How You Work Decides How Well You Work

Can you solve this riddle?

I have one, you have one.

If you remove the first letter, a bit remains.

If you remove the second, bit still remains.

After much trying, you might be able to remove the third one also, but it remains.

It dies hard!

Any guesses? No? Give up?

The answer is *Habit*. There, that got you smiling, didn’t it?

But on a more serious note, do you know that the most difficult thing in time management is getting rid of a bad habit? It is easy to pick one up; in all probability you don’t even realise you’ve got a bad habit. But getting out of one is tough. Tough, but not impossible.

Habits are what define you, the good and the bad, both. Don’t worry about being alone in the world of bad habits, everyone has them. Bad habits can have a negative impact on your professional and personal life, and health, and affects personal productivity.

Do you have any of these bad work habits?

#1 - Not taking breaks

No, that’s not a good habit. Working without a break is actually going to lower your productivity. You cannot stay focussed for very long at a stretch. You will think you’re working but what you’re really doing is just wasting a lot of time and energy.

Change your habit

For every one hour of work, give yourself a 5 minute break. This will help you refocus and get back to the task at hand with a refreshed mind. It is always about a balance though - make sure you don't take too many breaks either. The next time you plan your work, factor in the breaks.

#2 - Bad email habits

Do have any idea how much time is spent on email in your entire day? Whether you let emails sit in the inbox without being addressed or respond to every email instantly, both are sloppy email habits. Learn to manage emails better and don’t let them eat up your time either.

Change your habit

Unless your job is responding to emails. disable that email pop-up that draws you in. Instead, you decide the right times to check and respond to emails. Make sure your subject line is clear and self-explanatory. But don’t overuse words like URGENT, ASAP, etc. And do not change the content of the email without changing the subject line; ideally start a new thread.

When you do check your email, decide what to do with it. Reply immediately if it can be done in less than a minute. If not, do one of the following: Act or File or Delete. See how good you feel when you have an inbox with just a few to-do emails left.

Write your reply with care. Keep it short and to the point. You don’t want to waste somebody else’s time either, do you?

Be careful of who you mark in the email. Is the mail of relevance to them? If not, leave them out.

And lastly, do you really need to send a long email or continue that extended conversation? Can you instead just walk across to your colleague or call someone and resolve the issue?

#3 - Social media addiction

Are you always up to date on what your friends are doing online? Keeping the Facebook or Twitter tab is distracting and will eat away into productivity even before you know it.

Change your habit

Reserve time at home for Facebook and Twitter. At work, know your most productive hours and make sure you are disconnected from the world. Switch off your phone, disable all social media tabs and notifications, and you can ensure better digital life management.

#4 - Phone obsession

How many times did you check your phone while reading this article? Studies have shown that an average human being checks their phone at least 150 times in a day. When you keep doing this at work, in front of your boss or colleagues, it looks rude and creates a bad impression, not to mention hampers productivity.

Change your habit

Just like social media, check your phoneless frequently and not because of a Text or WhatsApp alert. Go back to reading that book, watching the scenery, listening to music, and having a real conversation. If anyone wants to reach your urgently, they will call you or find a way to get your attention.

Looking for more ways to break bad work habits? Try these 5 tips.

1.      Make short achievable ‘To- Do’ lists for the day.

2.      Segregate work as ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ or ‘to be done when time permits’.

3.      Have a ‘Do not disturb’ time for important tasks. Have you tried Golden Hours ?

4.      Have an agenda for meetings beforehand and leave with a clear direction.

Bad habits get picked up unknowingly, but with a little conscious effort and commitment, you can break them. Once you transform your work habits, the benefits will stay with you for a long time.

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PS: Sapience is a personal productivity assistant app available on your PC or mobile. It keeps track of your time on different activities on the computer – emails, chat, social media, meetings, and core activities. On the mobile, it lets you know of time spent on calls, travel and remote meetings. Get to know your most productive hours, work patterns and time wasters. Set self-improvement goals and feel the difference it makes to your work-life balance.