11 bad habits to quit right away

Creating your productivity ritual — a routine that helps you to maintain a peak level of energy can get you the best out of your days. Part of creating your productivity routine involves removing activities that drain you (what I call “kryptonites”), and that includes your bad habits. Like it or not, bad habits are bad for you — mentally, physically, emotionally and even socially in some cases. While some bad habits are harder to quit than others, it doesn’t change the fact that you need to get rid of them.

Here are 11 bad habits to quit right away:

11. Drinking high-sugar beverages.

Do you enjoy the refreshing taste of a cool soda? Sadly, drinking sugary beverages could be one of the worst bad habits for your health. Research from the American Society of Nephrology suggests that soda and sweetened drinks could be linked to a higher risk of developing kidney disease. Why not try some water instead?

10. Snacking when you’re not hungry

Losing touch with your body’s natural hunger and satisfaction signals can lead to chronic overeating and unhealthy extra pounds—which increases your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and other serious conditions. And if it’s junk foods you snack on, you’re also flooding your body with unhealthy ingredients. By paying attention to your hunger signals and switching to healthy snacks, you can boost nutrition, control cravings, and avoid energy slumps. Your weight will fall to a healthier level, and you’ll replace unhealthy trans and saturated fat, sugar, refined carbohydrates, and extra sodium with more nutritious fare.

9. Getting sunburned a few times every summer

If you love sunbathing or make an effort to maintain a golden-bronze tan, you’ve unwittingly contributed to the aging of your skin. Sunbathing destroys the elastic fibers that keep skin looking firm and smooth, leading to earlier wrinkles, blotches, freckles, and discolorations. More important, sunburns contribute significantly to cancers of the skin. If you’ve included trips to the tanning salon, that’s even worse. Despite what ads suggest, using tanning beds doesn’t build up a “safe” base tan. It actually raises your risk for skin cancer and wrinkles.

8. Spending Too Much Time on Social Media

Social media has become as addicting as having that cup of coffee every morning. The temporarily gratification we get from the number of “likes’ and views on the pictures and videos we post, has many wanting more. Not only does social media keep us from creating solid lifelong relationships, but we are in competition with who lives the” best life”.

7. Using your phone, tablet or computer in bed.

This is a big one that most people don’t even realize harms their sleep and productivity. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in your mood, energy level and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly, the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. In the afternoon, the sun’s rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you sleepy. By the evening, your brain doesn’t expect any blue light exposure and is very sensitive to it. Most of our favorite evening devices—laptops, tablets and mobile phones—emit short-wavelength blue light brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. As we’ve all experienced, a poor night’s sleep has disastrous effects. The best thing you can do is to avoid these devices after dinner (television is OK for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set).

6. Eating breakfast (or any meal) when you’re not hungry

The “rule” that you should never skip breakfast is just not true; it’s based on misinterpreted research and biased studies, says the New York Times. Almost all studies about breakfast show an association, they say, not causation. And many studies, based on self-reporting, fall prey to inherent bias and misuse of causal language.

5. Saying “Yes” to Everyone

We’re all guilty of saying yes to things and people, when we really want to say no. The fear of being judged or disliked, has us taking on more than we can handle at times. Even when we try to convince ourselves that we won’t say yes again, we get scared, tense up and end up saying yes. The fear of being rejected or coming off as unkind and rude, keeps us from saying no because we all want to be liked.

4. Drinking too much alcohol

If you drink to much on a regular basis, alcohol can be a poison. Women who regularly consume two or more drinks a day and men who regularly down three or more daily are at higher risk for liver damage, various cancers including those of the liver and mouth, high blood pressure, and depression. Women, more sensitive than men to alcohol, can also develop heart disease, brittle bones, and even memory loss. Soon after you cut back or quit, your digestion will improve and you’ll sleep more soundly. Your blood sugar will be lower and steadier, your blood pressure may fall toward a healthier range, and even your brain will bounce back. You’ll have a healthier liver and cardiovascular system.

3. Being Late

I had a friend in high school who had a fear of being late, so she would show up to school and all events 15 minutes early. Her explanation was, she didn’t want to be rude and come off as being unprepared. The real reason most of us are late anywhere is simple, we just don’t want to be early. We don’t bother putting in the extra effort it takes to being on time because, it’s not important to us. Deep down, we know the people expecting us, will forgive or dismiss our disregard for being late. If someone promised you a million dollars and all you had to do was meet them the next day at the address they provided, would you be late? It really comes down to what is important to us and the saying “we make time for things we want”.

2. Comparing yourself to other people.

When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. When you feel good about something that you’ve done, don’t allow anyone’s opinions or accomplishments take that away from you. While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to compare yourself to others, and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within. Regardless of what people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain—you’re never as good or bad as they say you are. By practicing self-control to break these bad habits, you can simultaneously strengthen your self-control muscle and abolish nasty habits that have the power to bring your career to a grinding halt.

1. Being with People Who Don’t Appreciate You

Haven’t all of us been in this situation before? Trying to please people who don’t appreciate us? Bending over backwards to be there for people when they are never there for us? While we give without expectations of return, we need to draw a line with people who don’t value us because these people damage our souls. Stop spending time with people who don’t appreciate you, and spend more time with people who do instead.