2 Bad Habits Successful People Avoid

Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design/flickrIt's crucial to avoid finding yourself without a plan.

Time is perhaps the world's most valuable resource, and how you spend yours may determine whether you have a productive, successful career - or one that is ultimately unfulfilling.

Writing on LinkedIn, marketing strategist Jerome Knyszewski highlights two habits successful people avoid in order to make the most of their time.

1. Saying "yes" when they should say "no."

"A sure way to fail is to want to succeed so badly that we fail at keeping it simple," Knyszewski writes.

What he means is that in our pursuit of success, we can sometimes go overboard and take on additional tasks, meetings, and responsibilities that get in the way of us achieving our primary goals.

Instead, he says, we must learn to become comfortable saying "no."

"There is no need to be rude about it, just be firm, with others, maybe, with yourself first for certain!" he writes. "You are the one that bites off more than you can chew and end up choking."

2. Letting tomorrow sneak up on them.

In business, as in life, it's nearly impossible to do well in the future without planning for it now.

Knyszewski writes that what you are able to achieve tomorrow will be largely contingent on what you do today to prepare yourself, plan your agenda, and assign tasks to your team.

"Successful people live today with tomorrow in mind, without having tomorrow overcome them today," he explains.

Click here to read the rest of Knyszewski's habits to avoid.

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