Turning Bad Work Habits Into Good Ones

Bad work habits don’t just make you less productive for the day; they can also majorly hamper your career progression in the long run. Don’t let these bad work habits take over your life; turn them into good habits as soon as possible instead.

Here are 3 common bad work habits plus tips on how you can turn things around.

Bad Habit # 1: Taking too many breaks.

Taking a break at work is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, you can’t be expected to sit in front of your computer for hours on end. At some point, you will need to grab a snack, stretch your muscles, or even take a nap to rest your eyes and reboot your brain. However, when you find a reason to leave your desk every 30 minutes, then you won’t really be able to get anything done — at least not with good results.

How to Turn Things Around: Schedule your breaks.

You know that taking breaks is good for you, now you just have to limit them in a way that keeps you productive. Try to schedule your breaks so you know that you’re not overdoing it. You can set an alarm every 3 hours to remind you when you can take your next break. Make sure to time your breaks too! A 10-minute break every 3 hours is fine, but if you take a 1-hour break every 3 hours, then you’re overdoing it again. As for your eyes, take a few seconds every 20 minutes to relax them. Close your eyes or stare at a point in a distance for a while to reduce the strain.

Bad Habit # 2: Checking your social media constantly.

Social media can be addicting. Even when nothing new or interesting happens, lots of people find themselves constantly checking and refreshing their social media profiles for updates from their friends. This is incredibly detrimental to your work because it takes away your focus and hampers your productivity.

How to Turn Things Around: Check the social pages of your client’s competitors to help you generate ideas for your work.

Sometimes, just being on social media websites is enough to satisfy your Facebook or Instagram cravings. So instead of going on your personal social pages, go on the pages of your clients’ competitors to scope out their strategies and gain insight. This will work especially well if you’re a social media, graphic design, or digital marketing VA. You can then report your findings to your client and present your own ideas on how to combat their competitors’ strategies.

Bad Habit # 3: Having a negative outlook all the time.

There’s a degree of uncertainty whenever you are presented with new tasks. Feeling apprehensive is completely normal. But if you’re actually avoiding taking on new tasks because you’re afraid that you can’t do it, then you’re limiting your potential.

How to Turn Things Around: Let your pessimism challenge you.

Take these new tasks as challenges or something to tick off a checklist. When you’re faced with a challenge, it’s okay to fail — it’s not a challenge if it doesn’t test you! But instead of thinking that you don’t want to do it because you might fail, think of it as part of the learning process and taking on the task means ticking an item off your to-do list. It’s okay if you can’t tick it off at once because you can always try again later.

It’s never too late to turn your bad work habit into a good one. Hopefully, the tips above can help make things a lot easier!