There are tons of myths that people think are true about productivity. The examples below are not true, and the only harm that will be caused is if you believe them.

The Early Bird Catches the Worm

This implies that if you're a night person, you can't be successful. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Many night people or night owls are successful. Whether you get up early or stay up late, as long as you are productive, you'll experience success.

If You Have a Clean Desk, You're More Successful

You've heard that advice before. Clean off your desk every night before you go back to work in the morning to be more productive. However, this is not totally true. Many very messy people are extremely successful because they put more focus on their tasks and not on their surroundings.

Systems Take Too Much Time to Set Up

You know that having systems in place will increase your productivity. But, it seems like it's too hard to set up a system. The truth is, though, that the time it takes to set up a system is going to be saved and more throughout using the system.

Working More Means That You're Productive

For some people, working 18-hour days makes them feel as if they're being productive. But remember what "productive" means. Productive means that you produce something. You create offers, you create products, you produce something that people can buy and pay money for. If what you're doing isn't that, you may be wasting your time being busy instead of productive.

People Work Best When Under Pressure

Some people will claim to thrive under pressure. They'll say they like deadlines. Now that may be true. Some people do thrive with a deadline, and are good at organizing their work days to be most productive and on time with a deadline. Others aren't that good at doing it and will claim waiting until the last minute ensures a better result because they work well under pressure. But study after study has proved this wrong. You don't need to be under pressure to produce amazing results; you just need a process that helps you do it.

Automation Is Too Impersonal

Online marketing offers so many means to more automation that can help you become more productive that there is no way to go over them all. However, some business owners fear automation because they think it's too impersonal. The fact is, for some things your audience will appreciate the automation - such as with transactional emails, for example. You're only one person, so automation in the right places will increase your productivity exponentially.

Outsourcing Costs Too Much

As you build your business, you will eventually get to a point where you need help. This is a growth situation that stumps up a lot of people. They assume that outsourcing costs too much for them to afford. However, the truth is, most of the time you can find someone who can do what you need to be done at a budget you can afford if you take the time saved and use it to earn more money. Anything you can outsource for fewer dollars than you make doing something else is worth it.

Real productivity is when you set things up right from the start and build income for the future that you worked on today.