, human and otherwise. They work to remove any obstacles or adversity (or excuses and yeah-buts) and they communicate to everyone involved about status and progress consistently and reliably.

If you are a manager, is that what you do?

Let’s talk a bit more about those three columns;

1. What I must Do to Honor my Word

This column is described this way because a conversation with someone is likely to be what will trigger the entry you are making. What did you agree to follow-up on? This column will teach managers to “eat an elephant one bite at a time.” A common reason good intentions will fall apart is because we’ll make promises that are way, way too big for us to keep. Using this list over time, managers learn to work from conversation to next conversation and tear issues, problems, and projects into doable baby steps. Then the following column becomes a simple status-check conversation of “Here’s where we are now, what should we work on as our next steps, and how much time will that need?”

2. Who I need to Follow-up with, and By When

This may seem obvious, but in my investigations of trip-ups that have occurred, I am amazed at how many times a manager did follow up, but never reported back to the person they’d made their commitment to. Their reputation and credibility has gotten marred by a bad assumption that “the results will speak for themselves.” Well, not really, and not always. In fact, the norm is that they seldom do. This column also helps cure avoidance behavior; if you didn’t get something done yet, just honestly say so and make a new agreement. Don’t just hope the other person will forget about it; trust me, they probably won’t, and the next column helps you understand why.

3. Why it is so Important to Them, and thus, to Me

This column is a teacher called “Empathy Practice,” one whom all managers need to spend more time with. For us to help people best, we need to see a problem or issue in the way that they see it, and since we can’t usually “walk a day in [their] shoes” the best way to understand their point of view is to key in on why an issue is important to them. I coach managers to work with people without robbing others of the engagement, satisfaction, and growth of doing their work for them – the mantra we speak of is “Do with, not for.” There is a balance to be achieved, that this column helps us understand one person at a time.

Management is a situational art. Coaches like me try to help with certain things, and we can provide tools and tips that shorten the learning curve, however a manager’s best teachers, bar none, are their employees and the other people they work with and are committed to. This is the same reason The Daily Five Minutes® works so well: All you need to know about you can find out from the people you work with side by side, day in and day out.

Managers get trained on the job in the flow of the work they are responsible for. When they follow-through consistently, they excel because they deliver well; they exceed expectations. Their word is believed and trusted.

So take this from me; the 1 best list that every manager must work with says THE FOLLOW-UP I NEED TO COMPLETE at the top, and has those three columns. What they write on it, and how consistently they work through it day by day will determine that manager’s success. Just ask their employees.

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