Avoid Multitasking : Too many people believe that multitasking can help them accomplish more throughout the day. However, multitasking has been proven to reduce productivity by 40 percent. While you may think that you're really good at multitasking, unfortunately, you are more than likely getting less done, as well as producing sub-par work. The fact is, our brains just aren't equipped to effectively multitask activities that require brainpower, because our short-term memories are only capable of storing five to nine things at once.