Everybody wants to be prolific. Everybody would be — if it wasn’t for procrastination, distractibility, anxiety and all those other weaknesses incident to human nature. Even truly prolific people share these weaknesses, yet unlike others, they have a better understanding of what prevents them from achieving maximum productivity — and know how to remove these hindrances. If you’re falling behind on your goals, chances are, at least one of these things keeps you from being more productive:

You’re working in the wrong environment

Most people are so accustomed to their working environment they never really question the impact it has on them. Your surroundings determine your output to a large extent — to achieve better results, you’ve got to adjust these surroundings to your purposes. If you don’t know what environment is better for you, practice different ones until you find the one that stimulates you the most. For instance, if you’re working from home, you can try going to a nearby park or coffee house instead of staying in your bedroom. And don’t give up on the workplace hygiene: if you want to be productive, working in pyjamas is not the best idea.

You’re not mindful about your distractions

We all get distracted by our phones, but some people suffer from this to a degree where they can’t manage to get started with the important stuff. If you struggle with that kind of impulsiveness, you know how it happens: once you go down the rabbit hole, there’s no turning back — the day is lost. In that case, the only way you can solve this problem is to find out what throws you off track in the very beginning of the day — and completely shut these things (or people) out. This might sound obvious, but most people never follow these steps — and keep finding themselves in the rabbit hole again and again.

Your perfectionism holds you back

The enemy of progress, the mother or procrastination — perfectionism has many names. The truth is, your need to be perfect in everything is more likely to hold you back than to push you forward. At worst, it completely paralyzes you, makes you unable to move towards your goal. So why not create something imperfect yet real instead of dreaming to achieve perfection? Even if the results are completely different from what you expected, it will still totally worth it.