Let's start off with an uncomfortable truth: You don't need yet another New Year's resolution. If we're honest, didn't we do the same thing last year? What happened with "writing a blog post every day" or "finally starting that business"? Exactly. This year, let's take a different approach: Let's focus on eliminating bad habits instead of just adding more to your life. You know what I'm talking about. The way we slump onto our couch after getting home, vowing we'll get up in "just 15 minutes"... only to spend the next three hours pecking away at some obscure Facebook page. Hey, if you love watching "Vanderpump Rules," feel free. (I do.) But eliminating a few bad habits instead of piling on more things you "should do" will free up an unbelievable amount of time each week. Imagine what you could do with an extra five hours a week (just one hour a day): Spend it on your family, get to the gym, or just enjoy the downtime. Here are three bad habits I broke, which helped me double my productivity every single day. Remember, you don't need to tackle all of these at once. Killing even one bad habit can dramatically transform your life.

BeeBuddy | Getty Images

1. I stopped doing it all myself.

When I first started my business, I personally responded to every email. There were hundreds, and I responded to Every. Single. One. As the business grew, those hundreds swelled to thousands. I found myself drowning in emails… with no one to blame but myself. You see, I wrapped my whole identity around this idea that "I'm the CEO who answers all his own emails!" But what kind of CEO responds to emails for two hours a day, when they should be focused on building the company? It was easier to pretend I was some CEO superhero than admit my behavior was slowing down our growth. Eventually, I settled on a compromise — I still read ALL my email but only respond to some. The psychology here is that it's normal to outgrow certain habits. Once this clicked, I started letting go of other habits that didn't make sense anymore, like ironing my own shirts and cooking for myself. For you, this might mean using something like Blue Apron instead of shopping for groceries. For your business, maybe it's delegating customer emails to someone else, or using Edgar to automate social networks. Whatever it takes so you can focus on your higher-value activities. 2. I stopped wasting time on things I didn't love. There was a time when I thought I had to finish any book I started. In my mind, I was the kind of person who "finished what he started" — no matter what. As I got busier, I realized even if I read a book a week, I'd never get to read everything I wanted. So why torture myself with books I didn't love?